Does it spark joy? We’re asking it of our wardrobes, our homes, our make-up bags, and even our diets. Naturally, we’re now extending the question to our digital spaces.
The rise of minimalism has moved beyond just design – it’s become a way of life, manifesting wherever we crave personal control. Now, with our growing reliance on tech taking the reins, digital minimalism has reared its head.
From Bauhaus to the digital age
While minimalism as an aesthetic has been around for centuries – gaining momentum in the early 20th century with the Bauhaus School, then again in the ‘60s as a reaction to Abstract Expressionism – its latest wave has permeated almost every aspect of our lives. It’s shaped diet culture (‘clean eating’), interior design (de-cluttered to death), and beauty trends (the ‘no make-up’ make-up look). The infiltration of minimalism into our digital spaces, it seems, was only inevitable.
If anything, tech has often lent toward the idea of minimalism in design. From the first generations of the iPhone, the sleek, shiny, space-grey design embodied this aesthetic before we even knew how deeply integrated these devices would become in our lives – before we were using our aesthetically minimalist devices to the functional maximum.
Tech’s maximisation prompts digital minimalism
Now, that contrast has never felt so stark. We use and rely on our personal devices more than ever before. Tech has infiltrated our lives, and we’re not all comfortable with the degree to which it has. According to ExpressVPN, attitudes toward an individual’s own tech usage are a common struggle across all generations, from Gen Z to Baby Boomers. It’s Generation Z, though, that is seeking out a solution to this discomfort: a concept known as digital minimisation.
In a survey of 4000 individuals across the US, UK, France and Germany, each generation reported varying degrees of comfort with their screen time. However, they all expressed a desire to improve their digital habits in the hope to improve their mental health and productivity.
Gen Z and digital discomfort
Unsurprisingly, only 14% of Gen Z felt comfortable with their current screen time usage – the lowest percentile out of the four generational groups surveyed. Millennials followed at 17%, Gen X at 24%, and Boomers, the most comfortable, at 35%.
Despite their discomfort, Gen Z’s lives are the most intertwined with technology. As Gen Z has grown up, so too has the internet, thus making this generation acutely aware of their reliance on this technology and its impact excessive screen time has on mental and physical health.
Interestingly, though Gen Z is the least comfortable with their screen time, they’re also among the most proactive about limiting it. 17% of Gen Z report being able to limit screen time on most days, second only to Boomers at 18%. Additionally, 29% feel they are mostly good at managing it, with Millennials slightly ahead at 33%.
Like a kid in an Apple store
As tech infiltrates every corner of our lives, avoiding digital spaces becomes more difficult, especially for Gen Z. According to the Growing Up in Australia report by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, published in 2016, “A majority of Australian children are spending more than the recommended two-hour daily limit for screen-time (watching television, on computers and playing electronic games).”
A report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2019 supported this evidence, revealing that, “Around 90 per cent of Australian children are looking at screens each week, and most of them are doing so for 10 or more hours.” According to a study by Deakin University, the lockdowns in 2020 only increased screen time usage among children and young people, with remote learning heavily reliant on screens.
The drawbacks of young people using social media have even caught the attention of the Victorian Government, with the Commonwealth announcing a plan to deliver social media age limits through national legislation.
What is digital minimalism?
As the generation most immersed in screens, Gen Z is also the most aware of its pitfalls. Their discomfort with excessive screen time has fuelled the rise of digital minimalism—a reaction to the overuse they’ve grown up with.
Digital minimalism may include limiting the number of notifications one gets, limiting the amount of time one uses their devices, or maybe setting specific rules about the content one consumes or the time of day in which they consume it. Like with minimalism in interior design, make-up and storage organisation, the goal is to move towards a space that is clean and simple, without the clutter of the unnecessary.
However, like any trend that is positing itself as one that will benefit an individual’s health, there’s a risk of it flattening to a fad of times past. Admittedly, eliminating digital spaces altogether in today’s world is virtually impossible, but that’s not what digital minimalism is trying to do. Minimalism isn’t about eradicating; it’s about refining to what’s necessary.
Find your own balance
No matter what it’s for, the trends that stick around are the ones that individuals are able to make work for them. Digital minimalism doesn’t have to mean trading in your iPhone for a Nokia brick or a ‘dumb phone’ (a phone without internet access). Like any lifestyle shift, its sustainability lies in balance.
Digital minimalism is on the rise with Gen Z, but whether it endures depends on whether it can be integrated into daily life with realistic moderation. It’s not ‘all or nothing’, it’s ‘less is more’.
