Social Media Was a Mistake

I’ve been going back and forth on this for several years, but I think I’ve finally arrived at the conclusion that social media ( in it’s current form, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc) was a mistake.

It’s a poor substitute for relationships. It’s a poor substitute for a healthy information diet. It’s a poor substitute for pretty much everything it’s trying to replace. It benefits the corporations primarily (from what I can see), and keeps us all in a state of low level stress and anxiety (what does everyone else think of me and what I’m doing? What are they doing? Am I missing out? and so on).

If you stop to think deeply about the best ways you could spend your time to reach your goals (assuming you have goals), I think you’ll eventually realize that social media is not anywhere close to the top of the list.

I do think publishing online is a great tool to have, but not in the format that current social media encourages and rewards.

This viewpoint is still developing in my mind (has been for awhile), so here’s the books I’m going to revisit in the coming months:

Deep Work

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Digital Minimalism

Slow Productivity

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