IMHO: I don't think living minimally is solely (or maybe even primarily) about what you cut out, but how you spend your time and value your life.
If you want to live locally, I think it's more about building connections and community – local friends, shops, artists, musicians, workout studios, businesspeople, industry, ranchers, farmers, students, museums, city councils, etc. And that can look very different depending on where you live. "Local" in the Bay Area is going to be mostly techies. "Local" in rural middle-America is going to be ranchers and farmers. "Local" in some small outdoorsy town will be a lot of hikers, skiers, bikers, etc.
The thing is... people can have all the things you mentioned above, but still live "minimally" because they don't focus on those things. They don't give more than a passing thought to those things, whether they have them or not. Their lives are too full of the things and people they love the most.
It's not about what you cut out, but what you embrace. Chase (or find) your passions and the rest just naturally fall aside.
Tried living with a Nokia 2720 flip-fone. It was Ok, but I missed Google Maps and don't particularly want to carry a street directory. So using a basic Android smartphone with no social media, banking, etc on it. Probably use it no more than 15-20 minutes a day.
From the title I thought minimally meant like in a log cabin deep in some woods or on a mountain top. To answer your question, don't load apps that you don't really need and use a bit of discipline to curtail unproductive time on the browser, etc.
I don't feel like you need much to "be happy" in the tech sense. For the past 5 years I've been using Linux, reading HN and RSS for news and using an Android smartphone without debilitating social side effects. I don't scroll feeds, I wait to read texts until respectful times and I have a Gmail that has a few thousand marketing emails I never read. Some nights I watch a couple hours of YouTube (gasp!).
A lot of solutions to the harm tech causes can be remediated by figuring out how these things affect you. Obsessing over the news makes me upset - when I realize this, I divert my attention to other things. If you can't foster the willpower to resist these ills on your own, you're not prepared to use devices with a healthy mindset in the first place.
I don't think one can use a smart phone without being affected by advertising, the media, or social media, or other agents of manipulation/negativity/control.
Our devices are perfectly engineered slot-machines. I've tried many times to overcome their effects through willpower alone. Doesn't work long term.
Look around you next time you're outdoors. People are glued to their phones.
I think its crazy that people don't realise this or work to mitigate access to such devices.
And no news is good news, no point staying informed about all the nasty shit in the world. What good is knowing?
If you want to live locally, I think it's more about building connections and community – local friends, shops, artists, musicians, workout studios, businesspeople, industry, ranchers, farmers, students, museums, city councils, etc. And that can look very different depending on where you live. "Local" in the Bay Area is going to be mostly techies. "Local" in rural middle-America is going to be ranchers and farmers. "Local" in some small outdoorsy town will be a lot of hikers, skiers, bikers, etc.
The thing is... people can have all the things you mentioned above, but still live "minimally" because they don't focus on those things. They don't give more than a passing thought to those things, whether they have them or not. Their lives are too full of the things and people they love the most.
It's not about what you cut out, but what you embrace. Chase (or find) your passions and the rest just naturally fall aside.
reply