Day 894 - Social media: Distraction vs serendipity - https://golifelog.com/posts/social-media-distraction-vs-serendipity-1686637765574
This tweet got me thinking more favourably of the amount of time I spend on Twitter and other social media channels:
> every time i’m close to shutting myself out from my twitter account because it’s a huge distraction - i remind myself of all the serendipity i have gained from the hours "wasted" on here. god damn. – [@chburdett](https://twitter.com/chburdett/status/1668280169470083078?s=20)
I think social media has a bad rep. Unfortunately. People blame it for lack of productivity, distraction, noise, bluelight, sleep deficiency. It's the poster child for mental health problems. The black sheep of the internet.
Yet, if we recognize it as a tool, we will realise that we can use a tool for distraction, or for serendipity, to bring about more connection, opportunity, learning. Yet no one talks about the latter.
Every phone now has screentime app to track how much time you're on your phone, yet no metric can tell you if that's time well spent or not. It's not about absolute screentime. It's about the quality. If it's time spent on connecting with people you love or want to learn from; if it's for learning and growth; if it's to access more opportunities and capital; then those hours are worthwhile.
If you're using it well, for serendipity, the more screentime the better (of course, within reasonable limits)!
In fact, that's how I've been using my social media lately. All the platforms that I used to use for distraction, are now 99% used for productivity, for my goals. I use Facebook, Reddit for providing informal Carrd support. Telegram groups to form good habits like keto, sleep biohacking. LinkedIn for consulting. Twitter and Substack for building in public, and collective learning from other indie peers.
The only barrier is: The platforms are built for distraction, not serendipity, not learning. It takes effort to curate your feed full of people you can learn from than people you want to argue with or show off to. That alone puts most people off, as they see and use social media for entertainment, not education. They let the algo use them, not use the algo. Most do not even consider it as a useful tool. It's a shame, a huge wasted opportunity.
Use social media for distraction, or for serendipity: The choice and power is yours.
> every time i’m close to shutting myself out from my twitter account because it’s a huge distraction - i remind myself of all the serendipity i have gained from the hours "wasted" on here. god damn. – [@chburdett](https://twitter.com/chburdett/status/1668280169470083078?s=20)
I think social media has a bad rep. Unfortunately. People blame it for lack of productivity, distraction, noise, bluelight, sleep deficiency. It's the poster child for mental health problems. The black sheep of the internet.
Yet, if we recognize it as a tool, we will realise that we can use a tool for distraction, or for serendipity, to bring about more connection, opportunity, learning. Yet no one talks about the latter.
Every phone now has screentime app to track how much time you're on your phone, yet no metric can tell you if that's time well spent or not. It's not about absolute screentime. It's about the quality. If it's time spent on connecting with people you love or want to learn from; if it's for learning and growth; if it's to access more opportunities and capital; then those hours are worthwhile.
If you're using it well, for serendipity, the more screentime the better (of course, within reasonable limits)!
In fact, that's how I've been using my social media lately. All the platforms that I used to use for distraction, are now 99% used for productivity, for my goals. I use Facebook, Reddit for providing informal Carrd support. Telegram groups to form good habits like keto, sleep biohacking. LinkedIn for consulting. Twitter and Substack for building in public, and collective learning from other indie peers.
The only barrier is: The platforms are built for distraction, not serendipity, not learning. It takes effort to curate your feed full of people you can learn from than people you want to argue with or show off to. That alone puts most people off, as they see and use social media for entertainment, not education. They let the algo use them, not use the algo. Most do not even consider it as a useful tool. It's a shame, a huge wasted opportunity.
Use social media for distraction, or for serendipity: The choice and power is yours.