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josiesweeney's review against another edition
Just like Atomic Habits, this book goes nowhere fast. He depends on interviews and stories that don’t honestly drive the point home.
Newport is fine when it comes to the large view. But when it comes to expanding on anything he just keeps talking in varying directions. I fall asleep when reading this book.
Newport is fine when it comes to the large view. But when it comes to expanding on anything he just keeps talking in varying directions. I fall asleep when reading this book.
thechanelmuse's review against another edition
4.0
“...Publishers considered their readers to be their customers, and saw their goal as providing a product good enough to convince people to pay to read it. [Benjamin] Day’s innovation [in 1830] was to realize that his readers could become his product and the advertisers his customers. His goal became to sell as many minutes of his readers’ attention as possible to the advertisers. To do so, he lowered the price of the [New York] Sun to a penny and pushed more mass interest stories. ‘He was the first person to really appreciate the idea—you gather a crowd, and you’re not interested in that crowd for its money,” Wu explained in a speech, 'but because you can resell them to someone else who wants their attention.'
“This business model caught on, sparking the tabloid wars of the nineteenth century. It was then adopted by the radio and television industries in the twentieth century, where it was pushed to new extremes as these emerging mass media technologies were wielded to gather crowds of unprecedented size. [...]
“The iPhone, and the imitators that soon followed, enabled the attention economy to shift from its historical position as a profitable but somewhat niche sector to one of the most powerful forces in our economy. At the core of this shift was the smartphone’s ability to deliver advertisements to users at all points during their day, as well as to help services gather data from these users to target those advertisements with unprecedented precision. It turns out that there remained vast reservoirs of human attention that traditional tools like newspapers, magazines, television shows, and billboards had been unable to tap. The smartphone helped companies like Google and Facebook storm these remaining redoubts of unmolested focus and start ransacking—generating massive new fortunes in the process.”
This book is a must-read.
“This business model caught on, sparking the tabloid wars of the nineteenth century. It was then adopted by the radio and television industries in the twentieth century, where it was pushed to new extremes as these emerging mass media technologies were wielded to gather crowds of unprecedented size. [...]
“The iPhone, and the imitators that soon followed, enabled the attention economy to shift from its historical position as a profitable but somewhat niche sector to one of the most powerful forces in our economy. At the core of this shift was the smartphone’s ability to deliver advertisements to users at all points during their day, as well as to help services gather data from these users to target those advertisements with unprecedented precision. It turns out that there remained vast reservoirs of human attention that traditional tools like newspapers, magazines, television shows, and billboards had been unable to tap. The smartphone helped companies like Google and Facebook storm these remaining redoubts of unmolested focus and start ransacking—generating massive new fortunes in the process.”
This book is a must-read.
katiegilley's review against another edition
4.0
Newport continues to make me think about how my habits and values work together -- or against each other! I loved his premise of thinking about how we can use social media and our phones to help us meet our big goals, instead of letting all of the distractions get in our way. It was especially helpful to learn about the ways that social media companies use human psychology to keep our eyes glued to the screens. This book was full of practical advice on how to use social media in moderation and other analog activities that provide richer and more fulfilling experiences.
rayyanmz's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
Give the most insights and the underlying issues on digital consumerism along with the practical approach on how to start cultivating digital minimalism in your life.
implementing this philosophy is largely an exercise in pragmatism"
love that the author left this approach subjected to the readers choice without the unnecessary obnoxious stress on the readers to employ this approach in their life.
I would love to read other work from this author that has been mentioned in this book entitled Deep Work.
floriankogler's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.25
coffeequasars's review against another edition
2.0
(2,5/5)
Absoluut niet van mijn gewoonte, maar dit boek heb ik niet volledig uitgelezen. Ik ben tot 3/4 geraakt en kon mezelf er niet toe brengen om nog verder te lezen. De methodes die voorgesteld worden zijn me allemaal een beetje te radicaal. Misschien omdat ik nog niet klaar ben om alle social media af te zweren, misschien omdat het digitaal minimalisme toch niks voor mij is.
Kortom: ik kreeg een beetje het idee van "Instagram is geen probleem, Itsme daarentegen...". Ik ga dan wat online administratie doen hè!
Absoluut niet van mijn gewoonte, maar dit boek heb ik niet volledig uitgelezen. Ik ben tot 3/4 geraakt en kon mezelf er niet toe brengen om nog verder te lezen. De methodes die voorgesteld worden zijn me allemaal een beetje te radicaal. Misschien omdat ik nog niet klaar ben om alle social media af te zweren, misschien omdat het digitaal minimalisme toch niks voor mij is.
Kortom: ik kreeg een beetje het idee van "Instagram is geen probleem, Itsme daarentegen...". Ik ga dan wat online administratie doen hè!
jlsjourneys's review against another edition
5.0
This resonates with my way of thinking, but I loved this book. Social media - and technology in general - can be amazing tools to serve our most important goals of connection, but we've mostly bought the lie from the social media companies that using those tools is the equivalent of connection. (Spoiler alert: it's not.) Key messages: be very clear on your goals for technology & then be ruthless in evaluating whether the tools you're using are actually meeting your goals. One surprising part of this book I wasn't expecting and really valued: a whole section about crafting high quality leisure time. My active practice of Sabbath (ceasing from productivity once/week) gives me a little pause on the very achievement oriented leisure goals, but I still found it practical and helpful. Worth the read! (Or, in my case, audio book listen.)
kmcquage's review against another edition
It is always unsettling to me to read a book where the author is clearly aware of the fact that he is not including me in his audience, and then blithely continues to do so throughout. For all the good points in the book (particularly the difference between connection and conversation, and using tech to support your goals instead of as an end in itself) there was little acknowledgement of how femmes manage relationships. The best general example is the reference to the Arts and Crafts movement being part of a chapter about working with one's hands, but he talks mostly about manly welding and woodworking, with no reference whatsoever to traditionally feminine crafts, or to more frequent domestic work, such as cooking. The best relationship example is his advice to call your cousin on the phone instead of looking at baby pictures on Instagram. Those things are not mutual exclusive, and they serve dramatically different relationship purposes! I want to be clear that I saw no evidence for this in the work, but I am reminded of all the news articles about people quitting Facebook who then rely on their spouses for family news and calendar management. Most of what social media does is ease things we were already doing. Instagram and Facebook do a good job of replacing my mom's newsletter of our childhood events, or the random envelopes of photographs I used to get in the mail. Neither of those things prevented her from also speaking on the phone to people. The difference is really in the ubiquity of these things in our lives, which raises different questions. The practical suggestions to shift one's life more toward face to face or voice contact to keep relationships fully engaged are great. So are the suggestions about rearranging leisure time. But I couldn't help but notice all throughout that I was not part of his imagined audience.
vlnntnn's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
4.25
ccaitlinranae's review against another edition
3.0
this book singlehandedly made me lower the accounts i follow on instagram by over a thousand, delete 10 of my apps and turn off all social media notifications. i knew i used my phone (mainly social media) an alarming amount but i never really gave thought to changing it, and when i did, the thought of going cold-turkey made me so worried i dismissed the thought immediately. newports way of handling digital minimalism was simple and easy to understand- as well as extremely inspiring. i only write reviews for books that truly impacted my life and ‘digital minimalism’ most definitely did. i highly recommend this book to everyone, whether you are active online or not!