What Would Marcus Do Week 6: Digital Minimalism and the Stoic Art of Enough

 

“Wealth consists in not having great possessions, but in having few wants.” — Epictetus

Epictetus, who owned virtually nothing, understood abundance better than most of history’s wealthiest individuals. His insight about wealth applies directly to our relationship with information and digital stimulation. Research shows that as many as 5-10% of Americans meet criteria for social media addiction, characterised by compulsive use despite negative consequences. The Stoics would recognise this as a failure to distinguish between natural and vain desires.

The Tyranny of More

Seneca wrote extensively about the futility of seeking happiness through accumulation. In “Letters from a Stoic,” he observed how the wealthy often become slaves to their possessions. Social media platforms deliberately create what researchers call “hyper-connectivity,” keeping users constantly accessible and making them dependent on continuous digital stimulation.

This represents exactly what Seneca warned against: becoming enslaved by things we thought would liberate us. The promise of connection becomes isolation, the promise of information becomes confusion, the promise of efficiency becomes constant distraction.

Natural vs. Vain Desires in Digital Life

Epictetus distinguished between natural desires (food, shelter, basic connection) and vain desires (luxury, status, excess). Applied to technology, natural digital desires might include: essential communication, useful information, tools that genuinely enhance our capabilities. Vain digital desires include: constant entertainment, social validation, the illusion of being informed about everything everywhere.

Research indicates that both extraverts and introverts can develop social media addiction, with extraverts using platforms for social enhancement and introverts for social compensation. The Stoics would see both patterns as category errors—seeking externally what must be cultivated internally.

The Practice of Voluntary Limitation

Marcus Aurelius regularly practised negative visualisation—imagining loss to appreciate what he had. Applied to technology, this means periodically experiencing digital scarcity to understand what we truly need versus what we’ve been conditioned to want.

Seneca advocated periodic voluntary poverty. In our context, this becomes voluntary technological limitation—not as punishment, but as training in independence and appreciation for genuine abundance.

What would Marcus Do?

Try this for a week.

The Epictetus Desire Audit: Examine your digital habits through his framework. List your technology uses and categorise them: Essential (natural desires), Helpful (preferred indifferents), or Harmful (vain desires). Focus energy on essential uses, be mindful about helpful ones, and eliminate harmful patterns.

The Seneca Simplification: Each month, remove one unnecessary digital complication from your life. This might be an unused app, an overwhelming news source, a social media platform that doesn’t genuinely serve your goals. Notice how simplification creates space for deeper engagement with what remains.

Weekly Digital Fasting: Choose 24 hours weekly for minimal technology use. This isn’t digital detox as productivity technique, but philosophical practice in what Epictetus called “training under difficulties.” Learn to find contentment without constant stimulation.

The Marcus Aurelius Perspective Practice: When feeling compelled to check for updates or browse aimlessly, pause and ask: “What am I seeking through this action? Am I trying to control something that isn’t up to me? What would happen if I simply accepted not knowing right now?”

The Evening Sufficiency Review: Each night, reflect on the day’s digital consumption. Ask: “Did I have enough information today? Enough connection? Enough entertainment?” Notice how often “enough” already existed before you thought to seek more.

The Gratitude Reset: When feeling digitally overwhelmed, practice Seneca’s gratitude technique: list three things your current technology enables that would have amazed people throughout most of human history. This restores perspective on genuine abundance versus manufactured scarcity.

The Stoic approach to digital minimalism isn’t about rejecting useful technology, but about using it consciously rather than being used by it. True wealth, as Epictetus knew, comes from wanting what we have rather than constantly seeking more.