"Digital minimalism is a philosophy that helps you question what digital communication tools (and behaviors surrounding these tools) add the most value to your life. It is motivated by the belief that intentionally and aggressively clearing away low-value digital noise, and optimizing your use of the tools that really matter, can significantly improve your life."
– Cal Newport
Nora Ephron has been my literary idol since the mid-1970s. Long before the movie-going public discovered her screenwriting wit in “Heartburn” and “When Harry Met Sally,” I’d already devoured her laugh‑out‑loud essay collections “Crazy Salad” and “Scribble Scribble.” For years, her comic memoirs, “I Feel Bad About My Neck” and “I Remember Nothing,” sat on…
Remember Raveen? How about the Amazing Kreskin? Either one of those famous 1970’s show biz hypnotists would have called me up on stage to entertain audiences. I’m that easily hypnotized. Back in the day, I discovered just how hypnotizable I am during an assignment for CBC-TV News in Windsor, Ontario. I was interviewing a local…
My millennial son called me a ‘late-stage capitalist’ after I subscribed to several popular meditation apps. I was confused more than insulted. The meditation apps were for calming me down, if that was even possible. Was I really handing more money over to those avaricious tech bros, the ones attempting to turn every facet of…
I’ve been reading up a storm since I returned from the wilds of rural Costa Rica, a place where the humidity curls book covers and forces an avid reader like me onto my tablet. E-books just don’t give me the reading experience I crave, though. I need to hold onto a real book. Luckily, the…
Everything I thought I knew about humility I learned as a young girl from my maternal grandmother. Almost sixty years later, I finally understand the hard-earned wisdom she was trying to share. My grandmother, Rose, lived in the small Nova Scotian coal-mining community of Glace Bay with my grandfather, known by his initials LH. They…
When I first embraced digital minimalism, I thought about buying a simple flip “dumb phone”. But I couldn’t find one that carried only WhatsApp and a camera so continued using my Google Pixel 6. I have since learned that even so-called “smart phones” can be diabolically dumb. At least the tech networks that connect them…