In the midst of isolation, while spending most of my time online, I came across the book “Digital Minimalism: Reconnecting to the Essential in a Saturated World” by computer science researcher Cal Newport. Seduced by the idea of starting a “big digital cleanup” and joining a movement with the grandiose name “Attention Resistance,” despite my dead eyes in my head, I devoured the digital book, but without taking any action, my digital life to clean up. The chapter about the “unbalanced arms race” between GAFAM 1 and GAFAM 1 particularly touched us: I saw how we became more and more like the people in the movie WALL-E, so absorbed in their screen that they no longer paid attention to what what happened. surrounds them (you just have to walk through the corridor of a public place to see for yourself). Still, Newport's emphasis on individual productivity annoyed me. I wasn't convinced that productivity was what we needed 2.
Before anyone criticizes me for comparing myself to the characters from WALL-E, let me say that I am also talking about myself. Ten years before lockdown, on the verge of exhaustion in a busy professional life, I scrolled through my Twitter feed for hours between shifts. I know these feelings of stress, combined with overwork, of paralysis and, above all, of dismay at having wasted all this time instead of creating or discussing something in real life.
For my decision to leave social media and other GAFAM services (since it is impossible to completely leave the digital world even without a computer), two events took place:
To get out of this circus in which I have been invested for far too long, I attacked on several fronts: I subscribed to media newsletters and certain paper publications; I had my iPhone SE repaired for the umpteenth time and started shrinking it (making it a dumbphone) by eliminating most applications and turning the screen black and white; I reduced my data plan; I “forgot” my phone in the bottom of my bag or in my office; I deleted my previous posts on Facebook and Instagram, the first step to permanently closing my accounts.
With this I hope to preserve a part of humanity, the one who learns to identify the birds in his garden, who designs exciting projects after a few hours of boredom, who cooks with his aunt without thinking that she has anything else is it better to do it.
What do we do?
We'll wait to read the second part of this column to see how I feel and then give it a try. Or we can try tomorrow and talk to me in person.
In any case, we read.
On the subject of the centrality of social media in our lives and the tragedies that can result from it, I was completely captivated by Delphine de Vigan's latest novel, Children Are Kings (Gallimard), of rare clarity.
We listen too.
The episode of France Culture's Avec Philosophy podcast entitled “Our attention is subject to overstimulation” is in some ways a relief: in this world marked by acceleration, our exhaustion is expected; Still, there are ways to avoid the worst… if everyone does it.
1. Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. Some companies changed their name, but the acronym remained.
2. Newport's next book will likely be about slow productivity. How far will this concept move away from the dominant neoliberal vision that values individualism and competitiveness?
3. The numbers and elements come from the “Chemins de Transition Digital Challenge” report (https://cheminsdetransition.org/les-ressources/defi-numerique/) and the two “Shifters Montréal” reports (Montreal, Quebec, Canada: digital to what extent? and The environmental impact of digital technology in Quebec and Canada), available online.