“Minimalists tend to spend much less money and own many fewer things than their peers. Digital Minimalism: Discover How to Clear the Clutter So You Can Regain Your Focus, Passions, and Live Life Again. As an alternative to using tech for cheap emotional relief, we ought to use tech to make stuff—important, valuable, meaningful stuff. Rather than feeling overwhelmed, you become more intentional, empowered, and productive. Box up the physical books, taking them off their shelves one by one, labeling each box with its appropriate label (Self-help, Literary Fiction, Cambodian Interpretive Dance, etc. It's the key to living a focused life in an increasingly noisy world. In the 1990s, the Internet was born, and digital art continued to evolve. Digital Minimalism, is a sort of vaccine, a middle ground to prevent yo-yo digital detoxing while still being a … Digital minimalism is a mindset of questioning which digital communication tools are necessary for your happiness. The answer is Digital minimalism. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Robert Morris, Anne Truitt, and Frank Stella. Go for a long walk, run, or bike ride without headphones. And as technology and the internet become an increasingly large part of our lives, their potential to distract us from what really matters grows larger every day. They stay informed about th… Minimalism or minimalist art can be seen as extending the abstract idea that art should have its own reality and not be an imitation of some other thing. Jory MacKay is a writer, content marketer, and editor of the RescueTime blog. Freedom from fear. [Intro] Digital minimalism, according to Cal Newport, is a philosophy where we focus our online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that support the things we value. As many of us find ourselves sucked into a lifestyle of over-consumption and ‘more’, the idea of living happily with less becomes more alluring. Choosing to own fewer things is simply a means of clarifying and focusing on our values so we can fill our lives with more of the things that truly matter to us. However, there’s a new approach called digital minimalism that may offer a more long-term, sustainable solution to our tech-life balance. Don’t think so? I had not a clue what digital minimalism was you defined it clearly and made me think. One of the reasons it’s so easy to misuse or overuse our technology is because it can be a powerful means of short-term emotional relief. This means that we use technology on purpose, not out of habit or routine. Today’s guest post is by Emily McGee. Personally, if ‘digital’ wasn’t what I do for a living I’d be more aggressive with my approach to digital minalism and maybe one day it won’t be. Just like physical stuff can be an impediment and distraction from what matters most in life, digital stuff can be as well. The degree to which online media and apps suck our attention was made viscerally apparent to me several months ago after I finished my 10-day silent meditation retreat. Get our latest blog posts in your inbox every week. It´s a big help for a course I´m preparing about Time´s Organization. “Digital minimalism is a philosophy that helps you question what digital communication tools (and behaviors surrounding these tools) add the most value to your life. Minimalism is big these days. So ask yourself: What is it that’s important to you? Yeah, in some ways I think the word “intentional” is the most important idea in the whole piece. In this timely and enlightening book, the bestselling author of Deep Workintroduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives. I was nodding my head like a metronome all the way through. Sites were selected for the study if they were either identified by an outside web-design expert as minimalist, or were included in an online gallery for inspirational minimalist sites. Couldn’t everybody benefit from thinking a little more carefully about which aspects of their personal technology use add to and subtract from their life? Despite the perpetual promise of the internet and social media to make us more connected, personal technology is all too often a source of isolation and disconnect from other people in our lives. Real freedom. For a good look at Minimalist art, Donald Judd's Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas has an impressive collection. Digital minimalists see new technologies as tools to be used to support things they deeply value–not as sources of value themselves. In a similar manner to the term "Post-Impressionism" it serves to gather together a range of styles that are related, yet which often have very different, even opposing interests. Minimalism definition is - a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity. Coined by author and computer science professor Cal Newport in his book of the same name, Digital minimalism is a philosophy of technology use based on the understanding that our relationship with our apps, tools, and phones is nuanced and deserves more intention than we give it. As you know, I rarely say a book is a must read but this book is as close as it gets. Find out more about Digital Minimalism and Cal Newport’s writing on his blog. Instead of sending someone a Snap or text, go buy a postcard and send them that with one or two sentences on the back. Digital minimalism relies on a deeper understanding of your values. It’s about intentionally shaping your digital life around your values so you can feel good about the apps and tools you use on a daily basis. The reason for such a drastic change is because the pull of the attention economy has simply become too strong. I wrote this article to be a brief introduction to Digital Minimalism and why it might be helpful in your life. The definition of a minimalist lifestyle is removing the unnecessary things in life to focus on the essential. In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Like minimalism, digital minimalism is the practice of decluttering and simplifying our lives, but in an online space. To do this we need to understand ways to manage our technology use on a … Eliminate Computer Clutter and Embrace Digital Minimalism. They can have fun with friends and family without the obsessive urge to document the experience. They also tend to be much more intentional and often quite radical in shaping their lives around things that matter to them.”. 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