What is digital sobriety?

Digital sobriety is all about reducing the ecological footprint of our daily digital lifestyles. That’s right, using your cell phone, PC or connected refrigerator all contributes to pollution. And it’s on the rise.

The transition to digital technology is often presented as being a positive evolution, especially with regards to reducing household energy consumption. But current practices are contributing to global warming, according to think tank “The Shift Project”. In their 2018 report, researchers highlighted the negative impact of digital technologies, which are consuming 9% more energy every year.

Developed countries are the main culprits. The average American owns 10 connected devices and consumes 140 gigabytes of data per month. Compare that with the average Indian, who owns a single digital device and consumes just 2 gigs of data.

There are several different ways that taking photos or watching Youtube videos can contribute to pollution. A large part of the pollution is due to the manufacturing process of digital devices, especially smartphones. That accelerates the extraction of certain polluting metals and emits greenhouse gases in high quantities. Even if you forget the production process, web browsing requires a large amount of energy.

You’ve got our devices which constantly need charging and you’ve got the servers on which all the data is stored. Digital consumption now contributes more to global warming than the entire aviation industry. Video streaming, one of our favourite pastimes, uses up 80% of the world’s bandwidth.

Without needing to go back to the Stone Age, some experts have talked up the benefits of “digital sobriety”. The term was coined in 2008 by Green IT. We can reduce our video consumption by using a lower definition, or by not sharing our entire weekend in Instagram stories or the family Whatsapp group. Other tips include keeping email inboxes clean, turning off wifi routers at night and opting for a wifi connection where possible. That’s because 4G creates 23 times more pollution than wifi!

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