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A review by ambergamgee
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
3.0
I agree with the general concept here. I appreciate how much he points out that technology is a tool, not something to be shunned completely. That we should use it to enhance the things that we value, and not be the things we value just themselves. To be careful of the traps tech people create for us.
My problems are:
1. The author has never used social media. He’s been criticized for writing about social media with no personal experience extensively so I won’t go into it much here. But really, sometimes he’d say things about social media that made it clear he didn’t really know what was going on.
2. He is pretty blind to the differences in class. Not only because he takes it for granted that everyone has smart phones, etc. but his alternatives are sometimes absurd. Having TVs and WiFi at your $10/month gym is bad! Sign up for $210/month cross fit so you can talk to people while you work out! Reading on paper is better than reading digitally (side note: I listened to this on my phone on an app) and so you should join this $50 membership club to get printed short stories! And all kinds of stuff like this.
He also frequently quotes and points to people as examples, people that are independently wealthy and so are able to make unique choices with their leisure. Including people who made their wealth in tech.
But he also fails to mention anything about how people in poverty and working class can not afford many hobbies, and so tv and internet is an accessible and very cheap mode of entertainment and education and connection. I felt that not touching on that at all was ignorant and showed some major blind spots.
3. He completely ignores the fact that there are introverted people. He frequently writes about how “everyone” needs “frequent” social interactions to be refueled. That it is ingrained in all of us, one and all! But approximately 50% of people are introverted and refuel from solitary time.
Overall, there’s a time and place for technology, and for the most part he acknowledges that. I did inadvertently drop my phone usage an average of 40 minutes a day over the course of reading this, so it’s not all bad. 3 stars.
My problems are:
1. The author has never used social media. He’s been criticized for writing about social media with no personal experience extensively so I won’t go into it much here. But really, sometimes he’d say things about social media that made it clear he didn’t really know what was going on.
2. He is pretty blind to the differences in class. Not only because he takes it for granted that everyone has smart phones, etc. but his alternatives are sometimes absurd. Having TVs and WiFi at your $10/month gym is bad! Sign up for $210/month cross fit so you can talk to people while you work out! Reading on paper is better than reading digitally (side note: I listened to this on my phone on an app) and so you should join this $50 membership club to get printed short stories! And all kinds of stuff like this.
He also frequently quotes and points to people as examples, people that are independently wealthy and so are able to make unique choices with their leisure. Including people who made their wealth in tech.
But he also fails to mention anything about how people in poverty and working class can not afford many hobbies, and so tv and internet is an accessible and very cheap mode of entertainment and education and connection. I felt that not touching on that at all was ignorant and showed some major blind spots.
3. He completely ignores the fact that there are introverted people. He frequently writes about how “everyone” needs “frequent” social interactions to be refueled. That it is ingrained in all of us, one and all! But approximately 50% of people are introverted and refuel from solitary time.
Overall, there’s a time and place for technology, and for the most part he acknowledges that. I did inadvertently drop my phone usage an average of 40 minutes a day over the course of reading this, so it’s not all bad. 3 stars.