A little while ago someone made a comment about how I have every gadget known to man and although this statement wasn’t necessarily true it was close enough to how I feel that I sort of found myself looking around me and wondering if maybe I have too many screens.

I mean there are items that I need to get my work done – my work laptop, the additional work screen and then the work phone, those are a must. Then are personal items which have brought entertainment into my life like my phone, my tablet (also used as a notebook) and then my kindle. So yes, I think I tend to go a bit overboard with all things digital. I could go on about how some of these items were gifts and not at all my fault but I am going to go for the honest angle and just state outright that I like and enjoy my tech products.

With that being said though, I think one would be dishonest about the impacts technology has on other aspects in our lives by claiming that it acts only as a beacon of entertainment and all that is good in the world. For all that technology has given us it has taken quite a bit from us too. I do think that when we look at what has been taken away from us we tend to want to do that on a one size fits all basis. Which means that we assume that what applies for someone else should apply for everyone and we then use that as a yardstick for judging ourselves and others.

Since the beginning of this year I have been on a journey to discover what digital minimalism means for me. This meant that I have had to cut back on some of my favourite apps (hey there blue bird app), putting in some rules around my phone and what I use it for (bye bye pretty people on my phone) and no touching my kindle to read when I am around others – except when I’m in the car or on a flight, I think that’s acceptable.

There is a lot to be said about cutting out on digital use. Some things are true and some things seem less true than others, in my experience however there is always something to learn from taking sometime away from the digital world.

Over the past few months for example I have learnt that I can get my news and stay up to date without constantly scrolling down my feed. I have learnt that social injustices still get me as rilled up when I hear them over the radio as when I read them on twitter. I have learnt that I am still very capable of reading an entire book in a day if I choose to.

I have also learnt what it feels like to be bored. To just sit with my thoughts and twiddle my thumbs. To have nothing to do while I wait in line, to wait to be picked up and look straight-ahead because there’s nothing to look down at.

I think the best lesson I’ve learnt is that I’m going to have to define digital minimalism for myself. I know, there’s a whole book about it but I am going to have to make my own rules in this case. I will have to take charge and decide what’s important to me and how I am willing to commit to that.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve made the best decision in my life, and sometimes I feel like I perhaps drank too much from the productivity-YouTube cool-aid. Either way at this point I am enjoying the time I feel like I’ve gotten back, the face-to-face connections I am making and the many many new things I am doing when I am not lost in my technology.