Digital Minimalism- Book Review

This is a book close to my heart. How the Smartphone has dumbed down our lives is one of its themes- not the only one, but an important one.

Self-control, or self-help, or Philosophy of Technology, or How to Help Yourself to Small Tech Doses, could have been alternative titles for this book. Written by a Prof., Cal Newport, it is a book which preaches to a convert, in my case.

Much of what he says is fairly obvious, but like telling a smoker about the ill-effects of smoking, it still needs to be said. Our lives have been hijacked by Silicon Valley hijackers, and there's no escape from the pinging, and clinging to a device.

If some sanity (really, mental health of adolescents is a serious issue according to him) is to be restored to human lives, we need to restrict or cut down the use of social media and tech devices, is his basic argument. He is a moderate, though, and argues that you can figure out judicious use of tech and social media, not abandon it altogether because it has its uses.

I could have written this book, maybe not as well as he has. So I think you could do well to read it. There are some possible actions, some of which I follow, some that I have not been able to.

Facebook, Whatsapp and Me

First there was Orkut. It stormed the world with what it enabled people to do. Share comments, pics and what not. There might have been others, but Orkut was the king. And then FB happened, sweeping away everything in its path.

Now, Whatsapp seems much more popular, particularly for smartphone users. I am a dumb user of smartphones, doing nothing much on mine except making some calls and sending SMSes (remember Short Messaging Service?)- I know, oh- so- outdated.

There's something called Tumblr too, I think, but the only one I know is the one used to have coffee from in the southern part of India.

I am on the list of endangered species like the dinosaurs once were and almost all large mammals except dictators and war-mongers today are, I fear. But I wonder how long facebook will last, particularly because I am told it's more about ads and promos of all kinds (many undesirable to the average Joe on fb) these days.

I think blogs will last forever, though, coz they are not easily noticed, unless you go out looking for them. Therefore, safe from predators. You will never ever hear of a multi-billion dollar takeover of Blogger or Wordpress, I am sure. So, blog away to glory, fellow bloggers. The only thing you need to fear is 'no readers', but fear nothing else!