In a digital landscape where social media is considered essential for visibility, a small Norwegian app company, DigTek, explores its deliberate choice to remain offline. This episode delves into DigTek's philosophy of "constraint as a form of clarity" and the profound misalignment they see between their core design principles (data minimalism, user control, and attention respect) and the operational mechanics of major social platforms.

The discussion outlines the problematic nature of the attention economy, focusing on issues such as opaque data asymmetry, engineered engagement, cross-platform surveillance, and the uncompensated use of user content for AI training. DigTek openly addresses the resulting "visibility problem", acknowledging the genuine challenge of spreading awareness of their eleven apps without a marketing budget or social presence.

The episode concludes by examining the search for alternative, aligned platforms—only to return to the conviction that owning the conversation via their website, email, and RSS is the most honest approach, despite the cost of near-invisibility. It explores whether it's possible to build something valuable in 2025 without participating in attention-capture systems, ultimately championing a slower, smaller, but more honest way to operate.

This conversation offers insight for anyone who identifies as an "attention economy refugee"—someone quietly stepping away from systems designed to maximize engagement.

Timestamps and links:

00:01:05 - DigTek, the indie Norwegian developer, and their iOS apps - https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/andre-berg-st%25C3%25B8len/id1829516490

Disclaimer:

Episodes are based on human-written scripts from essays, design docs, and research. Scripts are AI-refined, creator-approved, then voiced using Google NotebookLM. This is human-directed, AI-assisted storytelling—not AI-generated content. Every idea originates from the creator's work and vision.

This episode specific discusses our own company, DigTek. We are taking a specific standpoint that align with our principles and values - we are not claiming this as the only answer, or «the right» value or principles. To the contrary, we are open about the paradoxes that arises as a consequence.

Relevant articles, info and resources:

On our blog at digtek.app we have written about:

«Why Awareness Comes Before Optimization», https://digtek.app/blog-2025-10-24-why-awareness-comes-first.html

Other posts that are used as sources for this episode:

• To Substack—and back again, https://digtek.app/blog-2025-10-19-to-substack-and-back.html
• The Quiet Ones Who Left, https://digtek.app/blog-2025-10-12-attention-economy-refugees.html
• Why DigTek Doesn’t Use Social Media, https://digtek.app/blog-2025-10-01-why-no-social-media.html

You’ll find still other blog posts discussing similar topics under «Blog» at digtek.app. Our book, «Life as User Experience» is loosely referenced throughout the episode. The book is currently only available at Apple Books, https://books.apple.com/book/life-as-user-experience/id6753595522

Catch you in the next episode!