„Technology has turned human distraction into its metric of profit.“ (The Economist, 2017)
According to the article, big entertainment companies such as Disney, Facebook (Instagram) and Google (YouTube) are fighting for our limited time and attention, using different well-known methods as recommendation algorithms, digital rankings and an ever-growing amount of choices. Worldwide, the usage of social media increased by 21% in the last year, reaching almost 2.8bn people (Hootsuite, 2017). For many of us, a life without social media is not possible or at least not imaginable.
This TED talk highlights the experience of the computer scientist Dr. Cal Newport who had never had a social media account and who invalidates the standard arguments speaking against quitting social media. Before doing so, he states “I think that I’m actually better off, I think I’m happier, I think I find more sustainability in my life, and I think I’ve been more successful professionally because I don’t use social media”.
So how does he tackle the three most common objections to social media?
- Objection: Social media is one of the fundamental technologies of the 21. Century, to reject social media would be an act of extreme bloodism.
Here, the speaker highlights that social media is not a fundamental technology, it leverages some key technologies. Due to the public usage of attention engineering, he categorizes social media as an unsavory source of entertainment with a high addiction potential through which companies such as Facebook try to maximize their advertising profits.
- Objection: “I can’t quit social media because it is vital to my success in the 21st-century If I do not have a well-cultivated social media brand, people won’t know who I am, people won’t be able to find me (…), and I will effectively disappear from the economy.”
The speaker states that the market values the ability to produce rare and valuable things and dismisses activities that are easy to replicate and only provide a small amount of value. Consequently, he underlines that the market will reward deep, concentrated work required to build and apply real skills need to produce or create things.
- Objection: Social media is harmless, fun, interesting to try, I don’t use it that much, I’m a first adopter, and I might miss out something if I don’t use it.
Finally, Newport emphasizes that social media leads to several, well-documented and significant harms such as the permanent reduction of concentration abilities, increasing psychological damages (e.g., feelings of loneliness, isolation, and depression) and further anxiety-related disorders.
In consequence, he indicates that quitting social media leads to more productivity caused by a higher concentration.
Personally, I agree with his three explanations made above and support the general movement to decrease our usage of social media technologies. Nevertheless, he fails to mention which alternative methods he uses to stay for example in contact with his international friends and connections. Similar to my previous blog post, I think that the usage of any kind of technology (including social media) depends on the individual estimation of personal cost and benefit. Personally, the aspect of cost which he mentions in his third point was not that clear to me before. Moreover, I’m determined that concentration is one of our most important assets and we should be aware how and where we employ it. But what do you think about that? How would you evaluate the cost and the benefits of your personal social media usage?
tl;dr: The success and profit of social media platforms heavily depend on its user’s attention, resulting in the construction of addictive attraction schemes on the platform. Despite the common perception, an (apparently even better) life without social media is possible resulting in a more concentrated, productive and happier lifestyle. Overall this post calls attention to a more conscious use of social media and being aware of its costs.
Sources
Hootsuite. (2017). New Research Reveals Global Social Media Use Increased by 21 Percent in 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2017, from https://hootsuite.com/de/newsroom/press-releases/digital-in-2017-report
The Economist. (2017). The battle for consumers’ attention. Retrieved 2 October 2017, from https://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21716460-forget-long-tail-battle-consumers-attention
