Like you, I felt I couldn't live without it. And, as Millennials who grew up "live" as this tech was being developed and promoted as a means of connecting the world, it's innate in us to turn to social channels. (Our colleague, Matt Pittman at UT, may have very good thoughts on this by the way; he's the man behind the staged viral UT TikTok moments). But the tech companies, as companies do, once confident they had an addicted and loyal userbase, started messing with us, and it's not the same. We've been duped by the algorithms. We live in echo chambers.
I have FOMO largely because of the stories of Great Successes made via social media. Many writers owe their fame to a viral post. But these are needles in the haystack, really. I don't think the addiction is worth it.
I try to measure my time on Facebook/Twitter/IG/YouTube against the time spent doing other worthwhile things, or with worthwhile people. How much time is dedicated to silly videos, or scrolling, or news-fueled rage, vs. time spent reading classics, drawing with my daughter, talking with my wife about our children's development, etc.
Yes, we will miss out. It may affect our careers. But I do think that there's something special about human-to-human connection we can utilize other digital tools for in a more effective way than regular social media use.
Some of the best thoughts on this topic come from Seth Werkheiser at https://socialmediaescapeclub.substack.com/.
Like you, I felt I couldn't live without it. And, as Millennials who grew up "live" as this tech was being developed and promoted as a means of connecting the world, it's innate in us to turn to social channels. (Our colleague, Matt Pittman at UT, may have very good thoughts on this by the way; he's the man behind the staged viral UT TikTok moments). But the tech companies, as companies do, once confident they had an addicted and loyal userbase, started messing with us, and it's not the same. We've been duped by the algorithms. We live in echo chambers.
I have FOMO largely because of the stories of Great Successes made via social media. Many writers owe their fame to a viral post. But these are needles in the haystack, really. I don't think the addiction is worth it.
I try to measure my time on Facebook/Twitter/IG/YouTube against the time spent doing other worthwhile things, or with worthwhile people. How much time is dedicated to silly videos, or scrolling, or news-fueled rage, vs. time spent reading classics, drawing with my daughter, talking with my wife about our children's development, etc.
Yes, we will miss out. It may affect our careers. But I do think that there's something special about human-to-human connection we can utilize other digital tools for in a more effective way than regular social media use.