Q&A: What's digital minimalism and why is it becoming popular? London researcher explains

Smartphones have become a central part of our everyday lives, making them almost impossible to escape from in our modern age, with apps and services just a tap away.

But some are choosing a different path by trading in their smartphones for a flip phone or using an old-school alarm clock instead of looking at their phones first thing in the morning. The phenomenon is called 'digital minimalism.'

Emma Duerden is the Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and Learning Disorders and an associate professor at Western University in London, Ont. She joined CBC Radio's London Morning host Andrew Brown to explain why digital minimalism is gaining popularity.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Andrew Brown: So what's behind this rise in digital minimalism?

Emma Duerden: This is a cultural movement that's really being driven by Gen Z. I talked with a lot of young people, high school students, and, of course, students at the university who are choosing these single-use devices. There's also been an enormous increase in the number of apps and actual devices to prevent you from accessing your phone, as well as so many retreats. So it's just that people are really seeking out ways to help them to disconnect.

AB: Based on the conversations that you're having with the young people, how common would you say this is?

ED: Many young people today, they're getting that alarm clock or getting a digital camera, so we're not just mindlessly taking thousands of photos and videos that we're probably never going to look at. By getting a camera, this is really sparking creativity to start to think about how to use this device more thoughtfully.

AB: These smartphones, they do so many things, right? Like alarm clocks, maps, they're computers, flashlights, cameras. They can even be radios. And I understand why we would see a benefit to having all of these things in our pockets. But what is it doing to our brains?

ED: These days we are kind of acting like our brains are meant to be connected to high-speed internet 24/7, right? But our brains really aren't designed for that; we need to have rest. Research on multitasking, for example, where we think we're getting a lot of things done, actually, those people are less productive.

When we're working constantly, we're getting this rush of a neurochemical called dopamine. So that's a feel-good chemical, but we're not supposed to have it exposed to us all the time, and this kind of floods our cognitive control centre, our prefrontal cortex, the decision-making centre of the brain. And when we have it overloaded like that, then it can actually lead to those feelings of brain fog and fatigue. And that's real, so we need to have rest.

AB: And when you talk about brain chemicals and dopamine, I wonder, are we addicted to these things? Like, how easy is it to go in another direction?

ED: That's a great question. So whether or not we're actually addicted, there's no social media or cell phone addiction per se, something like a behavioral addiction like gambling. However, for our devices with those constant likes and notifications, anything that's going to be really pushing dopamine, whether it's shopping or the social reward that social media offers, that can in turn drive addictive behaviours.

AB: OK, so then when someone does do something like trade in their smartphone for a flip phone, do we know what that does to them?