Social media has some serious flaws, no doubt, but there is still a lot of good to be found on there. I enjoy seeing what my friends are up to and celebrating or grieving as we all go through life together.
The problem, as social media sites are specifically designed to do, is that we can get sucked in and spend way too much time on them. In her book “A Minute to Think”, author Juliet Funt offers a simple concept to fight this:
We need to find the middle place. Some way to take little compartmentalized sips in our social channels but not lose ourselves in the process.
In my world, thanks in part to that book, I’m noticing a pull in a few different directions. I’m generally pretty good about limiting my time on social media, but I often fill it all with different forms of learning — reading, Anki, Readwise, podcasts, and a bunch of other tools. Those can be great, but leaving some space for literally nothing can often be the best thing that we do.
Lately, I’ve been trying to spend some of my driving time in that “nothing” zone — no radio, no podcasts, just nothing. It’s a bit weird and unnerving, but can lead to some awesome trains of thought.
The balance between learning, social media, and doing nothing is a tricky one to balance, but it’s something I fight hard to do. I have great people in my life that are examples of all three, so finding the space between them can be magic in those times I’m able to do it right.
The book Digital Minimalism lead me to a similar relationship with social media. I reduced my time on social media and upped my time on “craft” such as wood woodworking and other skill building hobbies. And I my “nothing zone” times are my daily walks (though Cal Newport calls it solitude time).
That’s a great way to make the shift. Simply dropping social media would be very tough, but finding something to fill that space is key.