Social media always feels like an unwinnable battle that must always be fought. Like Twitter, which is simultaneously incredibly interesting and utterly derailing - a raging blizzard of timeless wisdom and inconsequential ephemera, always moving so fast that it quickly strips away a sense of agency you had over your day. This from Kathryn Schultz (author of that amazing "big one" earthquake essay about the Pacific seaboard) perfectly sums up my love-hate tussle with it: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2013/11/how-i-learned-to-love-twitter.html
The Centre For Humane Technology has a podcast called Your Undivided Attention, all about what addictive tech, including social media, is doing and why - and again and again, it makes the point that we can't leave it up to the big tech companies when it comes to defining healthy habits. There is *huge* incentive for them in the short term to keep us unhealthily hooked - so without going all conspiracy-theorist about it, we need to set our own rules.
One I've always thought might work is around the question "Am I working?" This may only work for writers and information workers, but - before going on social media, you set an alarm on your phone to go off every 15 minutes. When the alarm sounds, you ask yourself "Am I doing something truly useful here?" and if you *meant* to be doing something useful, it's time to 'fess up to yourself why you're wasting time and what the hell you are supposed to be doing here. Pattern-interrupts are the enemy of slot-machine manufacturers in Vegas, and they are the enemy of tech companies with problematic ethical standards. Anything that trips you out of the flow state of doomscrolling etc. has to be a good thing.
So much to mull over in here! I'm excited to read the article you mention and to check out the podcast. I also love this idea of regularly checking in to ask ourselves whether or not we're working. I feel much better about my time on social media when I go there with a point, like checking for jobs in Facebook groups or looking for a source on Twitter. But ALSO, I wonder if it might be helpful to reframe that around whether or not we're being productive. I think it's easy to fall into the trap of defining our worth and the worth of our activities based on how much we're "working" in the traditional, capitalist sense of producing something or doing something that will directly make us money. But we can also be working, or being productive, towards personal/emotional/inspirational benefits. And as writers, those often come back around to "working" in production/money-making sense because work is often all tangled up in the personal, emotional, inspiration, etc.
This essay is so good. And I'm so torn about social media -- because everything you say here *is* true, and I do NOT spend the first hour of my day reading books and magazines. I open my eyes and turn directly to my phone, and I KNOW it affects my attention span.
And yet. And yet! Someone I now consider one of my very best friends -- the person I emailed my will to in a fit of irrational flying fear -- is someone I met on social media. And particularly as a writer, and one who tackles personal/intense topics on the regular, I do have readers reach out to me via social medai to say "Thank you" or "What about this?" or "Me too." It's complicated. I think a lot of it comes down to two things you mention here: A) limits and boundaries (I am so so bad at those in ALL parts of my life) and also B) authenticity. So glad & proud to be your friend both online and off. <3
This is so true, Jamie. Social media can be a place of genuine connection. I'm so glad we've had the chance to connect online and off. And also yes yes about the connection to readers as well! When someone reaches out to say they liked something or related or thank you, it's such a vital reminder that there are real people on the other end of what we write and our words can actually have an impact. And that would be so much harder to find without social media.
I know it's ironic to link to a tweet here, but it seems we were thinking about the same thing yesterday: https://twitter.com/lylemckeany/status/1391401654075879426?s=20
Yes! That tweet is *chef's kiss* TRUTH.
Social media always feels like an unwinnable battle that must always be fought. Like Twitter, which is simultaneously incredibly interesting and utterly derailing - a raging blizzard of timeless wisdom and inconsequential ephemera, always moving so fast that it quickly strips away a sense of agency you had over your day. This from Kathryn Schultz (author of that amazing "big one" earthquake essay about the Pacific seaboard) perfectly sums up my love-hate tussle with it: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2013/11/how-i-learned-to-love-twitter.html
The Centre For Humane Technology has a podcast called Your Undivided Attention, all about what addictive tech, including social media, is doing and why - and again and again, it makes the point that we can't leave it up to the big tech companies when it comes to defining healthy habits. There is *huge* incentive for them in the short term to keep us unhealthily hooked - so without going all conspiracy-theorist about it, we need to set our own rules.
One I've always thought might work is around the question "Am I working?" This may only work for writers and information workers, but - before going on social media, you set an alarm on your phone to go off every 15 minutes. When the alarm sounds, you ask yourself "Am I doing something truly useful here?" and if you *meant* to be doing something useful, it's time to 'fess up to yourself why you're wasting time and what the hell you are supposed to be doing here. Pattern-interrupts are the enemy of slot-machine manufacturers in Vegas, and they are the enemy of tech companies with problematic ethical standards. Anything that trips you out of the flow state of doomscrolling etc. has to be a good thing.
Time I gave it a try. Thanks for the reminder. :)
So much to mull over in here! I'm excited to read the article you mention and to check out the podcast. I also love this idea of regularly checking in to ask ourselves whether or not we're working. I feel much better about my time on social media when I go there with a point, like checking for jobs in Facebook groups or looking for a source on Twitter. But ALSO, I wonder if it might be helpful to reframe that around whether or not we're being productive. I think it's easy to fall into the trap of defining our worth and the worth of our activities based on how much we're "working" in the traditional, capitalist sense of producing something or doing something that will directly make us money. But we can also be working, or being productive, towards personal/emotional/inspirational benefits. And as writers, those often come back around to "working" in production/money-making sense because work is often all tangled up in the personal, emotional, inspiration, etc.
This essay is so good. And I'm so torn about social media -- because everything you say here *is* true, and I do NOT spend the first hour of my day reading books and magazines. I open my eyes and turn directly to my phone, and I KNOW it affects my attention span.
And yet. And yet! Someone I now consider one of my very best friends -- the person I emailed my will to in a fit of irrational flying fear -- is someone I met on social media. And particularly as a writer, and one who tackles personal/intense topics on the regular, I do have readers reach out to me via social medai to say "Thank you" or "What about this?" or "Me too." It's complicated. I think a lot of it comes down to two things you mention here: A) limits and boundaries (I am so so bad at those in ALL parts of my life) and also B) authenticity. So glad & proud to be your friend both online and off. <3
This is so true, Jamie. Social media can be a place of genuine connection. I'm so glad we've had the chance to connect online and off. And also yes yes about the connection to readers as well! When someone reaches out to say they liked something or related or thank you, it's such a vital reminder that there are real people on the other end of what we write and our words can actually have an impact. And that would be so much harder to find without social media.