Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

by Cal Newport

Many people I spoke to underscored social media’s ability to manipulate their mood. The constant exposure to their friends’ carefully curated portrayals of their lives generates feelings of inadequacy—especially

In an open marketplace for attention, darker emotions attract more eyeballs than positive and constructive thoughts.

Increasingly, they dictate how we behave and how we feel, and somehow coerce us to use them more than we think is healthy, often at the expense of other activities we find more valuable.

A maximalist is very uncomfortable with the idea that anyone might miss out on something that’s the least bit interesting or valuable.

Solitude Deprivation A state in which you spend close to zero time alone with your own thoughts and free from input from other minds.

we should treat with great care any new technology that threatens to disrupt the ways in which we connect and communicate with others.

The loss of social connection, for example, turns out to trigger the same system as physical pain—explaining why the death of a family member, a breakup, or even just a social snub can cause such distress.

“What we know at this point,” Shakya told NPR, “is that we have evidence that replacing your real-world relationships with social media use is detrimental to your well-being.”

The key issue is that using social media tends to take people away from the real-world socializing that’s massively more valuable.

Critics have also highlighted the ability for social media to make us feel ostracized or inadequate, as well as to stoke exhausting outrage, inflame our worst tribal instincts, and perhaps even degrade the democratic process itself.

Here’s my tough love reassurance: let them go.

don’t think we’re meant to keep in touch with so many people.”