Can I Be a Digital Minimalist in 2026? | Monday Advice

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Self-improvement, Technology, Education

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2026

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

Back in 2019, Cal published one of the first books arguing that we rethink our personal relationship with online tools. Can his advice still work in an age of TikTok and ChatGPT? In today’s episode, Cal dives deep into the r/DigitalMinimalism sub-reddit to see what advice contemporary digital minimalists are following and offers his own thoughts and recommendations. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3U3sTvo Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia (0:00) Can I be a Digital Minimalist in 2026? (39:13) How can I capture notes if I’m land lining? (40:39) For cognitive fitness, is it better to be handwriting or typing? (42:07) A note on art museum visits (43:46) Reactions to an article about AI and software engineering (49:39) What the Deep Life really is (50:46) What Cal read (52:08) What Cal watched Books: The Jewish Way to a Good Life (Rabbi Shira Stuntman) Links: Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow Get a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at https://peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport/ Cal’s monthly book directory: bramses.notion.site/059db2641def4a88988b4d2cee4657ba? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeNNYMJwZtI https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalminimalism/ https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalminimalism/comments/1tv0k77/for_the_past_2_years_ive_been_living_like_its_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalminimalism/comments/1to631b/three_years_of_digital_minimalism_the_rewiring_is/ https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalminimalism/comments/1ty27lz/limited_my_14f_screen_time_to_3_hours_a_day_and/ https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalminimalism/comments/1tm9rce/where_do_you_still_find_human_curation/ https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalminimalism/comments/1txskw9/deciding_once_instead_of_every_morning_is_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalminimalism/comments/1u74dob/ran_a_30day_intentional_solitude_experiment/ https://www.normaltech.ai/p/why-ai-hasnt-replaced-software-engineers Thanks to our Sponsors: https://www.vanta.com/deepquestions https://www.drinklmnt.com/deep https://www.expressvpn.com/deep https://www.wealthfront.com/deep Cal Newport is not a Wealthfront client. Wealthfront’s high-yield cash account: https://www.wealthfront.com/deep. This experience may not be representative of other Wealthfront clients, and there is no guarantee of future performance or success. Experiences will vary. Cal Newport receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Brokerage for paid endorsement in his podcast, creating a conflict of interest. The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The base APY is 3.30% on cash deposits as of January 30, 2026, is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum. If eligible for the overall boosted rate of 4.05% offered in connection with this promo, your boosted rate is also subject to change if the base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period. Additional terms and conditions apply, which can be found on wealthfront.com/deep. Funds in the Cash Account are swept to program banks, where it earns the variable APY. Investment advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Securities investments: not bank deposits, bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value. Thanks to Jesse Miller for production and mastering, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Nate Mechler for research and newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Back in 2019, I published a book called Digital Minimalism.
0:06.4	It argued that we should be much more intentional about what digital technologies we use and how we use them.
0:13.0	Now, when I started working on the idea for this book, we were still in the tail end of that golden age of social media, where we still saw these devices as offering
0:22.6	a societal good, a sort of inevitable evolution of the town square that would ultimately
0:29.8	empower us all. But by the time the book actually came out, people were beginning to get fed up,
0:36.0	which turned out to be great timing for me. That book became my first
0:39.3	New York Times bestseller and it led the opportunities that I never would have previously
0:44.3	imagined for myself. But here's the thing. A lot has changed since 2019. Back then, social media
0:52.5	meant Twitter, Facebook and that old version of Instagram where you mainly just followed creators that you cared about.
0:58.4	Today's social media by contrast has become a race to the bottom of the brain stem as every service is trying to copy the highly addictive algorithmically optimized short form strategy of TikTok.
1:10.3	Existing global conversation platforms like
1:12.8	Twitter now called X have given up on any illusions of being a global town square and really now
1:18.1	just serving up, I don't know, straight up gonzow garbage for the most part. And then there's
1:22.4	AI, which wasn't on my radar at all in 2019, but today is increasingly threatening to corrupt or co-opt
1:28.5	every last occasion where we might actually try to use our brains for original thinking.
1:32.9	This all points towards a key question.
1:36.8	Is it still possible to be a digital minimalist in 2026?
1:42.3	And if so, what has to change about this philosophy to keep it relevant?
1:48.8	Well, it's Monday, which means it's time for an advice episode of this show, which is the
1:53.9	perfect opportunity to go searching for some answers.
1:58.2	All right, here's the plan. It turns out that there's a popular subreddit
2:02.1	dedicated to all things digital minimalism.
	...

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