Digital Minimalism as a sustainable option

The fashion term “Minimalism” has in recent days. Minimalism means a deliberate choice to live with less. It has brought forth a ray of hope to exploit work, stress and expenses. People who adopt a minimalistic lifestyle testifies more free time, peace, pursue passions, focus on life purposes, give health and mental care, and experience freedom. But the more significant returns in ‘live with less’ are vital in saving our planet less focused.

Although the minimalist lifestyle has encountered rebirth in recent years, the concept is not new. Minimalism is noticeable at various times in ancient texts. The idea of minimalism intertwined with ‘decluttering. From the historical perspective, overemphasizing decluttering and underemphasizing the reasons why we overbuy in the first place is thoroughly inconsistent. Sustainability should be outspoken whenever minimalism is because it is a movement grounded in the idea of living with less and practicing in the daily routines to save the planet for the future. (Seferian, S. M., 2021).

Digital Minimalism

Digital Minimalism is an urgent call to action if anyone is concerned with their life and the future times of the next generation. There are bifold of digital minimalism.

• The personal time of using your digital gadgets will reset your life’s goals. Reports state the following effects on individuals.

✓ Our phones and apps are, by design is an addictive attention sucker.

✓ Social media creates anxiety.

✓ There is no mental space; limiting creativity and minimalize deep thinking leads to limited personal growth.

• The volume of data stored in internet or cloud storage, deleting data and saving the relevant data alone. The following are effects on the earth.

✓ In online dumping data contributes to the growing need for data centres globally which consumes the earth resources.

✓ Even sending one mail can emit 10g of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the carbon footprint of a plastic bag.

✓ Online activity contributes to digital pollution.

✓ Increase in digital activities leads a traces of carbon emissions, water consumption and land usage.

My Experience

Covid 19 has operated the world to move online beyond extend. Personally, when the pandemic time started, I realized children look up to me with the things I engage for the day. Intentionally, I avoided using mobile and engaged with other hobbies as a digital detoxification. Alternatively, my husband and I used the same number for communication as we were accountable for each other.

To practice digital minimalism, we started to delete the files that were no longer of use, unsubscribing the websites, intentionally using computers by cleaning up the desktop, and uninstalling programs to remove apps and social media. Activated unfollow, unfriend, no bookmark bar and blocked websites. This minimalist lifestyle encourages to be careful and selective about things and limited online storage.

In the bottom line

The last thought is that digital minimalism is not something we do once and leave. It is a process. It’s not something you do but something you are. It is clear that we need to cut down on our data storage habits to become sustainable. No doubt that our simple habits today will help our future generation. We can embrace digital minimalism as it is a need of the hour and pursue a better gatekeeper for digital life to pursue your passion and focus on the purpose of our life.

References

Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus. (2021, January 3). What is minimalism? The Minimalists.

https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/ Nina Semczuk. (2021, February 16).

5 practices to put in place from digital minimalism by Cal Newport. https://www.ninasemczuk.com/blog/5-practices-to-put-in-place-from-digital-minimalism-by-calnbspnewport

Seferian, S. M. (2021). Sustainable minimalism: Embrace zero waste, build sustainability habits that last, and become a minimalist without sacrificing the planet. Mango Media.

Silvestre, D. (2018, September 20). Digital minimalism: How to simplify your online life. Medium. https://medium.com/swlh/digital-minimalism-how-to-simplify-your-online-life-76b54838a877

SolidFish. (n.d.). SolidFish: Blogs - A case for digital minimalism. SolidFish - Facilitating a green internet.

https://solid.fish/main/blog/12/a-case-for-digital-minimalism#blobdata