The book, thus far, talks about social media use (and really any computing tool) in economic terms.
Rule 1: maximize profit
At some point, you put a bunch of time in and you get some benefit. Entertainment, interesting ideas, etc.
If you model this as a financial thing, the beneficial outputs are analagous to profit. Thoreau’s New Economics says that you should strive for a minimal ‘profit’, such that you can live. This will allow you to dedicate your time to other pursuits.
One example they gave is: instead of trawling twitter for 10 hours a week, what if you went to a conference/talk once a month and talked with 3 people. That would still expose you to interesting ideas, but also give you an additional 38 hours per month.
Rule 2: optimize usage
import graph;
unitsize(10cm);
size(500);
real f(real x) {return log(x);}
xaxis("$x$",xmin=0, xmax=50, BottomTop,LeftTicks);
yaxis("$y$",ymin=0, ymax=5, LeftRight,RightTicks);
draw(graph(f,1,50));
They also talk about the law of diminishing returns. Not only do you limit the number of tools you use, you also optimize their use. Unoptimized, you sit at the left side of the curve for diminishing returns. That leaves a lot of room for value extraction.
Rule 3: act with intention
They attempt to make a case that approaching decisions with intention is as important or perhaps more important than making the right decision. I beleive this is due to the centering of your own values in your mind, and looking at things through the lens of those values.