With this new way of living, the necessity of minimalism becomes clearer to me. The things that could potentially unnecessarily distract me must be let go of so that when the important things come about, I can be there fully. That the truly important things must receive my whole is the key, and rightfully so.
The unnecessary ones are mainly clutter and social and digital media (meaning, including Youtube and Netflix). So far, I have not felt the essence of the things of the latter and only their costs. As social tools, yes, those programs can be quite helpful. Even Youtube and Netflix help me get acquainted with popular culture and thus with my peers’ contexts. However, the benefits greatly outweigh the costs, especially given that they have limits. The threshold of their usefulness is low, quite so low in fact even without considering the harm they result to once you go beyond that threshold which is, again, an easy bar to jump over.
And I personally simply feel more inclined (that is, I feel most pleasure and just a lot better holistically) when I limit my ‘digital media’ to electronic books and articles/posts outside of social media. Definitely, too, that the most pleasure can be derived from the simplicity of printed books. They’re easier on the eyes as well and mine have been getting sensitive since the start of lockdown.
I would need to minimize the tools I have as well but as everything else now, minimizing and decluttering–these are to be done when the time feels right.
Ah, I really like this notebook.
Journal entry, sometime in late October 2020