Chapter 36: Quiz — Digital Minimalism

Multiple Choice and Short Answer Questions

Question 1 According to Cal Newport, digital minimalism is best defined as:

A) Deleting all social media accounts permanently B) A philosophy focused on using technology only when it supports deeply held values C) Limiting screen time to one hour per day D) Using only analog alternatives to digital tools

Answer: B. Newport defines digital minimalism as "a philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else."

Question 2 What is the primary mechanism by which app removal from a smartphone reduces social media use?

A) It eliminates the platform permanently B) It requires creating a new account to use the platform C) It increases friction — the effort required to access the platform D) It prevents the platform from sending notifications

Answer: C. App removal works by increasing friction: the effort required to access a platform via a browser on a computer is substantially greater than tapping an icon on a phone, and this small increase in effort significantly reduces impulsive use.

Question 3 In Hunt et al. (2018), the experimental condition required participants to limit social media use to:

A) One hour per day total B) Zero minutes per day (complete elimination) C) Ten minutes per platform per day (30 minutes total) D) Thirty minutes per platform per day

Answer: C. Participants in the experimental group were instructed to limit use of Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat to ten minutes per platform per day — thirty minutes total.

Question 4 What did Hunt et al. (2018) find regarding which participants benefited most from the social media reduction intervention?

A) Participants who used social media most frequently showed the greatest benefit B) Participants who were heaviest users of Instagram specifically showed the greatest benefit C) Participants who reported higher levels of depression at baseline showed the largest effects D) Benefits were distributed equally across all participants regardless of baseline wellbeing

Answer: C. The effects of social media reduction were largest for participants who reported higher levels of depression at baseline, suggesting the intervention has greatest impact on those who most need it.

Question 5 The "social coordination problem" in digital minimalism refers to:

A) The difficulty of scheduling time for digital activities B) The challenge of convincing others to reduce their social media use C) The problem that platforms have become social infrastructure, making individual exit costly D) The lack of coordination between different social media platforms

Answer: C. The social coordination problem describes how platforms have become the infrastructure through which social life is organized (events, group communication, community), making it impossible to leave without also leaving the social structures that use them.

Question 6 Which of the following interventions has the strongest evidence base for reducing social media use?

A) Motivational apps like Forest or Flipd B) Cold turkey quitting C) Environmental modifications such as app removal and notification disabling D) Willpower-based resolutions to use social media less

Answer: C. Environmental modifications — app removal, notification management, phone-free bedrooms — consistently outperform willpower-based approaches and third-party apps because they change circumstances rather than requiring continuous conscious resistance.

Question 7 Newport's principle that "clutter is costly" means:

A) Having too many apps uses excessive phone storage B) Each technology imposes costs in attention, time, and cognitive load that multiply when technologies accumulate C) Cluttered home screens cause more frequent phone checking D) Expensive technology is more distracting than inexpensive technology

Answer: B. "Clutter is costly" refers to the cumulative costs — not just time, but cognitive load, attention fragmentation, and opportunity cost — that multiply as technologies accumulate without active curation.

Question 8 Tristan Harris's "barbells vs. slot machines" distinction is used to illustrate:

A) The addictive design of gaming platforms vs. social platforms B) The difference between productive technology use (intentional, purposeful, bounded) and exploitative technology use (indefinite, unpredictably rewarding, hard to stop) C) The physical weight of devices and their effect on usage patterns D) Two categories of social media platforms with different business models

Answer: B. Harris uses the barbell metaphor (a tool you pick up intentionally, use purposefully, and put down) and the slot machine metaphor (a device designed to maintain indefinite, unpredictable engagement) to contrast healthy and exploitative technology relationships.

Question 9 According to Gloria Mark's research on attention, how long does it typically take to return to a task at the same level of focus after an interruption?

A) Three to five minutes B) Seven to ten minutes C) Approximately twenty-three minutes D) Approximately forty-five minutes

Answer: C. Gloria Mark's research at UC Irvine found that it takes an average of approximately twenty-three minutes to return to an original task at the same level of cognitive engagement after an interruption.

Question 10 The Kushlev and Dunn (2015) study on email checking found that restricting email to three times per day:

A) Significantly reduced productivity and responsiveness B) Had no effect on stress compared to continuous checking C) Significantly reduced stress and improved focus without meaningfully reducing responsiveness D) Only reduced stress for participants who worked from home

Answer: C. The study found that restricting email to three times per day significantly reduced stress and improved focus compared to continuous checking. Email response times were slightly longer but not objectively problematic, and the researchers concluded the tradeoff was favorable.

Question 11 Which of the following is identified as a limitation of iOS Screen Time and Android Digital Wellbeing limit features?

A) They cannot be set for individual apps B) Users can bypass their own limits with a single tap C) They require parental approval to set D) They are only available on premium device tiers

Answer: B. A key limitation of both platform-provided screen time tools is that users can easily override their own limits — the bypass option reduces effectiveness, particularly for heavy users who most need limits.

Question 12 The "all-or-nothing trap" in cold turkey quitting refers to:

A) The tendency to replace one platform with another when quitting B) The fact that quitting is all-or-nothing and can't be done gradually C) The cognitive distortion where a single failed day of abstinence is used as evidence that change is impossible D) The tendency to quit multiple platforms at once rather than one at a time

Answer: C. The all-or-nothing trap describes how unsuccessful cold turkey attempts often produce a cognitive distortion: the person concludes from failure that they cannot change their habits, making future attempts less likely. Incremental approaches avoid this by treating partial success as genuine success.

