In this week’s readings, we had two different excerpts from Cal Newport’s writing. Both pertain to social media and how to take back your time from its grip. For the most part, I basically agree with his advice; when you use social media, you should do it critically. Pay attention to how you spend your time, respect your time and ask if happiness you get from connecting online is worth all the negatives attached to your time on apps and websites. Newport kind of curbs his suggestion to quit social media and instead gives solutions to be more productive with how you use it. He compares the Internet to craftsmen’s tools and asks the reader to weigh the pros and the cons of what they get out of using social media.
One thing that kind of struck me as odd, though, was Newport seemed to see little to no value in online community. Most of his examples either pertained to social media in a professional sense or staying in touch with close friends and family. His advice was, in so many words, to limit your social media use to only tools that directly impact your career or taking the time to connect with the people closest to you in person. While that is solid advice, I was left wondering if he had ever had an “internet friend.”
I know his writing is focused on bettering your work and not personal relationships, but I honestly think some online communities have the ability to be supportive and helpful, providing motivation to practice a craft you may not have had otherwise.
I don’t know how old Mr. Newport is but I get the feeling he missed the age range that experienced the vast array of online forums. I keep thinking back to a reading we did earlier, The Web We Need to Save. Hossein Derakhshan’s experience really stuck with me because his recollection of the web as a vast network of blogs, threads and forums related to my formative years on the Internet. Niche groups used to gather on message boards and discuss anything from television shows to building computers. People would code entire Flash video games for their friends to play. Pages and pages of thoughtful, detailed writing have been dedicated to fan theories. People became gallery-worthy artists after hours of drawing fan art.
I used to be a part of so many livejournal groups, sharing my (looking back, very embarrassing) poetry and reading and critiquing others’ writing. I used to spend hours poring over my writing, putting more effort into it than I did in any class in high school, because I wanted to impress a group of people I had never met before but respected a lot. People I would never meet, living in Scotland or China, thoughtfully read everything I had to say and offered up their own insights on how to grow my writing. I sorely miss the freedom of the early internet, when we were all typing into the void and trying to find people who shared similar interests.
During my related reading for class, I found an article spotlighting a web series, Preserving Worlds, that documents dying or defunct online communities. Many of the websites, like World’s Chat and Second Life, were examples of the boundless imagination and work people put into passion projects during the early era of the internet. More than nostalgia, the series reminds the viewer of a time when users were creators and not just data. One thing that really struck me was a lot of these websites were not incredibly functional to begin with, but the community took it upon themselves to grow the sites and improve their usability.
Even though the web has shrunk considerably, I think pockets of interactions like this still exist. Reddit gets an understandably bad rap, but there are still niche subgroups that productively support each other and grow together. I think Cal Newport is right in most of his criticisms of social media and I think the type of online community I’m feeling nostalgic is mostly a thing of the past at this point, but we do still have the ability to carve out our own little meeting spots on the Internet. Using the Internet critically doesn’t have to mean giving up on it; we can take control back. Following the craftsman’s approach to tool selection, I think a strong community of diverse people who share a passion can have a positive impact on your work.
Images from Preserving Worlds Episode 1 by Derek Murphy and Mitchell Zemil
Murphy, Derek and Mitchell Zemil, directors. Ep 1 – WorldsChat (Pilot) | Preserving Worlds. Means TV, Youtube, 10 Feb. 2021, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csoKE8T7pBU&t=741s.
Newport, C. (2016). Rule#3: Quit Social Media. In Deep Work (pp. 181 – 214). New York: Grand Central Publishing.
Newport, C. (2020). Join the Attention Resistance. In Digital Minimalism (pp. 213 – 248). Penguin Books Ltdg.
Schindel, Dan. “Exploring the Abandoned Spaces of the Internet.” Hyperallergic, Veken Gueyikian, 23 Feb. 2021, hyperallergic.com/623695/preserving-worlds-means-tv/.
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