Vitalik Buterin outlines “digital minimalism” for the AI era
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said people should take back control of their digital lives by relying less on social media, the mobile internet and website interfaces. In a post titled “Digital Minimalism,” he described three habits he has used or recommends: cutting back on direct use of X by managing multiple social platforms through Firefly, keeping a phone in airplane mode by default for 100 straight days while connecting only through Wi‑Fi, and reducing dependence on websites and web apps by using command-line tools for some on-chain tasks with AI helping lower the barrier to entry. Buterin said websites and web applications carry privacy and security risks, while local AI, offline apps and modular tools are making it easier for users to operate computers through natural language instead of complex platform interfaces. He described that direction as digital minimalism and said AI may not only improve how efficiently people use the internet, but in more situations could also reduce the need to use the internet at all.
