experiments in digital minimalism, a timeline
I recently came across a text I sent a friend in February 2024 that read, in part, "I’ve been thinking for a while, very casually, that I need to reset my relationship with the internet to around 2010, or something."
In 2010, I was excited to come home and get on my pink laptop, play the browser game I was obsessed with, check a few of the forums I was interested in and generally "surf the web." I didn't doomscroll. I think I had a smartphone, but I wasn't in a constant tug-of-war with it for my attention. I even enjoyed checking Facebook. What a world.
Lately I've been reflecting on my experiments in and inspirations toward digital minimalism (though I wasn't familiar with that term until late 2024) over the years and the last few in particular, and how they're ongoing today. In hindsight I am guessing the toxicity surrounding the 2016 U.S. election had a big influence for me, as being online simply became less enjoyable and more stressful. So did several IRL conversations, for that matter.
The main platforms I used were Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube. I tried Instagram a few times, and never stuck with Twitter. In maybe 2021 (really not sure on this one) I found Healthy Gamer videos on YouTube, which inspired me to experiment with putting my phone in grayscale and some limited attempts at reducing different social medias.
In June 2023 I was so stressed by all the ✨ family dynamics ✨ (<--- those are sarcastic sparkles) at play in the lead-up to my wedding that I did my first social media fast in an attempt to reduce stress, complete with no Reddit and YouTube (the two sites I found most addictive) for a whole month. I was absolutely thrilled when I completed it, I genuinely hadn't believed it was possible. And then I jumped right back into them, as one does.
In February 2024 I discovered RSS feeds thanks to finding Daniel Miessler's blog post "It's Time to Get Back Into RSS Feeds". I switched the newsletters I cared about receiving from email to the RSS app, which made for a much nicer reading experience that didn't see me wading past all the flotsam and jetsam in my inbox and racking up unread emails as I tried to save newsletters for later.
I think about June 2024 I deleted my Reddit account. My favorite subreddit was going through a rough phase and becoming less pleasant to hang out in - everyone just seemed grumpier, which helped me make the decision.
I was hugely inspired by the YouTuber Mixtress Rae, who started sharing about her 2024 online no-buy to address her overconsumption, something I dealt (deal) with as well. In July 2024 she posted "Opting Out: Flip-Phone Life Week 1". I was instantly hooked. That series inspired me to work on "dumbing down" my smartphone - I deleted my web browser for a time before an iOS update forced me to have one (I now use Firefox Focus - no tabs, no ads, and it erases itself so frequently it's not worth logging into any accounts), I turned off the parallax effect and swooshy animations, increased app icon and font size, set my phone not to light up on tap/pickup (I have to push a button), deleted several apps, and got rid of the shortcut I'd added to triple click the home button and turn grayscale off and on (which I did by muscle memory at that point - having to navigate through the settings menu helps my phone stay in grayscale significantly more).
The changes to my phone meant a lot of my YouTubing switched to my desktop personal computer, which helped slow my consumption a bit. But I also work from home at the desk containing said desktop computer, so it didn't slow me that much xD
Also in July 2024 I decided to search for a better way to consume news than reading headlines and anguished comments on Reddit's homepage. I'd experimented with Ground News before and appreciated their bias analysis of news articles and showcasing of how the language and reporting on a given topic varied so dramatically from left to right. I was looking for more of a daily roundup than a continuous stream, however, and subscribed to both Morning Brew and 1440 News concurrently. Over the course of a few weeks I compared the two and found they covered almost identical topics. Morning Brew's general tone was slightly humorous, however, so I settled on it.
I also discovered the Tangle newsletter. Tangle is a wonderful resource. Each weekday they publish a deep dive into a single topic, and offer perspectives from the left and right, and then a usually centrist personal view from the editor. I've found it really helpful for broadening my understanding and nudging me to look beyond my initial knee jerk reactions to what the other side is saying.
In December 2024 I finally got around to reading Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. It's a fantastic book and I strongly recommend it for anyone interested in the subject. Inspired by the book I bought a digital watch in March 2025 to check the time without having to risk getting sucked into my phone.
I'm a sucker for all those "I did this analog thing and it fixed my brain" videos, but it gradually occurred to me that I was not actually fixing my brain and was instead just watching all the alluring videos YouTube suggested to me about other people fixing their brains. That realization lead me to the Unhook extension for YouTube, which I installed in May 2025. I toggled off comments, recommended videos, playlists and shorts. And most importantly, I hid the home feed so I was automatically redirected to my subscriptions. And y'all, for real, YouTube is so much better without suggested videos. I already have a number of channels I like, that's why I've subscribed to them. Instead of endlessly scrolling the Home Feed looking at a dozen different branching rabbit holes and opening them all in tabs to check out, then struggling to get to them all and feeling overwhelmed, I had a soft endpoint in that I would get to videos I'd seen before if I scrolled too far.
Sometime in 2025 remains the last time I've re- and then de-activated my Facebook account. I removed all my posts years ago and more recently was using it for a few groups. I intend to delete it entirely, but have been hanging on to it for intermittent times when access to Facebook Marketplace is handy.
Around May 2025 my sister's girlfriend gifted me her old tablet (thanks P!) and I moved my RSS feeds over from my phone and remembered I could turn my preferred news sources that I was receiving as emails into feeds.
Early October 2025 I logged out of YouTube on my personal computer and logged in on the tablet exclusively. It's a nice tablet with a decently sized screen, but slower than my PC and the touch screen is, well, touchy when not using the pencil which makes browsing YouTube in particular a pain, further slowing my consumption due to sheer inconvenience.
And about two weeks ago in November 2025 I decided it was time to move my YouTube subscriptions, which I'd been slowly pruning since May (currently I'm following 9 channels), into my RSS feeds and shifted the feeds back to my phone. I want to get a more accurate idea of my actual screen time and continue to reduce my passive consumption. I am also considering rereading Digital Minimalism soon.
My experiments have been a series of starts and stops, trying various things, making progress and backsliding (I spent a while lurking on Reddit, account-less, before truly stepping away); for a while I was great at not touching my phone from the time I got up to when I started work in the morning and used that time to journal and read. For a while I didn't just instantly click through my time limit screens. With YouTube less convenient these past weeks I've found myself listening to more podcasts.
And to be clear, my goal is not to quit the internet. My goal is to do the internet on my own terms. I don't like our modern social media hellscapes, with their ultra-enshittified platforms filled with poison spouts, ragebait, despair, and AI slop. I don't want to be surveilled by companies selling my data and trying to engineer my behavior. I don't want to support companies doing unethical things. I don't want to be held captive by a platform or service intent on extracting every possible ounce of value from me by using every dirty trick to keep me there for as long as possible. That just isn't good for me, let alone human society and community. I don't like feeling zapped and unable to do anything beyond scroll.
So I tinker.
I experiment. This process is far from over and concluded for me. But I am proud of the gains I have made, and each one would be a serious surprise to past me. Leave Reddit? I could never. Actually stop the YouTube scroll, holy cow how? I am looking forward to figuring out what I am going to try next and what will work for me, and in discovering how to get closer to where I want to be.
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