Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After reading Newport's book, Deep Work, earlier this year, I eagerly pre-ordered Digital Minimalism. I found Deep Work to be profound, thought-provoking, and somewhat life-changing. With Digital Minimalism, I just want my time and money back. In this book, Newport explores a "new" idea (it's not) that social media use and technology are hurting us in ways we did not expect and that digital minimalism(!) is the answer. He had thousands of his blog readers experiment with a 1-month technology sabbath/abstinence and reported their findings because he himself has never used social media (e.g., never joined Facebook). I found it odd for someone like Newport to talk as if he knew the experiences and difficulties of technology addiction when he himself has never felt the helpless compulsion to check their smartphone when bored as most people are today. It's like someone who's never been overweight providing thoughts, practices, and strategies to a fat person on losing weight to -- it sort of just rings hollow. He poorly defends himself by saying that because he's not fallen trap to modern technologies, he has experience of seeing things from the other side. The rest of the book is mostly things you probably already know or common sense stuff about technology addiction. There are a few useful tips on how to combat our overuse of technology, which is why I've given the book 2 stars instead of 1. I would not recommend this book; for ~$15 and only 250 pages of fluff, your money is better spent elsewhere.