Well, I am getting ready to re-read Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism since I have been on a simplification, getting rid of clutter (including tech clutter) and looking at what I actually need or want from my use of technology going forward.

Once I got over my productivity apps (such a misnomer) and second brain forays in 2022 where I spent more time chasing apps than being productive. I have been steadily changing and re-evaluating what I need versus what the “experts” claim I should use and then there is of course AI. Which has become a game changer in so many ways.

Over the last three months I have refocused my digital life significantly and looked more at how I could use analog/offline services or processes to complement what I have been using. In other words I have gone into the simplification rabbit hole and feel a lot more comfortable about where I am and how I am going to use technology in my life than I have been for far too long.

While at the library yesterday, I came upon Digital Minimalism sitting on the shelf and decided it was time to re-read and see if the book still was pertinent or not in this new age of AI and all the hype and hoopla that surrounds it.

Also, I wanted a brief snapshot of where I am currently with tech, social media, apps and my cell phone. Needless to say, it ain’t where I was back in 2019 when I first read the book, that is for sure

Computers – Over the past 3-4 years I have gone back and forth between Apple, Microsoft, Google and Linux operating systems on various laptops and tablets. While I can use all of them fairly well, I prefer the Apple ecosystem over the others. Then again, I left Apple in 2023 because I had my laptop and iPhone 12 mini stop working within 2 months of one another and wandered in the wilderness until last summer, when I got tired of my Chromebook and Pixel 7 Pro cellphone.

It was then that I decided to move back to the Apple silo, but I didn’t bother to buy anything new. I chose to go with the older used stuff because (1) I didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars, (2) I am changing where technology fits in my life and how I use it. Which I am sure that I will circle back to in some future posts.

For computers I am now rocking a 2019 iMac and a 2017 MacBook Air, all gotten since August 2025. They do enough that I am happy and I would hate to think how much it would have cost me if I had purchased them both new. Yes, I was tech savvy enough to update the 2017 MacBook Air to Sequoia.

In December, I stopped using the MacBook Air in the house, at the table when eating or having it in my lap during the evening – I was spending almost all of my time on the damn thing. Now, if I want to use a computer, I have to go over to the iMac or take the time to get my backpack out, find the charger and then set it up (it’s easier to go on the iMac). This single change has caused me to read more books, sit doing nothing but thinking for a while, and journal more consistently, which is in my mind a good thing. It is certainly better than the mindless scrolling I had been doing.

Cell Phone – I moved away from my Pixel 7 Pro phone to an iPhone 13 mini. The physical footprint of the Pixel Pro was just too big and I felt uncomfortable with Android as an operating system. Now on my iPhone I only keep what apps are absolutely necessary (no social media and an airline app for when I need to fly). I purposely attempt to only use it as a phone, for texting, a camera and music player. Well, other than an occasional search. So far its working quite well for me.

Social Media – As someone who was really big into social media for so many years, I think that I have deleted, cancelled almost all of them. Facebook and Bluesky were the last holdouts of what I call the micro or not so micro blogging social media apps. I think that Facebook’s forced thirty day we wish you would come back window of opportunity to change your mind and see what you are missing out on is over or will be shortly. I haven’t gone back to check. I did keep YouTube, but I pick and choose what I want to watch there and the algorithm hasn’t got me figured out that well even after all these years. No, I won’t be putting up any videos there anytime soon.

I found all of the social media too biased, the algorithms choose crap over depth, quality, or chronological order and the trolls were just annoying to most intelligent threads. That negativity is the name of the game for all of them, so I didn’t bother to stick around on any of them. Though I do admit that I miss the occasional foray into Facebook to see what was going on with old friends, organizations, or the town’s page to see what’s going on locally was its biggest draw. Even though towards the end I was only on there once or twice a month, unless something was going on. I truly believe that social media is one of the most divisive and has created more social problems than it helped.

Apps or what I call software, my age is showing here. Back in 2019 to about 2023, I was big into the productivity and second brain software scene. Back when I thought that I wanted to become something that I wasn’t. Experimenting with all that productivity software, I found was actually more about trying out all the different software/apps than actually being productive. I was so busy attempting to find that perfect app, that I forgot to write.

The only thing that I found productive from that time period was learning that I enjoyed journaling. Since last November I whittled my productivity software down to Google Calendar on Apple Calendar (I’ll switch over eventually) and deciding whether to keep my journal online or go analog with a paper journal. I went through Roam, Reflect, Craft, Obsidian and Logseq over the past years. During this time I also played around with Bullet Journaling. Over the past couple of years I’ve gone back and forth between those apps and a modified Bullet Journal type of journal.

After all the experimenting I decided that I had to make a choice between Logseq and a paper journal at the start of 2026. I decided that for where I am now, that a paper journal works the best for me. The biggest decision now on my journaling is whether to use a pen or pencil when writing. I’m leaning more towards the pencil.

Artificial Intelligence – That big bugaboo that is either humanities’ savior or the end of times. Me I’m somewhere in the middle. I view AI as a tool that I can use, but one that makes me lazy intellectually when I use it too much. It sometimes has interesting observations on things I am thinking or writing about. I do use it to edit the books I am working on, not for creating ideas, but more to keep the grammar police happy, double-checking my character’s conversations which I do struggle with at times, and continuity of the characters and timelines.

Then I use it to interpret things that I don’t totally understand either while researching something for the books or other interests that I have. However, I do check to ensure I am not getting something that is a hallucination or some weird off-the-wall crap that sounds great, but is way off from reality.

I’m not scared of AI for me, but I am concerned that over-reliance on its functions by people who don’t really understand what AI actually is or programmers or worse meddling with the AI’s programs for malevolent purposes. I’ll probably have more to say on this in future posts I’m sure. Though I cancelled my Google Gemini subscription as something had reached its point of diminishing returns for me back in December.

So that is a brief snapshot of where I am at with my tech use today. I am wondering what it will look like when I finish reading Digital Minimalism this time? At least I’ll know what some the changes that occur as a result of the re-reading the book.

Naw, I don’t think I’m a Luddite, because I am choosing to be less digital and more analog. I am doing what feels best for me and the direction I want the rest of my life to go. Besides what happens when someone or something decides to turn off the Internet? What’ll we do if all we know is the Internet and today’s technology that don’t work so great when it’s gone?