Digital Minimalism

Lesson 1. Impact of Digitalization.

In the era when the world of most individuals revolved around social media and internet surfing, Cal was one of those who refrained from spending too much time on the web. When his readers influenced him to explore the impact of technology on humans, Cal delved into the matter. When he dug deeper into the problem, he realised that digitalization has impacted our social, cultural as well as emotional well-being. In his opinion, in order to ease the technological surplus, people should use the ‘less-is-more’ philosophy. This ideology advises us to reduce the amount of time spent on using technology. 

Instead of letting the technological advancement get the best out of us, the idea is to extract the good from it and try to stay away from the negatives. The goal is to select the things which have a long-term impact over short-term happiness. 

Facebook and Apple were the two giants which introduced digitalization in the 2000s. The whole world was unaware of the technological shift which was about to occur. Apple launched its outstanding smartphone, the iPhone, which integrated multiple features into one device. Facebook helped us to stay connected with our near and dear ones who lived far away. But the complexity of these digital models was far lesser than the iPhone and Facebook we know today. 

In the twenty-first century, most users end up spending around 20 hours on social media and end up checking their smartphone over 80 times a day. Astonishingly, most of the people who are caught in this web of the internet are not the people whose work domain requires the use of the internet. Students, parents and working professionals are the ones who end up wasting time on social media. The reason behind this excessive increase in the usage of internet and social media is that things are designed in a way that we end up spending more time on it. They are created to be likeable and addictive. 

When we hear the word addiction, our immediate thought drills down to alcohol or drugs. However, in reality, addiction refers to any substance or situation which changes the chemistry of your brain. It ultimately alters the way you think and behave. In addition to alcohol and drugs, gambling and the internet are considered to be highly addictive. Just like alcohol, people might suffer from withdrawal symptoms if they are compelled to stay away from technology. 

Social media causes impulsive reinforcement. People surf the web for a specific purpose, but end up scrolling through varied