I don’t even need to think hard about this one, I can confidently say, I am most definitely a digital minimalist right now. Although, I’m not sure if it’s by choice or circumstance. Perhaps a mix of both, allow me explain.
First of all, I absolutely detest clutters and untidy DMs, it just makes me feel uneasy. And that is why, even when I’m hardly expecting any mails, I check my email daily, just to clear out unwanted mails and junks. I can’t stand having a +99 mail notification just hanging there on my phone screen. Because of this habit, I find it easy to immediately unsubscribe from irrelevant mails as soon as I get them rather than letting them pile up. This also applies to all my social media accounts.
Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, as much as I would have loved to be one of the girls that’ll brag about having 100+ unread messages, I just can’t. I do get a lot of daily messages, but I keep up because it’s already a part of me.
There was this one time I had an Apple notification I couldn’t get rid of. It bugged me for days turning on my phone just seeing that (1) pop up on my screen, it just seems so out of place yet I couldn’t do anything about it. Might sound crazy but dear friends, I actually had to reset my phone. Yes, back to default kind of reset just to get rid of that notification. And no, I do not have OCD, lol. I am however, obsessed with tidying up my phone.
You know how people can have 1000+ media on their phones? I can’t relate. I am always constantly getting rid of pictures and videos I do not need. And most of the time, I send my pictures and videos to my system then delete them from my phone. I blame this partially on the fact that my phone lacks abundant space though. I don’t have the luxury of keeping files and just abandoning them while they fill up space.
Now, all that being said. Because of space, I also don’t have much Apps on my phone. I only keep the most necessary and important Apps. I can’t even have Tiktok and Instagram at once alongside WhatsApp. Whoa! That’s a lot of space. So, I use my other phone for TikTok and keep IG on my main phone because I do prefer IG as a primary social media anyway.
The Apps on my phone right now are divided into 5 sections: finances (bank & saving Apps), socials, productivity, creativity and System Apps. I genuinely think even if I had a phone with abundance of space, I wouldn’t want to go outside this zone. It’s a comfort zone for me. However, I would also allow myself the luxury of maybe one or two games on my phone.
But for now, that’ll irrelevantly take up space. Space that I do not have.
As minimalist as I am about my Apps and notifications, I’m afraid the same cannot be said about my screen time. My goodness, if we’re talking diet-terms, when it comes to screen time, social media scrolling and data usage, I’m definitely overweight. A full maximalist on that.
However, even with this, I have tried, emphasis on tried, to limit them. But each time, I fail. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts.
How about you? Would you say you’re more of a digital minimalist or maximalist. Click on the prompt below to tell us your story.
Thank you for reading!