21st century minimalism

27-year-old American Chris Lawyer (Chris Yurista) says that digital files are more important to him than physical property. He sold the apartment, furniture, and the rest of the trash. All his fashionable clothes fit in a backpack, and Chris himself has found true freedom - he can go anywhere and work anywhere. The main thing is to have a bike, a laptop and a small digital piano keyboard next to it.

The guy earns a good job as a DJ in Washington, and also earns money as a travel agent, and he has a very good bank account, which only grows from such a minimalistic lifestyle. The total value of his physical liabilities is only $ 3,000, and he turned everything else into assets that he manages through online banking.

In addition, he freed a lot of time - now you do not need to take care of the house, dust, take out the garbage, repair broken things and so on. He spends the night usually with friends.
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In this new life, the hard drive becomes the biggest concern. Your whole life depends on it so that backup is the most important question. American psychologists say that the first suicide cases have already been registered in the US, when people have lost all their files.

The virtual world occupies an ever-increasing place in our life, so the value of offline artifacts decreases in a completely natural way. If we spend most of the time online, then what's the difference, what does our apartment look like, what city is it in, what kind of furniture is it? The main thing is that the channel to the Internet is fast and the electricity works without interruption. So in fact, no matter where to live.

Chris Lawyer - not the only case, this is a real trend . 22-year-old programmer Kelly Sutton (Kelly Sutton) also sold all his possessions, except the iPad, Kindle, laptop, two external drives for backup and a couple of other things, then took a room in Brooklyn. He founded the site CultofLess.com , which helps like-minded people to get rid of property and gain the freedom of real digital minimalism.

Sutton's words, various web services and digital media, including iTunes, Hulu, Flickr, Facebook, Skype and Google Maps, completely replace the offline world. He leads a full life, working and relaxing in digital format.

A similar story by Joshua Klein, a New York based technology innovation consultant. He and his wife sold two thirds of their property, they digitized a lot and went literally to live on the street for nine months.

According to Dr. Sandberg of the Future of Humanity Institute, the idea of ​​digital minimalism represents a transitional stage towards the digital form of the existence of the human mind. According to him, if in the future human consciousness can be copied to a computer, then a person can continue to watch movies, listen to MP3s, read e-books and communicate on social networks just as before.

via BBC