tech talk 2: on having an intentional relationship with social media
8 actionable ways to make social media useful to you, and not the other way around
Reading Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport at the height of the COVID pandemic was a pivotal point in my relationship with social media. No longer did I see these apps as gateways to entertainment and knowledge, but rather insidious tendrils of addiction, corruption, and what we now call, brain rot. Social media’s origin wasn’t born out of evil, however. Its purpose was to bring people from different walks of life together, in communal digital spaces where they could build community without having to attend social gatherings filled with extroverted people or wait a week or more for a response by mail. With that being said, social media use from when millennials were in their adolescence is starkly different from the way teenagers are utilizing social media now. The transformation from using technology for the sole purpose of chatting with friends to now one built off of strategized engagement, face filters, and marked over-consumption is one we should not take lightly.
I am not here to tell you to do a social media detox. We have Mr. Newport for that. I am here to tell you that there is a way to get back to how you used to be (if you are a millennial), or introduce what “normal” social media consumption looks like (if you were born later).
