Disclaimer


The content on this blog is my personal opinion and does not reflect the views of the Department of Defense or the US Navy in any way.


Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Limiting Social Media Use

Various calls to sharply reduce social media use are fairly common, such as this one in the New York Times that argues that we're not using our smartphones the way we should, or this similar piece (about the same author) in the Wall Street Journal

I'm not necessarily the best person to defend social media use, since in many ways I already use it in a fairly limited way. I avoid posting things as they happen, since I prefer to take some time to think about what I want to post and the message it sends. I check it more often than I probably should, but tend to focus on random humor sites rather than checking every minor detail of the news or my social media feeds. So I can understand why a lot of these recommendations get made, and I agree with a lot of them.

That said, I feel like a lot of the arguments in those pieces could fairly be applied to any technology more advanced than a simple calculator. For someone like me whose primary sources of leisure are gaming or watching videos about gaming, the notion that I should back off of all of it just to figure out if I actually want to be doing all this seems a bit off. It's a plausible experiment, but not something that's unique to a technological obsession.

Similar concerns apply to work productivity. I can see how focusing on good and useful communication is important... but for someone who works with people around the world on a regular basis, asking to do that without technological assistance simply isn't going to happen.

So while a lot of it is good and useful advice, I think it's important not to get too wrapped up in the notion that technology is ruining our lives.

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