Rethinking my Place Online
My online presence is what any 20-something would likely consider limited. I do not have a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok account. This is deliberate. I am of an age now (35) that it’s not an absolute requirement for me to have a thriving (or, in the very least, consistent) social media life in order to maintain integral personal relationships and a satisfactory “IRL” social network. Full disclosure: I do have a LinkedIn and YouTube account (more on that later).
At one time, I counted myself amongst the legions of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accountees. Alas, I found I was spending most of my time “consuming” information, posts, pictures, and the like, rather than contributing material and came to the conclusion that this wasn’t serving me in any real substantive way. I’m sure Facebook would happily challenge me on this, most likely noting that a truly meaningful social media experience is predicated on personal contribution. And honestly, they might be right. But I will assert confidently that spending less time on social media has minimized often passive and fleeting distractions in my life and has led to a more simplified existence. Of course, I don’t actually have quantitative data that proves that I am, in any meaningful way, less distracted than I was before my social media hiatus. My weekly iPhone screen time reports kindly remind me that I spend plenty of time staring blankly at a screen. I could blame COVID, but that would only serve as a convenient truth. If I were to be honest, even before the pandemic, I would say the bulk of my bedtime hours were occupied watching one of the following on YouTube (callback!): tiny house tours, NBA bubble highlights, or Mass Appeal’s Rhythm Roulette. This list for me, as I am sure for you, changes often.
It is important for me to note that I have absolutely nothing against social media. Sure, some folks (presumably older, but I could be wrong) confidently make assertions that this cultural paradigm shift is detrimental to the very fabric of a cooperative society. And there might be some truth to that. Evidence has shown that there may be a causal relationship between social media use and feelings of loneliness and depression. A 2018 study from the University of Pennsylvania suggests as much. And you don’t need to be a psychologist to know that we have a mental health crisis on our hands. With that said, it is important to point out that history is full of bold claims that some technological shift would undo the civilized world. We know this because the world hasn’t undone itself completely (our current predicament notwithstanding). And we know that we know this because we share ideas and discuss information which, in turn, is a practical and effective use of social media. I recall an apt quote on the state of technology in a documentary that I can’t reference and was half-paying attention to at the time: “Don’t evaluate technology in terms of bad or good. Instead, focus on whether it is powerful or not.” I don’t think anyone would argue that social media is not powerful. Even after considering the exhaustive commentary surrounding it, social media is likely much more powerful than we know. And who’s to say when we’ll know?
As a person of my seemingly private disposition, I simply wasn’t finding personal utility in the kind of online presence that Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter were offering. And keeping appearances on social media apps can be draining, especially for a perfectionist who isn’t predisposed to sharing their personal life. For professional reasons, I have LinkedIn (second callback!) and have gotten good use of it. I am accustomed to sharing stories/ideas by means that semi-harken back to a previous era: phone call, newspaper, in-person, etc. I say “semi” because phone calls are mostly FaceTimes (especially during COVID), newspapers are online publications, and in-person is really Zoom meetings (also, COVID). Again no value judgement here. I don’t take issue with Facebook or Twitter on the basis of social interaction (privacy concerns might be a different story). I just simply felt that I didn’t NEED them in order to feel fulfilled and “in-the-know.”
Times may have changed.
As is an all-too-familiar tale, I am switching careers in light of COVID fallout (potentially more on that in future posts). Where I was once comfortably situated in a career in higher education, I am now looking forward to the always burgeoning field of software engineering. I am truly enjoying what I am learning so far. For the first time in longer than I care to admit, I am eager to put in as much time as possible to learn more. And this has me rethinking “utility.” I can say based on early impressions (from this novice) that, if nothing else, the software engineering community is COLLABORATIVE. And obviously the best way to be collaborative is to be present in spaces intended for collaboration (obviously looking at you, GitHub). So, along with everything else, my outlook is changing too. It sounds pretty self-evident, but the more I learn, the more I’ll know. After all, it is not lost on me that this seemingly private person just wrote an online blog post.
