Hey everyone and welcome to the Understandable English Podcast.
I'm Oliver and today we are going to be talking about digital minimalism.
If you don't know what that is, don't worry because I will explain it in this podcast.
So I finally got around to making this podcast today on Friday, not Tuesday.
I know I promised to do the podcast every Tuesday, but honestly, I do apologize.
This week I have had so much university work and many different tasks I've had to do.
And to be frankly honest with you, I have had a lot less motivation and energy this week.
And that happens to everyone.
It's okay.
It's okay to happen.
And yeah, I'm here now and I'm recording it.
So something new that I'm trying this week is, alongside the audio, I am also recording a video version of the podcast.
So this will be released a little bit later on my YouTube channel.
And it might possibly be the first video on the YouTube channel.
So not only will you be able to hear my voice when I'm talking in this podcast, but you will also be able to see my hopefully lovely face and my dressing gown and pyjamas and very relaxed clothing.
So yeah, I will see, hopefully that works out and it will be available soon on YouTube.
I think it's a good idea, because I'll be able to add photos and maybe some video clips, things that are relevant to the podcast topic.
So, today's topic of digital minimalism.
What is digital minimalism and why is it important?
So first, I'm sure most of you know the word digital.
So it relates to technology, something that is digitalized.
It is in technology.
And minimalism simply means less.
So you're limiting things to what you actually need.
You're being careful about your usage and how much you use.
Of course, there is normal minimalism, which is simply having less things.
So you're only having things that you actually need.
So why technology?
Why limit technology?
Well, recently I watched a very interesting documentary on Netflix.
And honestly, I recommend it to you.
I think that everyone should watch it.
And I do think that it has Russian subtitles or audio as an option.
And this documentary is called The Social Dilemma.
So, The Social Dilemma.
What does the word social... Well, we kind of know what social means, like socialny.
But what does the word dilemma mean?
Essentially, a dilemma is a difficult choice.
So if you have two options and it's difficult to choose between both choices For example, I don't know whether to eat ice cream or fruit like a banana or an apple
This is a dilemma for me.
It's a difficult choice because I know that one is bad for me and one is good for me.
So it's a dilemma.
What should I do?
Sometimes we know the right choice, but it can still be a dilemma because it's difficult to pick the right thing.
So, the social dilemma is...
The dilemma in relation to social media, in relation to technology.
In the one sense, it can be very good for us.
It can give us opportunities.
It can give us entertainment.
But in another sense, on the other side, it can be very bad.
It has a lot of negative effects. influences on our life across many different areas.
Whether that is simply wasting your time or making you feel bad.
It affects so much, and in this documentary there are many not famous people, but people who worked on Instagram, so people that developed it, they designed it and people who worked for Google and Facebook and some of these other huge companies.
And why is this important?
It's important because they talk about how bad it is for us and how they designed it to be that way.
They designed it to be addictive.
And addictive simply means that you want to keep using it.
You want to use it as much as you can.
And this concept makes a lot of sense.
Facebook and Instagram, for example, make money off of advertisements.
Businesses pay for advertisements on these services.
The more you look at your phone, the more you use these applications, the more advertisements you see, which means more money for Facebook and Instagram.
So they have a really big incentive.
The word incentive means desire or reason, a really strong reason to make these things addictive, to make you want to use them as much as you possibly can.
Why is this bad?
It's bad because it manipulates us.
Manipulate, manipulировать, it controls us.
It makes us involuntary subconsciously, which means without thinking, do things.
A good example of this is whenever your phone vibrates or you hear a notification sound.
You often don't even think about it.
You just grab your phone, unlock it, read the notification, click onto Instagram, for example, and bam, you've already lost 20 minutes scrolling on Instagram and looking at photos.
And that's exactly how it is designed to be.
So what can we do to stop this?
What can we do to have more control?
My answer to that would be that we have to think a lot more about how we use technology.
I'm as guilty as anyone else with technology use.
Of course, I use Instagram so much, whether that's for the English with Oliver page, or looking at stupid cat memes, or even just messaging people.
But it isn't good all the time.
It's not good to be using it all day.
So what I would ask you to do is, today or tomorrow, think about how you use your phone and also how it makes you feel.
Do you think that it is beneficial for you?
Do you feel bad after using Instagram for long periods of time, for example?
Or are you happy with it?
Everyone is different, but if you're a bit like me and you think oh, it has a bit too much control over me, I use it a little bit too much, then maybe this idea of digital minimalism is for you.
So the concept of digital minimalism is reducing your exposure.
So the amount of technology that you see to the smallest amount that you need.
And how you can do this is simply by deleting, removing applications that you don't use or disabling notifications.
So you turn off the little signs that your phone makes whenever someone posts a new photo or comments on your photo or any of those things.
And this can start to break the habit.
It can start to stop you from using your phone and all of these applications all the time.
Another good idea is to not bring your phone to bed.
So don't take your phone and lie on bed before you sleep or when you wake up.
It's a really bad habit and it can actually affect your sleep.
I'm sure many of you know this already, but it's definitely something to think about, and it's something that I'm thinking about a lot right now.
In my opinion, the problem with technology and, in particular, social media, is that it is being used to replace real life, socializing real life, human feelings.
So although you might be communicating with people, It's not the same.
Your brain and your body does not get the same reaction, the same response as if you were to do it in real life, for example.
I'm not saying that that's bad, but if it's all the time instead of real life activities, it does become a problem.
And this, I think, is a huge problem during the coronavirus, because people are spending much more time on the internet and and much more time on their phones.
So if you found this useful or interesting, I would love to hear your opinions.
I would love to hear what you think of social media companies, phone use and whether you agree with me or disagree.
I don't want you to think that I just hate Instagram and I hate YouTube and all these different things, because I use them every day and I think they are extremely useful and actually beneficial in many ways.
But what I am saying is we need to be more conscious.
We need to think about how we use them a lot more and not let their addictive nature, not let these applications, control us.
We have to fully control them, use them for what we need.
So yeah, I'm really glad that you've listened to or watched this podcast.
And I would like to say that, if you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if, on iTunes, you could leave a review.
I've had not too many reviews but lots of listeners, and I would really love it if you could give it a rating and leave a small comment.
This really helps the podcast to grow and honestly, I would be so thankful if you could do this on iTunes.
And I think that's everything for today.
I hope you have a fantastic, wonderful day.
I hope this podcast was interesting for you.
And I appreciate each and every listener.
You guys really support me and keep me going with this project and these ideas.
And I'm very excited for the future.
So have a lovely day.
And it was wonderful talking with you.
Goodbye.
