6-Year Digital Minimalism Update: The Rise of the Offline Influencer | Ep 70
WikiFeet walked so the $297 social media detox course could run. After six years of actual digital minimalism — the real, boring, unsexy, unmonetizable kind — here's what it actually looks like:
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00:00 The Rise of the Digital Minimalist Influencer
Sophia Chang (00:00)
Welcome to the Sophia Chang Show.
What's this? A solo episode? It has been so long, I forgot how to use the pop filter. Six years ago, I named Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism my book of the year for 2019. What has happened in that time? Well, this digital minimalism thing has become less of a conscious intentional choice to save our brains and our mental health, and it has instead become a product.
There is a rise of what I can only call digital minimalist influencers — this whole cottage industry of coaches and solopreneurs who are now charging people to learn how to go off social media. I'm going to try to say this with a straight face. Something about this whole "escape social media by joining my online community" feels a little bit like moving deck chairs on the Titanic.
There is something deeply ironic about building an entire online business around helping people get offline. Call me crazy. The original impetus might have been genuine, but we have gotten to the point where we need to ask: are we solving the problem, or are we capitalizing off it? Digital minimalism was supposed to be about reclaiming our attention and autonomy. It's about finding some kind of freedom from the attention economy. If you pay someone monthly to check their forum daily, I may be wrong here, but that feels a little bit like attention economy.
Are We Solving the Problem or Capitalizing Off It?
So look, I have a podcast about this. I understand the inherent irony of having to use any online presence I do have in order to broadcast advocating for less online presence. But there is a huge difference between "here's a free resource, you can take it or leave it" versus "pay me $297 to escape the attention economy by giving me your attention."
I may not agree with Cal Newport on many things, especially lately. He has said some questionable things, and definitely the other podcasters and people that he promotes have said straight-out, high-key sinophobic things — a little bit of a MAGAness going on in the company he keeps. But what I do respect and always will is that he actually practices what he preaches.
02:18 Cal Newport Gets a Pass (And Yes, I'm Jealous)
He interacts with smartphones and email in a way that is healthy for himself and his kids. All he says is, read my articles, buy my books. You guys remember books? Actual paper objects? He doesn't say, hire me as your digital minimalism coach. It blows my mind.
Am I jealous? Well, duh. I wish I came up with the idea of bilking you all for every penny you've got. If I had known I could charge you to listen to me talk about digital minimalism, believe me, I would have a long time ago. I mean, shoot, all this time I was doing it for my mental health. What a dumb dumb.
Listen, if you guys want to pay me and you want to hire me, I will never say no to money. Saying no to money is something only wealthy people can afford, but that is out of my budget. But until one of you guys actually calls me up and says, "I'm going to hire you as my digital minimalist coach" — I'm just going to keep talking about this on my podcast for free, because it has made a genuine difference in my life. And I would really like the rest of the world to do the same so we can stop the insanity.
All my nineties kids: Susan Powter in the house. There is a marked difference between "I have found something valuable and I'm sharing it" versus "I have found something I can monetize and I'm building my entire online empire around it." Right? The first is a resource. The other is an MLM for extremely online people who want to feel superior about their screen time.
It's like, oh, I'm a digital minimalist. I'm off social media. I only do this other social media. I'm ranting and raving about this today because that's what I do on this podcast. Complaining is an integral part of being Asian. It's part of my culture. But I do find it really funny, this rise of the digital minimalist influencer — and not at all surprising. It's the basic offshoot of everything that happens in American society. It's like WikiFeet. It was bound to happen in this hell world. You know, we've got B-list reality TV stars hawking poop tea as "detox." Why wouldn't we have online entrepreneurs hawking social media detox?
And that's the thing. Actual digital minimalism is extremely boring. I can tell you after six years of it — it's very quiet. It is by definition unsexy. And I think that's why it's so hard to sell.
Why Parents — Not TikTok — Are Distracting Kids in Class
I'm extremely encouraged by the phone-free school movements that have resulted in real policy wins just this year. New York State, my hometown, became the largest state in the nation to enact bell-to-bell restrictions on smartphones in schools — for the express effort of combating addictive technologies. They are saving your kids' brains. And I'm saying "your kids" because the truth is out, parents. You are the problem.
Ed Week — Education Week — is an independent news organization. The Ed Week Research Center surveyed 868 teachers, principals, and district leaders, and they published this in October 2024: basically, you guys are the problem. The reason kids are distracted in school is not because they themselves are constantly checking social media. It's because the parents are calling the kids nonstop to assuage their own anxiety. You are the problem. And these parents are telling these kids, just ignore school policy — just flagrantly violate the rule. Karen, stop it. Stop it, Stacey. Don't do this.
The question becomes: do you care enough about your child's brain development to get a handle on your own anxiety so that you are not constantly helicoptering your kids? Timmy has been off your teat for a good decade now. Let him fly. Let him go.
How Paying Bills Wrecked My Digital Minimalism
The biggest change for me is being forced out of my strict digital minimalism — partially to have a platform for traditional publishing, but a lot of it is also because I teach character-first writing for a pretty well-known online writing teacher, and I coach with him. I have to utilize certain voice note applications. I don't put it on my phone, because I still have a notification-free phone. I use it online; I use the web app. What this has resulted in is me constantly checking throughout the day, because I don't know if I'm going to get some kind of notification that I need to answer. Sometimes things move pretty quickly. And I'm absolutely checking more often than I need to. I don't want to be, but that is just the addictive nature of this kind of technology.
I check my Substack. My gosh — are people looking at my YouTube? How are my Shorts performing vis-à-vis the long-form videos? I'll tell you: long-form videos, I'm happy when I get 30 views. My Shorts, in two days, they'll get like 1,200 views. We're doomed. The world is doomed. That's where things are.
So I am myself experiencing what happens when you start adding digital communication — asynchronous communication. I hate asynchronous communication. But if your boss is using it, if your clients are using it, and that's what you have to do, you have to put these parameters in place. Okay, I'm only going to check email from now until now, Monday through Friday. Oh, no, I lied. I'm checking on Saturday. I'm checking on Sunday, like we all are. It is what it is. I have to pay my bills.
When I look to the future, personally for myself, I would love to go off all this stuff and not have to use it. I don't know that that's realistic. I keep saying, my God, when I'm a famous author, I can go recluse, I can go full Zadie Smith and go off everything — but the chances are high that it's going to get even worse. Like, you tend to promote more and write less the higher up you go.
I do feel the tide has turned and will continue to turn. For how long? I don't know. I'm doing my part and that's all I can do. I would love to know what questions you guys have. You can, you know, pay me $490 — I'm just kidding. Tell me what questions you guys have about going digital minimalist. And please, please do not join somebody's dedicated Discord slash online forum slash private community as a way of trading one technology for another. And for God's sake, stop calling your kids in class.
Sophia Chang (09:20)
Thank you so much for joining us at the Sophia Chang Show. If you like what you heard, I would be thrilled for you to share this with your friends. Subscribe to my Substack, thesophiachang.substack.com — my newsletter. You'll get this podcast, new episodes, and behind-the-scenes stuff delivered to your inbox each time. I would love for you to give this a 5-star rating, leave a review, tell your friends — every little bit counts, especially when you are a digital minimalist with no social media presence whatsoever like me. I'll see you guys next time.
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Sophia Chang is a Reese's Book Club LitUp fellow, disabled dancer, and extroverted writer. She hosts The Sophia Chang Show podcast where she shares No B.S. publishing stories and advice she wishes she'd known. Subscribe if you don't want to cry alone.
