So…yesterday I got out my smartphone, a relatively new iPhone 16, and began going through it looking for anything that sucked my time, and deleting those apps. I deleted, Instagram, Apple News, a bunch of games, sports news apps, and just about anything that looked even a bit interesting to me. I was heartless to myself, deleting apps with a vengeance.
I was bent on turning my smartphone into a dumbphone.
Well, I left a few apps, like my bank app, iMessage, and yes, the phone app. Things that I feel like I need, but also things that I don’t actually spend very much time on.
Why would I do that? Well, I blame it on Cal Newport the author of a book I just finished listening to called “Digital Minimalism.”
Newport’s main thought would be that while digital communication, social media and other digital apps all have their positives, the negatives of their use often far outweigh the positives. We tend to just pick up these apps and just start using them without much thought about what good they do in our lives, and maybe more importantly, without a thought about what damage they may do, or what they are keeping us from. Social media, and other digital apps being with us at all times on our phone has damaged our mental health and sucked time into a digital vortex. While Digital Minimalism was published in 2019, an eternity ago in technology time, the message actually only gets more dire the more time goes by.
Newport’s suggestion is that we do a digital decluttering. We get rid of all digital technology that we don’t absolutely need and we stay away from it for 1 month. At the end of that month we can begin reinstating some of these technologies, but with the perspective of what it’s like to live without them. After a few days of detox, people tend to feel very free, freed from the tyranny of having to “like” things, keep up with things, or just scroll through things.
So, that is why I found myself deleting apps on September 30th. I have dedicated October to a digital declutter.
Honestly, I don’t think it will be that hard for me. I like to play a couple dumb games (and a couple less dumb ones like Wordle and Connections), but I don’t really spend that much time on my phone, do I?