Two decades ago, before social media existed, Zygmunt Bauman articulated a perfect description of how it would soon shape our behavior and frame our relationships to one another.
Excellent piece. I’ve thought about these things a lot and your piece articulates things I’ve struggled to.
A couple of questions sparked from this post:
1. Why exist online at all? Seems harder and harder to do, but is it worth it? Saw a study that showed that people who don’t use social media slept better. For many of us, knowledge workers especially, this is not an option. Software still has much of the world left to eat.
2. How to develop intentionality around *how* online we are, especially in the face of habit-forming algorithms? I predict the algos are only going to become more addictive, and the big players will continue to gobble up the remaining digital commons that exist.
Thanks Alex. I have a conflicted relationship to the internet myself, as this post probably alludes. Before the pandemic I was trying pretty hard (not successfully) to minimize my social media time, keep the apps at arm's length, etc, but the quarantine obviously made that less of a viable option. It still feels great to disconnect and to capture that feeling of "the internet isn't real life" but's it's increasingly hard to pretend that a growing portion of reality isn't happening on the internet. This is all even more true if you're publishing content or trying to cultivate any sort of audience. I'm much less able to imagine fully unplugging/disconnecting than I was a year and a half ago, but on the other hand I have many friends who have done it and they seem happy! To your point #2, I think there are lots of ways to inhabit the internet in a more healthy way and ensure that it doesn't melt our brains (I still mostly keep the Twitter app off my phone, for example - that has worked well for me).
Yeah, I have friends who swear by using IG by desktop only–seems like a good idea. I am forever trying to stick to good "being online" habits/hygiene, but a lot of the time I'm not sure where to draw the line.
good list. i know i should do all of those things but am horrible at doing so (especially the 1-2 hrs before bed thing, pretty sure ive never achieved that)
Excellent piece. I’ve thought about these things a lot and your piece articulates things I’ve struggled to.
A couple of questions sparked from this post:
1. Why exist online at all? Seems harder and harder to do, but is it worth it? Saw a study that showed that people who don’t use social media slept better. For many of us, knowledge workers especially, this is not an option. Software still has much of the world left to eat.
2. How to develop intentionality around *how* online we are, especially in the face of habit-forming algorithms? I predict the algos are only going to become more addictive, and the big players will continue to gobble up the remaining digital commons that exist.
Thanks Alex. I have a conflicted relationship to the internet myself, as this post probably alludes. Before the pandemic I was trying pretty hard (not successfully) to minimize my social media time, keep the apps at arm's length, etc, but the quarantine obviously made that less of a viable option. It still feels great to disconnect and to capture that feeling of "the internet isn't real life" but's it's increasingly hard to pretend that a growing portion of reality isn't happening on the internet. This is all even more true if you're publishing content or trying to cultivate any sort of audience. I'm much less able to imagine fully unplugging/disconnecting than I was a year and a half ago, but on the other hand I have many friends who have done it and they seem happy! To your point #2, I think there are lots of ways to inhabit the internet in a more healthy way and ensure that it doesn't melt our brains (I still mostly keep the Twitter app off my phone, for example - that has worked well for me).
Yeah, I have friends who swear by using IG by desktop only–seems like a good idea. I am forever trying to stick to good "being online" habits/hygiene, but a lot of the time I'm not sure where to draw the line.
Made this short list twete: https://twitter.com/alexdw5/status/1407111527224709123?s=20
good list. i know i should do all of those things but am horrible at doing so (especially the 1-2 hrs before bed thing, pretty sure ive never achieved that)