(Source - wbur.org)
In today's hyper-connected modern world we constantly get bombarded with a lot of information. This constant flow of news, gossip, and media in the "Age of Information" is the reason this time is tagged as 'the most distracted time in human history'. Researches have shown a lot of negative effects of constantly sticking to our screens, like reduction in focus, constant anxiety also lesser and lesser social interactions. This is a really alarming situation for us.
We are ceding 'Autonomy' to the screen which we carry everywhere with us. Why is this happening?
An engineer from Google has given us the answer. Tristan Harris, a whistleblower from Google, in his interview with Anderson Cooper, said, "This is a slot machine" holding up his smartphone.
He explained that the giant tech companies are doing the same thing what a 'Slot Machine' does at any Casino. Every time we check our mobile 'unintentionally' we are playing the slot machine to check 'What did we get?'. When we open our mobile we expect some notification from Facebook, any message from WhatsApp, etc. This gives us a small dopamine hit, a 'feel-good' hormone inside our brain. This, in turn, makes us spend more time on these platforms. And the saying goes, "Your Time = Their Money".
Thus, it's time to take some action to reclaim autonomy over our time and our life. And the philosophy of 'Digital Minimalism' can help us with this.
So, let's first start with 'What is Minimalism?'
Minimalism is a philosophical idea which encourages and promotes simple living. Minimalism says that you should get rid of all the excess stuff you don't really need but you still possess. The things that don't add any value to your life.
Like, for example, in the case of clothes, if you just give a look at your wardrobe you'll find clothes which you dislike(literally!) but you've still kept them because you feel obliged to keep them. Whenever you open wardrobe next time, simply observe your feelings when you see that piece of cloth you dislike, you feel a little anxious. There are many books on this topic, which are very good, but I will recommend you - The life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo.
Having this in mind, we can think of what 'Digital Minimalism' could be. No, No! You don't have to get rid of your Facebook account. We'll first go through some digital declutter journey to get a 'feel' of this entire philosophy and then will dive deeply into it.
Digital Declutter - Simplify your Digital Life.
(Source - Kraig Adams Youtube Channel)
So, best is to take a day off (maybe Sunday) to declutter your digital life and take a weight off your mind. First of all, you need to take out every digital device you have like mobile, laptop, kindle,iPad, etc.
Your Mobile
- Delete all unimportant and unused apps: Check each and every app you have in your mobile and ask yourself, 'Is it really adding any value in my life?'. If not, there you go, delete it right at the moment (also don't forget to delete account related to that app, if you have any). If at some app, you got stuck whether to keep it not, remember the last time you used the app and if it's more than three months then just get rid of it. Don't think a lot while deleting, this is a cool thing for the apps, you can reinstall it again if you really need it.
- Delete useless contacts: Throughout our journey in life, we meet many people. We don't have to be in touch with everyone every time. Go through your contact list you'll find many people whom you never contacted after your first few meetings and that's okay. We are not meant to keep in touch with everyone. Keep contacts of people you really want to be in touch with and delete others.
- Delete Social Media apps: In part two of this article, we are going to discuss some deeper and important reasons to not keep these apps on the smartphone. As of now, you can just put a time tracker on your mobile and track the time you spend on these apps and judge by yourself. You can always login with your desktop or mobile browser. Trust me, you won't miss anything.
- Declutter your memory storage more frequently: There are many files in our internal storage and memory card which are redundant and useless. Get rid of them. Delete old apps data. Check each and every folder and decide. You will get a lot more space.
- Avoid giving permission to the apps: Don't allow any app to access your data other than required. For e.g., any file sharing app, it'll require permission for photos and video only. Don't allow that app to access your contacts. Data breaching, as we all have heard, nowadays is helping to determine election results, which is horrible. There are also many other personal reasons to not allow every permission to the app.
- Turn off notification: Turn off useless notifications of the apps which distract and bothers you every time.
- Clean your Whatsapp: Back up everything you need on cloud storage and clear every other casual useless conversation. It'll clear up space and give you more clarity. Also, don't hesitate to leave the groups you don't want to be the part of or the groups which are simply not active very much.
Your Laptop
- Uninstall useless application: Go to control panel and apply the same strategy as mobile. Look at every program and ask yourself, 'When did I use it last time?' or 'Does this add any value to my life?'. Get the answers and declutter.
- Delete useless files and folders: Over the time our laptop accumulates many useless files like old documents, old application data, temporary files, etc. Open 'each and every' drive and go through 'each and every' folder and decide to keep it or not.
- Delete media files: We live in an age where we can get anything anytime. So, why waste our computers space by piling up TV series, movies, songs, and every other media file. Delete all that media and get on the internet to download what you need.
- Use cloud storage: We'll delete movies and songs, but what about personal photos and important documents? Cloud is the solution. Upload every important file on the cloud and free up your laptop. It will stay there forever and you can also cherish the memories by signing in on any device :).
- Clear recycle bin: After decluttering everything, don't forget to clean up Recycle Bin and enjoy the space.
Internet accounts:
In my opinion, you should always keep track of what you are signing up for. This gives you more control over your internet life. The first step is to list down all the accounts you have on the internet (all you remember, if you haven't kept track of it). I will recommend a password manager here- LastPass. This is really an awesome application. It remembers your password and keep track of all your sign-ups(and many other features). The good news is, the free version is enough for most of us.
Let's start now-
- Delete unnecessary accounts: Delete all the services you signed up on a whim and never used again. Delete all the services you didn't use for the last six months. Be ruthless while decluttering, it'll help reduce your digital footprint, hide your identity, reduce your online presence and take back control of your digital life.
- Quit Social media: I strongly recommend you watch this Ted Talk by Dr. Cal Newport. Watch it and give some time to think over it.
- Unsubscribe spam emails: Use Unroll.me. We all know, it feels really great to see the empty inbox.
- Unfollow or unfriend on Social Media: Unfollow or unfriend people on social media you are not really interested in. You need to have a social media feed you really 'Like'.
- Cloud storage: Don't put any useless data on the cloud. You should also have your cloud decluttered.
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