Digital Minimalism: Towards Optimal Reconfiguration of Digital Technologies in Everyday Life

As digital technologies rapidly saturate most, if not all, aspects of everyday life, some users have intentionally resorted to another lifestyle – digital minimalism, which advocates living a healthier and more meaningful life with optimal reconfiguration of digital technologies. Despite its notable implications for the widespread sociotechnical issues regarding overuse and misuse of digital technologies, prior studies have seldom explored what exactly digital minimalism is and its impact on
productivity and well-being at both individual and organisational levels. This has often caused a common misconception that digital minimalism simply aims to abandon digital technologies on all occasions, discounting its real value. Thus, this TREO paper aims to shed light on this understudied issue by initially delimiting digital minimalism and then exploring its antecedents and consequences. It is believed that only when it is correctly understood can digital minimalism provide an effective means for users who want to live meaningfully with digital technologies in the long term.