Two Months Into Digital Minimalism and Dopamine Detox

At the beginning of September, I started practicing digital minimalism and did a bit of a dopamine detox. Wanted to update you here, and give you some digital minimalism tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way. Spoiler: It’s been great! Overall I can say that I’m more observant and notice things I wouldn’t have normally seen. Also I find joy in the smallest things now, like the deep red leaves, teeny baby pinecones and monk parakeets I encounter on my walks. (OK so the parakeets are a big deal.) The only real downside is that I’m sorta late with pop culture. But that just encourages me to curate my own newsfeed, in my inbox or on my browser. Speaking of curating a newsfeed, please sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

How I Prepared for Two Months of Digital Minimalism and Dopamine Detox

After rewatching The Social Dilemma and reading books recommended in the documentary (get a library card, if you don’t already have one), I was ready to alert my communities to my absence and tweak my phone and computer to make the change actually work. I’ve tried over the years to leave, and it’s just hard when you don’t set yourself up for success.

Here’s How I Prepared

The same way you’d do an out of office reply, do that online and pin it to the top of your feed. Give people ways to communicate with you, and make it politely clear that if they don’t communicate in those ways then they just won’t get responses. Feel free to steal this one: “Hi friends! Letting you know I’ll be offline for a bit, so I won’t see your messages and tags. Feel free to still message and tag me on here, but know that I won’t see it for some time — if at all. If you need me, please email me at human@human.com or text me at 504-867-5309. Thanks so much!”
Prepare for a better experience when you return, by installing ad blockers on your browser, stopping any auto-play or suggested viewing, not letting the apps connect with anything else or use any of your information, and definitely turning all notifications off. Log out completely. So much of what makes social media unhealthy stems from little innovations over the years. Like seeing notifications.
Delete the apps from your phone and use Freedom and/or Freedom’s free browser extensions so you don’t wind up there from your computer. The way I instinctively type “www dot F” when I’m at a computer. Embarrassing!
Edit your phone screen so you can do certain things without fiddling around. I have Shazam, Seek, Finch, Google Maps, all those good apps I use often, right there on my home screen,
Make sure you have something healthy to occupy the time you’d spend online. With all that found time, you’re likely to slip into another dopamine-spiking, low effort activity. Like binge watching, YouTube viewing, etc. I learned this in Dopamine Nation, I believe. Make sense, because think of how people often stop smoking and gain weight. Or fear they will. On a darker note, think of people in drug recovery who form unhealthy relationships with methadone, suboxone, etc. I know people canceled Kirstie Alley, but I remember watching her on TV once saying that she started buying floral arrangements for her house with all the money she stopped using on cocaine. I was a preteen when I saw that, but it stuck with me.

Positives of Digital Minimalism and Dopamine Detox

I am so observant and able to help, when others literally don’t see. A few times picking my kid up from school, I’ve seen kids drop things. No adult helps, because they are all on their phones.
Have you noticed the beautiful colors outside? How about the bird songs? Ever picked up on the changes in what you smell as you walk? I notice all that now, and it’s so cool!
I’ve found T-shirts, toys, books, CDs, posters, coins. So many things now that I’m looking around me.
My to-do list is getting shorter, and I’m pretty much my 2007 self. This is what I wanted.
I’m less likely to do other things I don’t want to do, because in addition to my brain working well and my thoughts being my own, I’m not sitting around on the phone or glued to the TV while I eat or drink or plan my day.
I’ve been losing so much weight! Now, that might be because of the new vitamins I’ve been taking or because my car wasn’t working for a few months, but I think a lot of it has to do with me not just sitting on my phone or in front the TV.
All my good habits have returned! I set my hair on rollers once, my garden is doing great, I cook a lot, I save my clothes and dishes pretty soon after cleaning them.

Negatives of Digital Minimalism and Dopamine Detox

I’m late on pop culture stuff, but if it’s important enough I’ll see it. Also I sign up for newsletters like Axios New Orleans so the news just comes to me.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s easy to slip into other not so great habits. Am I doing drugs? No. Have I had to set screen time limits on New York Times games, LinkedIn and news websites? Definitely.

Digital Minimalism and Dopamine Detox Tips and Tricks

Annoyed with apps showing up in your iPhone’s app library, when you’d rather not see them? Literally just figured out the other day, that if you go to Settings > Siri and Search, then scroll down to the apps, you can make it so the phone doesn’t suggest them, show them or learn from them. Basically, you’ll have to find the app if you want to use it.
If you do that little app library trick, make sure you still use a screen time password and timer. Hide the password somewhere and make it confusing to remember, like 1IL7.
Seriously, don’t log in and don’t just check “right quick.” Use the 30 days to see what it is that you really need social media or TV or video games or whatever for. This is something I read in How to Break Up with Your Phone. Turns out, I logged back in after a month and the world hadn’t ended when I was gone. No one made a tell-all post about me. No pictures were shared where I looked hideous or … “underdressed.” Folks will just know, “Oh they ain’t really online like that. Their last post was June 19, 1865.”
The books say to delete the apps from your phone forever, and just use them on desktop once you’ve established a healthy relationship with them. I’ve learned I waste more time trying to use social media on my computer for my monthly check-in than just doing it from my phone. However, if I get me a nice camera then all my photos and videos will be there and I can just use the desktop sites easily instead of mobile.

Thank You, Reader

I’ve been a journalist for over a decade, and have written quite a few stories where people will stop me in the street or email me to thank me. But this? So many people have been talking to me about my leaning into digital minimalism, and how they are feeling great practicing it too. Again I remind you, it’s really not you with the problem. These apps are designed to suck up all your time and attention and make you think the way big companies want you to. I’m a huge conspiracy theorist girlie (though as my friend Austin Levy said, I always end up being right), and I wouldn’t be surprised if the cahoots in which these companies operate extend far beyond what we can see. Yes, friends, a cahootenanny. I wish you all the best on your digital minimalism journeys!