- If I were to ask you why you originally created
your social media accounts,
you might come up with something similar to,
well, to keep up with friends and family
and see what they're doing and stuff like that.
And that's not a bad reason at all.
In fact, it's quite an honorable sentiment
but as society becomes more dependent on these technologies,
there's an ever-growing problem
and that is that our intended use
for these social media applications
and what our daily use actually looks like
are often two completely different things.
Many of us use social media
and our smartphones compulsively,
it's like a nervous tick.
There's a certain need to check your phone all the time.
It's constantly pulling your attention away
from whatever's in front of you
and back into your other online life.
And I'm not gonna say this is ruining the world
or anything like that,
people are still showing up to work on time
and countries are still being run decently well I guess
but the effects of this underlying itch
is still measurable and it's felt by pretty much anyone
who owns a smartphone.
Maybe it's when you're mid conversation
with somebody and things are going well
and you're having a good conversation.
And then that itch starts to happen
and you just wanna pull out your phone for no reason
even if you're just swiping between pages,
you're not really paying attention
to what the person is saying.
Or maybe it's when you're trying to write an email
or an essay or an article and it's a little bit boring
and you find yourself drifting towards the new tab button
just to hit F, Enter and realize
that you already checked Facebook like 45 seconds ago
and there were no notifications
but you still checked anyways.
And that's exactly what I'm talking about.
And the weird thing is this whole thing
is an entirely new struggle.
Humanity has only been dealing with it for about nine years.
Apple rolled out the original iPhone in 2007
but it didn't launch with any social media apps
and it didn't even have an app store.
Facebook didn't reach 500 million users until July 2010,
a number which is now 2.3 billion and Instagram
wasn't even invented until later that year.
So the relationship between humanity and social media
is still in its infancy.
And we're just kind of stumbling around,
hitting our heads on walls, trying to figure out
the best way to reap the rewards and the usefulness
of these apps without hurting ourselves
and our well-being in the process.
So if you are somebody who looks
at their phone way more often than you would like to admit,
I've definitely been guilty of this,
there's actually evidence to believe
that it's not your fault.
Because most of these apps are designed
from the ground up to be addictive,
behind the glimmering promise of increased human connection
is basically a slot machine in your pocket
where you pull a lever and fun stuff comes out.
And these rewards are some of the most powerful
and ancient rewards that can be exploited
in the human brain, social validation
and I'm not making all this up,
this isn't some giant conspiracy.
This is literally how these apps make money.
They get paid by third-party companies who purchase ad space
on their platform in the hopes that you,
the user interacts with it.
So the more time you spend on these apps,
the more likely you are to click on or engage
with these ads and the more money these companies
and these platforms make.
These multi-billion dollar companies are built entirely
by taking control not of your money,
not of your land or your livestock but of your attention
because your attention is their currency.
And that's the underlying issue is we feel kind of helpless
to compulsively use these apps but they're kind of useful
so you sort of need them,
they do enhance your life in some ways
and you do use them for useful things
but they're taking away from your life in other ways
because of their addictive nature.
Thankfully though, if you watch this channel at all,
I don't make videos about why we're all screwed
and can't do anything about it
because that's definitely not true, you can find a balance,
you can maximize the benefits of social media
while not falling prey to it's addictive effects
but unfortunately you can't attain this sort of freedom
by little quick tips and tricks.
Don't use your phone as an alarm clock,
only use your phone for one hour in the day.
You really do need a paradigm shift.
You need to adopt a new philosophy towards technology use.
One philosophy in particular
is leading a sort of silent revolution
and it's helping people regain their focus
and take back control over their lives,
it's called digital minimalism.
In his book by the same name,
Cal Newport defines digital minimalism as,
"A philosophy of technology use in which you focus
"your online time on a small number of carefully selected
"and optimized activities that strongly support
"the things you value and then happily miss out
"on everything else."
So to better understand digital minimalism
and how you can apply it to your life right now,
one thing that was useful to me
in understanding how digital minimalism works
is to compare the philosophies of digital minimalism
and digital maximalism, okay.
So the digital minimalist doesn't mind missing out
on a potential small benefit
that a certain technology might give them
if it has any risk of decreasing the quality of things
that they already know to be of tremendous value to them,
like their ability to focus,
contrast this with the philosophy of the digital maximalist
who believes that any small potential benefit
is worth downloading the app.
If they think that Instagram
will be a little bit fun for them
or they have any sort of impulsive reason to download it,
they downloaded it immediately.
If some application claims to make you more productive
or more connected or anything, they'll just download it
without considering the larger picture
of how that applications daily use will fit into their lives
and whether they really need it.
So we've talked about the theory of digital minimalism
but I wanna leave you guys with some practical wisdom
as to how you can apply this directly right now
in your lives so the number one thing you can do
is a two-fold process.
The first one is to vet every application you use
and you do this by asking two questions.
Number one is what are the benefits
of using this application?
