Rethinking Social Media in 2022
I joined Facebook on August 1, 2007.
How things have changed since that first post.
In the past 14 years the world has been remade by information technology. Society, culture—even our behaviors and daily rhythms—have been transformed. And it’s hard to argue for the better.
How did we get here? For most of us, by accident.
As Cal Newport writes,
“We didn’t sign up for the digital lives we now lead. They were instead, to a large extent, crafted in boardrooms to serve the interests of a select group of technology investors.”1
Who could have predicted how smartphones and social media would change us?
Who would have thought we’d be questioning the meaning of reality itself? Yet here we are. To some degree all of us are now opting out of the physical world for the metaverse.
Public discourse has shifted too. We used to have personal conversations with friends and family whose views differed from our own. Now we post into the void, reshare memes, or sit by ourselves and scroll the timeline.
Is the juice worth the squeeze?
What I love about Facebook is how it’s helped me stay connected with friends and family over the years.
What I hate is the mindless scroll, the shallow posts, and the negativity. Keeping up with friends and family is good, but even that only seems to happen at the surface level.
So I'm reconsidering social media in 2022.
Well, not quite…
But in 2022 I do want more meaningful connections with those who matter most to me, both in my local area and around the world.
And I’ve become convinced Facebook isn’t the best place to accomplish that. I’m not deleting my account but I’ll be spending less time there.
What I’ll be doing instead is writing regularly. I like Substack because it helps me process my thoughts and allows readers to engage in the conversation.
So if you’d like to connect with me more in the coming year, this is a good place to do it. Simply subscribe below.
Here’s to a new year filled with more meaningful connections!
Well said Andrew...in the fall I made a decision to "mostly" call a a handful of people that I know. I will still text but I want most most of my interactions to be via calls.