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On Digital Minimalism (Why to turn off the home wifi once in a while)
For a lot of time, I’ve struggled with finding balance with using digital media. I’ve had issues with watching YouTube for way too long looking for stimulating video content, or I’ve had issues with looking for lust provoking images for way too long. It saps the soul out of my day and it leaves me feeling angry, irritable and upset with myself. I’m sure there’s lots of other folks that struggle with this issue on a regular basis. Whether using their phone for too long and having trouble finding a reason to get out of bed, digital media has a sort of hook into our mental states and capacities that humans haven’t really had to deal with ever before. This of course, comes with devastating consequences for people. Gen Z is bereft of place and meaning, they have trouble finding romantic partners or being able to live independently of their parents. Fear is a common theme in the lives of many people that just haven’t had the opportunity to truly test their mettle beyond the scope of the digital realm. This isn’t truly the fault of individuals but more so the consequence of sleepwalking into technological trends and not truly understanding what the message that technology wishes to convey to us is. In this case, the message is “Don’t stop looking at your screen, keep finding stimulation and dopamine hits”.
For many, it’s not so obvious how we got to this point and place. We look for any sort of leadership and we instead find clueless folks reacting to information instead of being proactive on technological change. For many years I went along with the trends and the promises of technology saving us and improving our lives, and instead I found despair and lack of meaning. To be fair, I’m not advocating a reactionary turn to the past. I do advocate for a reflection on the past and ways in which we can apply that wisdom to the future. We live a post literate society where information travels extremely quickly, with often devastating consequences. Peoples’ tranquility can be shattered by upsetting news or political/social commentators can easily find new audiences to enrage or incite against Y subject or X political group on all social media. Advertisements seek newer ways to catch your attention and sell you products that have no bearing on your life whatsoever, but which manipulate your emotions and convince you that it’s something you can’t live without. Looking at my partner’s YouTube videos on her phone without any ad-blocking demonstrates this phenomenon and its blatant methods.
What is the solution to these sorts of issues and problems that constantly rear their heads toward us? How do we reclaim a sense of humanity and tranquility when the medium we interact with the most tells us that the world is constantly falling apart? We’ve become so disconnected from what the “world” actually is that we mistake these messages for reality. In Neil Postman’s Technopoly, he argues for a sort of paradigm shift in understanding technology and its effects on society. Technology ends up shaping us rather than the other way around, and there’s no solutions unless the collective comprehends this. He makes a valiant effort in furthering the understanding of this subject and the various mechanisms and thought patterns that drive society toward this technological sleepwalking. Unfortunately, it seems to fall on deaf ears. More and more people casually accept these consequences as normal and fail to equate these modern problems with any of the technological changes that have driven the West towards the point we’re currently at.
My personal answer to all of this? Unplug your home wifi every once in a while. Not every day has to constantly include connectivity and ease of access to the internet. This may be impossible for some people depending on their profession, but I think setting time aside for this action does provide some benefits that you otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Shutting off the YouTube noise and ceasing your constant news viewing provides tranquility that Gen Z no longer has the benefit of utilizing. This equates to the Digital Minimalism that authors like Cal Newport advocate for, with some flexibility for folks who otherwise find disconnecting difficult or impossible. Minimalism means cognitive survival in this day and age. Obviously I can’t stop the internet from affecting other people, but I can at least afford myself some breathing room from some of its worst effects.
Some may call me a Luddite or a coward for not facing up to my addiction to lust and stimulation, but I would say that making this choice is a matter of being able to create a future for myself, and have the internet on my own terms rather than on its terms. All of these massive websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok, YouTube, etc don’t have to exist. They’re constantly creating more and more addictions in people in order to justify their existence to society, and that honestly sucks. Individually, we can upend this trend and turn our attention inwards, rather than having someone or something tell us what we need to pay attention to. The reality is that Minimalism affords you the ability to pay attention to what is most important in your life. That looks different for each person obviously but for me it means being present with loved ones and friends or creating things that make me happy or working towards a future for my family. I refuse to continue to allow these things to create more problems in my personal life and create despair for myself.