#303: I Say 'Yes', Then 'No'
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The novelist, professor, and critic, Claire Massud, interviewed in Guernica, describes modern social media as a huge distraction, draining us of our own thoughts:
" I also see the advent first of the Internet, but then more perniciously of the smartphone, as being distractions. ...It’s like the grout between the tiles. It fills up any space that you might have to be bored, to be curious, to be daydreaming, to be inventing something or just thinking, with photos on Instagram or that stupid little fruit game or whatever it is that people do with their phones."
There is, of course, some truth to this. Everyone regrets at least one wasted moment, or lost month in some cases. I can remember spending an entire day laboriously evaluating entries in a competition (something like 'New ideas for a better future'), that relied on all entrants grading other entries to establish a winner; and then the sponsor declared it a failed experiment soon after my 12+ hours. But, as with most things, what you get out of our modern internet is what you put in. And by 'put in' I mean the framework of limitations one uses, and the thoughtfulness of approach one employs.
For example, I have no hard and fast rule, but I generally watch about a half-hour of television per day (while eating dinner--preparing dinner is when I chat). Likewise, I generally limit myself to about one hour per day on Twitter (while eating a leisurely breakfast). When I post on Twitter, I don't usually combine it with reading posts from others. And I follow just 14 people, mostly journalists, so I get my news that way too. And, I've recently been limiting Facebook to about an hour a month (this is partly anger at Facebook's blind eye to disinformation, and partly a lack of time). So, instead of doom-scrolling, playing games and the like (not so many years ago I played a farm-puzzle game for 20 minutes every night), I browse dozens of newsletters and their linked articles, looking for the most exciting material, then I bookmark for when I have time. And this is all on a desktop computer. The only time I use my phone for an internet connection is when I'm waiting at a doctor's office, for example. Likewise, the only time I listen to music over the internet is again, on my desktop.
But getting back to what the internet and social media have to offer. I can remember as a junior high student poring over an encyclopedia, reading factual information about China's Cultural Revolution, for example. It was interesting, sure, but these days, getting to add my two cents to an article, and getting to send the link to all my friends? That is just totally awesome.
Awesomeness spelled out:
1. Agency. Teens might explain it this way: School tells me what to study, my friends tell me what's cool, religion tells me what to believe, pop culture tells me what's hot, but on my phone, I alone am in command.
2. Timing. A common snub is to refer to something as enabling instant gratification. And there's obviously something to that, as waiting is perhaps the most under-appreciated ability. But, a little noticed fact of our modern lives is that we now keep time in a synchronized manner, impossible as recently as 10-20 years ago (an Apple computer I bought in 2009 was not synched, time-wise, and was usually off by a minute or two). So, time itself is something we can now imbue with meaning. A time stamp can even be referenced: "Hey, this is the exact minute your birth certificate says you were born." And, of course there's the welcome variety of timing: messages that soon disappear, texts that can wait hours, postings that can wait days.
3. Contact. I can remember, prior to the internet, trying to contact opinion page writers with questions and comments on their published ideas. I even received letters in reply in some cases (the foreign policy historian / expert, George Kennan, for instance). But I went to a lot of trouble to contact such people, certainly more trouble than pushing a 'Contact Us' button on a website. Plus, without Google to direct me, how would I be able to find other writers on a topic that interested me? I wouldn't. And turning from people to things, places, photos and discussions, one can find what one is looking for at the snap of a finger.
4. Participation. An important step up for children/teens, compared to pre-internet.
There's probably very interesting research to be done with people who, as children, watched very little TV, compared to those who watched a lot. I imagine we'd find that an only child benefits from TV, while not so much for children in large families. And it's probably the same for the internet and social media. Texting a friend for the first time, and receiving a return message in reply, is so wonderful, not because you don't also communicate verbally, but because it means one is included in a consciously made partnership. Communicating with those outside one's family is a relatively big step into the world of increasingly unrecognizable contexts, steps that only get more challenging as life unfolds. The fact that we can begin to make social decisions on our own at a relatively early age is surely a great advantage if enough supervision is available, when needed.
5. Expression. A teen can sit in front of a TV, soaking up all the dialog, acting, and distant settings one encounters on a typical show, but it's only when decisions are made: Where do I want to go on the internet? What music do I want to listen to? Who do I want to text, and what do I want to say? that a mind begins to take shape. Later in life, the ability to share what makes us happy, and to do so easily, is such a blessing. Writing, photography, video, music and other common art forms--we'd be so much poorer without social media.
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