Vitalik Proposes “Digital Minimalism”: Leveraging AI to Reduce Reliance on Social Media and the Internet

Today, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published an essay titled “Digital Minimalism,” advocating for a conscious reduction in reliance on social media, mobile internet, and web interfaces amid the AI era—and reclaiming agency over our digital lives. He outlines three concrete practices: First, he no longer uses X directly; instead, he manages X, Bluesky, Farcaster, and Lens through Firefly to avoid algorithmic recommendation-driven information noise. Second, he once maintained a 100-day streak of keeping his phone in airplane mode by default—connecting only via Wi-Fi—to minimize location data leakage and gradually cultivate offline habits. Third, he significantly reduced his use of websites and web applications, opting instead for command-line tools to handle everyday digital tasks.