And number two is, is this the best way
to achieve these benefits?
So let's take Instagram again for example,
I like to rip on Instagram
because I actually deleted it right
after reading digital minimalism
so when I was deciding to delete it,
my thought process went like this.
What are the benefits of using this application
and my perceived benefits that I was getting
from Instagram probably was two-fold.
First one was like, I like to keep up with friends
and family and see what they're up to.
And by seeing updates on baby pictures
and engagements and stuff like that,
I felt more connected to my friends network
and the second benefit I experienced from Instagram
was probably that it was just fun,
I guess it was mildly entertaining
when I wanted to break from something
I could check Instagram and it gave me
a little dopamine hit.
So then I ask the second question,
is this the best way to achieve those benefits?
And no, they weren't the best way to achieve those benefits.
If staying up to date with my friends is important to me,
then the best way to achieve that benefit
is to call them or text them to set up a time
to actually connect with them on a profound level.
Maybe not even a profound level, just a genuine level
because Instagram is super superficial, super superficial.
You're not actually exchanging ideas and information
and getting to know the person any better.
So in a way, Instagram wasn't offering me
that perceived benefit that I thought I was getting
from it to begin with.
Secondly, there are way better ways
that I can entertain myself that doesn't completely
waste my time.
If I want a dopamine hit, maybe I should go work out.
There are healthier ways that I can get this entertainment.
So for that reason, Instagram didn't really offer me
much value that I couldn't get in other areas of my life.
So I deleted it.
And since I deleted it that's one less thing
that's pulling me away and sending me push notifications
and tempting me to go waste my time on it
that way I can use that gained time
and redirected towards the things
that are important in my life.
And that's what digital minimalism is at its core,
it's being intentional with why you use your apps
that are on your phone, on your computer
and figuring out why they exist in your life.
For instance, I also deleted LinkedIn recently
because my perceived benefit of having LinkedIn
was that I was more available to collaborate
with in my professional network.
I have only ever gotten one job opportunity
from LinkedIn earlier on in my freelance video career
and that's it on a day-to-day basis,
all it's doing is sending me push notifications
and emails and stuff like that,
telling me that people joined my network
and I'm like, oh great, in my mind,
I'm like this is more business opportunity potentially.
I'm a well-connected guy, it's not worth it.
It offers zero value
but since I used to be a digital maximalist,
I'm like, oh, there could be some potential value
to having this app and that's just done.
So the second way that you can apply digital minimalism
to your life right now is to optimize.
Digital minimalism isn't all about just deleting every app
and then just facing the consequences of the ones
you don't delete.
Part of it is optimization.
So for instance, I can't really get away from Facebook.
A good example of this is my Facebook group
for this YouTube channel,
it's doing very well, it's very helpful for people,
it has over 3,000 members and that sort of accessibility
for a group isn't really available on any other platform.
So I know this whole Facebook group thing
is a useful thing for my YouTube channel.
So how do I use Facebook and not get distracted by it
and that's where optimization comes in.
The main thing about Facebook that pretty much anyone
would find distracting is the newsfeed.
One thing that I did was I installed
a Newsfeed Eradicator, it's available for Firefox, Chrome,
I'm pretty sure Safari as well.
And that replaces the home page, the newsfeed
with a motivational quote.
I don't really read the quote
but just like it just gets rid of the newsfeed
and that's super helpful.
And the second thing I did was I deleted the Facebook app
from my phone because that also has all these options
for watching videos and playing games
and stuff like that at the bottom, I don't need that crap.
I basically only need the messenger
and then when I really want to check in
and allow people into the Facebook group,
I'll physically type in Facebook and do that
and that's it, that's my entire Facebook experience.
It's a really stripped down and it allows me to focus
and it has allowed me to view Facebook more as a tool
for my business rather than a excuse
to waste like 30 minutes watching
these viral Facebook videos.
So those are just a few ways
that you can apply digital minimalism
to your life right now, it's a dense book,
it's so rich with great knowledge
and it is probably one of the best books I've read
in a long time in terms of changing my perspective
and I think it's a must read for anybody
who uses technology on a daily basis
especially for people who are struggling
to pull themselves away from their phone.
I'll put a link in the description
where you can pick up your copy of the book.
Couldn't recommend it enough.
If you like this video, make sure to hit
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YouTube algorithm sees it as a good video
and I think this topic in particular is really important
for people to see in today's day and age.
If you're lurking here, consider subscribing
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when I randomly appear in your YouTube homepage.
Inaction is a Slow Death T-shirts
and hoodies are available now to buy,
link is in the description.
Lots of people are buying it and wrapping it
and it is a good reminder that while inaction
is a slow death (laughs), it's a good daily reminder
to take action rather than succumb to inaction
and letting your soul decay.
That's all for today, exciting things coming guys,
can't wait to put out the next video.
Thank you for watching and we'll catch you
in the next video.