Less Noise, More Control: Digital Minimalism with a Laptop Server
New year, new resolution: less screen time
This year I chose something simple—decreasing my screen time.
A lot of the time I spend in front of a screen isn’t intentional. I’ll boot up the computer or pick up the phone to do one thing, and then get pulled into infinite scrolling feeds, recommendations, and algorithms. Willpower helps, but I’d rather do something more reliable:
Design a digital environment that isn’t constantly trying to steal my attention.
That’s where the star of this project comes in: self-hosting. Self-hosting feels like a way to keep the great media that’s out there while avoiding ads and algorithms.
What I’m building
I’ve identified a few services I’d like to run at home:
- Jellyfin — a personal media library
- audiobookshelf — audiobooks and podcasts
- Immich — photo backups
- yt-dlp — a curated “YouTube shelf”
YouTube, but without getting sucked in
There are a lot of creators I genuinely enjoy on YouTube, but I’ll often get pulled into recommendations even when I start with a specific video in mind. A tool called yt-dlp should let me download videos from the channels I choose so I can watch exactly what I want—without falling into the algorithm rabbit hole.
The hardware: an old laptop server
To get things rolling, I’m using an old laptop as a server. It’s not optimal, but it’s quiet, low-power, and good enough to learn on. Plus, reusing what I already have feels nicely aligned with the whole “reduce the noise” theme.
I did a minimal install of Debian for the OS and plan on keeping everything local for now.
Next steps
This post is the why. The next posts are the how—I’m going to build this in small, readable chunks so each step stays simple (and so I don’t turn the project into a never-ending tinkering rabbit hole).
I don’t have every post locked in yet, but the rough plan looks like this:
- Give the old laptop a proper “server” setup (Debian basics, SSH,
/srv/media, power management) - Add a media library with Jellyfin
- Add audiobooks + podcasts with audiobookshelf
- Add photo backup with Immich
- Tame YouTube with a curated download workflow (yt-dlp, automation, and organization)
If this goes the way I’m hoping, the end result will be pretty simple: a calmer digital “home base” that makes it easier to choose what I want to watch, listen to, and keep—without the internet choosing for me.