How to escape the surveillance state: Embrace digital minimalism

Editor's note: We're facing an unprecedented moment in American history. Our government and multinational tech monopolies are making it clear that we, the people, are the target of the monstrous surveillance state they've constructed. The deep state is attempting to jail people who share memes, Blaze Media journalists, and even the leading presidential candidate. It's time we take back control over our privacy and digital communications, and this guide will provide you with the tools to do that. This is an excerpt from a larger guide.

Practice what Cal Newport calls “digital minimalism.” Use only the technology and software you really need. And use it sparingly.

Cal Newport is a professor at Georgetown, with a Ph.D. in computer science from MIT. He’s written several excellent books on technology use including "Deep Work" and "Digital Minimalism." "Deep Work" is superb, and I’ve recommended it to many people. "Digital Minimalism" presents a practical way to limit our use of technology to the most essential.

The more time we spend online and on phones scrolling through social media, checking the news, using software, and playing games, the more we are being programmed by digital masters who shape our thoughts, ideas, desires, and view of the world.

A key part of limiting our exposure to the internet and behavior modification is to use the internet in a minimalist manner. I spend too much time on Twitter and looking at the news. Those are hours I won’t get back. Reducing our time on the internet makes us more productive, gives us time to read and learn other things, helps us have longer attention spans, helps us be more present with our families and friends, helps us avoid being propagandized, and is better for our mental health.

We live in a world with digital technology that shapes and forms us. Except for full opt-out, there is no avoiding it, so we need to be thoughtful about our use. To deny that digital tech affects us is like the teenager who says that music doesn’t affect him: “I don’t listen to the lyrics.” Sure, you don’t. But even if that were true, the lyrics are the least subversive part! Technology shapes the way we see the world more than we realize. Neil Postman and Jacques Ellul wrote about this in detail. Technology also has impacts just out of view on the horizon. As Amara’s law states, "We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”

There’s much more to say about limiting our use of digital technology and social media: Stop or reduce your use of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Avoid platforms like TikTok. We don’t need to post every experience, thought, or photo we have to the world. Facebook and Instagram are convenient and can help grow our business, but there are better ways to share photos with your friends. If we think about it, we don’t need network effects for most of what we do online. Social media platforms can be helpful for advertising, but in most of our lives, does it really matter that 3 billion people use Facebook?

Computer science is not a purely technical, empirical field divorced from any philosophical or political concerns. Computer algorithms and programs are created by human beings with specific visions of the world. These visions influence their code whether they know it or not. And they are embedded into products and services that shape and form us, whether we know it or not. Google, Facebook, and other Big Tech leviathans have turned their philosophy into computer code.

The more time we spend online and on phones scrolling through social media, checking the news, using software, and playing games, the more we are being programmed by digital masters who shape our thoughts, ideas, desires, and view of the world. To paraphrase René Girard: We don’t get our desires from ourselves but from others. The more we use the code of others, the more our lives are shaped by them. Do you want your desires and worldview shaped by Silicon Valley engineers? For more on Girard, listen to my podcast interview with Luke Burgis on his book "Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life" and my podcast interview with Gregory Thornbury, "An Introduction to René Girard and the Mimetic Cycle."

One way to think about computer code is analogous to music, literature, and architecture. Philosophers since Plato have been keenly aware of how music and art shape our souls. Bach and Mozart do one thing to us. The Rolling Stones and Snoop Dogg do another. Literature and poetry shape our intellects and imagination. Beautiful architecture with harmony and proportion influences in one way; neo-Stalinist or Bauhaus architecture shapes us in another. Architecture is like code. Florence is beautiful code; Brasilia is not.

Computer code and technology also shape us. We need to write better code that reflects a better philosophy of the person and society. Too often those of us with non-materialist worldviews have abdicated our responsibility in this area, which has led to distorted technology. The good news is people are working to break free from the current model. The developments in distributed ledger technology (blockchain) are very promising, and there is much work to be done here. But again, we don’t have to wait for the perfect option. We can start by using the current technology in a better way.