23-04-2019:: re: digital minimalism                             .moji   
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Glad to see kvothe back around port70 (I'd missed your writing and
stories from your world, so I was happy to encounter these again). A
post on digital minimalism[1] led me to download and read this. I sat
down yesterday afternoon and read the whole thing in a few short
hours. I found the initial chapters compelling, though I found my own
feelings straying a bit from the direction of the author on the
mid-way topic of 'conversation' (over 'connection'). 

The author makes the case for dismantling thinking about conversation
and connection as two different strategies for accomplishing the same
goal of maintaining social life - suggesting instead that 'connection'
(as in via iTools and Web technologies) often lacks the depth of what
conversation offers. I agree wholly with that but I would want to add
more nuance to 'conversation' as not necessarily being about
language-flow between individuals but potentially other social/analoge
encounters. I say this as someone with a good few neurodiverse
friends, and my own social divergences away from conversation as well,
often preferring different tasks/focus other than conversation at the
heart of in-person encounters. For example, I know friends who do
voluntary work in technical spaces, who really enjoy social encounters
and the community setting, but aren't too comfortable with
conversation but are happy instead to have some collective technical
task at the core of a social interaction - like physically fixing a
piece of kit together rather than focusing on conversation. I totally
understand this, and over the past few years I feel like I've been
realising how much more comfortable I am with 'technical life' as a
focus of interpersonal activities, rather than conversation. Words, in
real-time at least, don't always sit so comfortably with all of us.
Whereas when it comes to fixing that cylinder on a bike,
re-configuring some shared server-space, brewing some coffee and
perhaps more quietly just 'being' together... this kind-of thing can
be preferable to some. As I write this, I don't think the author would
disagree if I made this case to them in response to the point on
'conversation'.

I was glad to have light shed on Thoreau's situation as well, and this
together with other recent references to Walden on c.s. made me dig
out my copy and give that book another shot, having tried a few times
over the years. I found myself reading Thoreau last night until the
wee hours, very much appreciating - perhaps even more-so now that I
understand a bit more that this wasn't an act of 'isolation' but a
different relationship in terms of cultivating necessary 'social'
solitude. 

On solitude: this was the section of Digital Minimalism that I found
myself appreciating the most (that and some of the nuance of the Amish
approach to technology - which really made me reverse my
preconceptions of that aspect of Amish living). This section made me
appreciate solitude in ways I hadn't previously understood or
articulated, perhaps had a sense of but never had so much of a good
nudge towards reconsidering solitude as a healthy core of 'social'
life in many ways, and personally enriching. As someone who does have
a strong tendency towards isolation at times, this is often caught up
in social pressure about that being strange or even unhealthy. Reading
this section made me realise that this is quite the opposite... I use
solitude in useful, self-enriching ways. And even though I have my own
particularities when it comes to social life, it's true that my
solitude is a place where I've grown and developed.

I was happy to realise that many of the suggested practices of digital
minimalism are things that I've been working into my life over the
past couple of years. One thing that was useful for me was starting to
use a password manager a few months ago. A password manager for all my
Web services helped me have an overview of what tools/services I was a
part of, and reflect on whether these were high-quality or useful
things for me to be a part of. I've stripped back many and have been
deleting accounts (n.b. I haven't been on Facebook for a couple of
years, but now this book has really made me revisit my approach to
Twitter as well..). I also haven't had a social network on my phone
for about 8-months now and that has been a real game-changer I'd
recommend to anyone!

Digital Minimalism is good in providing that voice of encouragement
and drawing on a lot of empirical examples to help make a compelling
case for the reader to reconsider their approach to tech, and feel
spurred on to making healthier changes. Although I've been quite
minimal, this text has helped me feel re-energised and focused about
the ways in which I approach and consider tech use, and why, and also
methods for how to go about this. I've started today with a different
approach to Twitter (my one remaining Web-based social network), and
even in just this one day, it's clear to me that I've needed a
different focus on this particular tool for a while, as, for me,  
it's not a high-value activity in so many ways and I'm maybe
starting to realise just how negative it is for me. I feel like I'm
gearing up towards the full-on focused re-approach to tech that the
author advocates... 

~ moji

[1] gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space:70/1/~kvothe/phlog/2019-04-18-digital-minimalism/