Question 13 Newport's 30-day digital declutter experiment is characterized as what type of evidence?

A) A randomized controlled trial B) A longitudinal cohort study C) Primarily qualitative and self-reported evidence from a self-selected sample D) A nationally representative survey

Answer: C. Newport's evidence from the declutter experiment is primarily qualitative and self-reported from participants who voluntarily undertook the experiment. Newport himself acknowledges this is not the same as a randomized controlled trial and that selection bias may inflate positive reports.

Question 14 The privilege critique of digital minimalism argues that:

A) Digital minimalism is only relevant for wealthy countries B) Minimalism prescriptions are easier to follow for those with professional autonomy, financial security, and flexible time, and may not translate to those with fewer resources C) Only the privileged are harmed by social media D) Digital minimalism unfairly advantages those who implement it over those who don't

Answer: B. The privilege critique observes that Newport's specific prescriptions (check email three times a day, engage in slow analog hobbies, maintain a phone-free bedroom) presuppose degrees of professional flexibility, income, and leisure time that not everyone has.

Question 15 What did the Allcott et al. (2020) study, which paid Facebook users to deactivate for four weeks, find about wellbeing effects?

A) Large, significant improvements in wellbeing consistent with predictions from correlational studies B) No significant effect on wellbeing C) Small but significant improvements in subjective wellbeing, smaller than predicted by correlational studies D) Significant wellbeing improvements only for users over 35

Answer: C. Allcott et al. found small but significant improvements in subjective wellbeing, reduced political polarization, and reduced online news consumption — but the wellbeing effects were smaller than what correlational studies had predicted, suggesting correlational estimates overstated the causal effect.

Question 16 Newport's concept of "optimization" in digital minimalism means:

A) Using technology as efficiently as possible to save time B) Not just deciding whether to use a technology but deliberately designing how to use it to maximize value while minimizing costs C) Updating apps regularly to their latest versions D) Using technology at the optimal time of day for productivity

Answer: B. Optimization in Newport's framework means actively designing how to use a chosen technology — specifying when, how, and for what purpose — rather than simply deciding to use it and letting habits form by default.

Question 17 What does the research on self-monitoring of smartphone usage (without formal limits) suggest about the role of awareness?

A) Awareness alone has no effect on usage patterns without formal restrictions B) Awareness increases usage because it makes people more conscious of their phone C) Simply knowing how much time one spends on a phone reduces usage by approximately 17%, even without formal limits D) Awareness is only effective for users who are already concerned about their usage

Answer: C. Research has found that self-monitoring of usage — simply being shown how much time one spends — reduced smartphone use by approximately seventeen percent even without formal time limits being set, suggesting that awareness itself has behavioral effects.

Question 18 Maya's minimalism experiment revealed that her primary use of TikTok was:

A) Social connection and keeping up with friends B) Entertainment and creative inspiration C) Emotional avoidance — using the phone to escape difficult feelings D) Information and news consumption

Answer: C. The experiment helped Maya recognize that she was reaching for her phone primarily as a form of avoidance — a way to make uncomfortable feelings (anxiety, boredom, difficulty) go away rather than for any positive entertainment value.

Question 19 The "operating procedures" concept from Newport refers to:

A) The technical settings that govern how apps function B) Rules established in advance, when deliberation is possible, that govern technology use so in-the-moment decisions don't have to be made C) Standard procedures for troubleshooting technology problems D) The internal operating systems of platforms

Answer: B. Newport uses "operating procedures" to describe deliberately established rules — created when one is calm and reflective rather than in the grip of impulse — that govern technology use, removing the need for repeated willpower-based resistance.

Question 20 Which study found that deactivating Facebook for five days reduced salivary cortisol among heavy users?

A) Hunt et al. (2018) B) Allcott et al. (2020) C) Tromholt (2016) D) Vanman et al. (2018)

Answer: D. Vanman et al. (2018) measured salivary cortisol (a physiological stress biomarker) in heavy Facebook users who deactivated for five days, finding significant reductions — one of the few studies to document physiological effects beyond self-report.

Question 21 Newport's recommendation that people use phones for actual voice calls rather than social media scrolling is intended to address:

A) The acoustic quality problems of digital messaging B) The social coordination problem by substituting a richer form of direct communication for platform-mediated connection C) The data privacy concerns with social media messaging D) The inequality of access to social media platforms

Answer: B. Newport argues for cultivating direct, richer forms of social connection — actual conversation rather than platform-mediated scrolling — as a way to meet the social needs that platforms exploit. This doesn't solve the coordination problem but addresses the underlying need differently.

Question 22 According to the chapter's assessment, the relationship between individual behavior change (digital minimalism) and structural reform (platform regulation) is best characterized as:

A) Competitive — resources spent on one are unavailable for the other B) Sequential — individual change must come before structural reform C) Complementary — both are necessary and neither substitutes for the other D) Redundant — if structural reform succeeds, individual change becomes unnecessary

Answer: C. The chapter explicitly argues that individual behavior change and structural reform are complementary, not competitive. Practicing digital minimalism and advocating for platform regulation are not either/or choices. Individual action is genuine but insufficient; structural change is necessary but not sufficient without individuals capable of exercising agency.