Problems of an Overly Connected World
What is the future of society's interactions with the growth of the connectivity?
With great technology comes great responsibility...Distractions
My most life-changing book may be “Deep Work” by Cal Newport. I had my apprehensions while reading the book. It seemed very entrepreneurial focused at first with many examples of its implementation being in business practices. I’m not a business guy, but I kept on reading ahead. Newport makes some great points about the lost of deep thoughts in substitution of more “connectivity”.
Prior to, I haven’t thought of this idea of deep working. My days were often distracted from Youtube or Instagram and my hobbies weren’t getting the attention they needed. The book shows many examples of this distracted work where great emphasis is placed on interactions with other people and immediate communication. Newport is a computer scientist, so it surprised me when he said he disapproved of immediate communication. To me, programming seemed like a social task where people work together to solve a problem. Would quick communication not be beneficial? I felt that society was further advanced by the advent of messaging apps. People could communicate whenever, wherever.
Yet, this interconnectedness led to less work being done. A side effect of this interconnectedness was the new distractions. For example, while writing this essay, I got a notification from an app. I had forgotten to close it out before I started and I foolishly decided to take a quick look to make sure it wasn’t important. I opened up the app and the message didn’t require my immediate feedback, but I responded anyway. This commanded my attention for a solid 3 minutes. Following my response, I closed the app and switched my attention back to the task at hand. This required a shift in attention and the quality of this attention went back to ground zero.
In the past, telegraphs and letters were the main methods of communication. Telegraphs were mainly used by professionals and the average person had to go to a special place to ask for a telegraph to be sent out. Letters were much more time-consuming to send and made for long waits in between messages. The messages sent did not need a quick response. We need to recognize that instant communication is a relatively new invention and humans.
I see now what Newport was referring to on deep work. I may not be a business guy, but the power of your attention is a universal benefit to your life. People in the past didn’t need to communicate quickly and we don’t need to right now. We don’t need to be connected all of the time.
Communication
I was born after the internet boom and I do not know a world without it. Most people I know are under the same circumstances. Being born into this unique time frame, I have a unique point of view. I am not exaggerating when I say some people really do go on their phones all the time. In my high school, they are on the phone when the teacher is teaching. I am no star student, but this is a new development. I remember my middle school days and how there were more social interactions. Kids weren’t on their phones; instead, they were talking face-to-face with new classmates. Covid didn’t help. It’s been only 4 years since the Covid pandemic, but the lingering effects are still felt today. I don’t want to come off as a “not like the other kids” kind of guy… but it’s certainly a problem if it distills something as important as face-to-face communication.
Of course, people commonly believe that social media is the problem. You can blame social media for the ironic effects of anti-social behavior, but what draws people to using these apps? Two-thirds of Americans say they use it to stay connected to family and friends, but I have to wonder if there’s some other factor.
I am in no way dismissing social media as a valid tool for healthy communication. I realize that in this modern world, families are spread much further apart than in the past and the accessibility of social media communication is a great invention. However, social media is much more than just communication. People use it to “kill time”.
Leisure
One thing that I don’t understand is the idea of “killing time”. Don’t get me wrong; playing games is fun and I do indulge in activities that some may call a “waste of time”. Both of these phrases mean opposite things and I believe they are both stupid. Why would you want to “kill time”? It’s telling when people want to speed up their limited lifespan.
As David Perell put it, “Work is results-driven. You work towards an outcome, which doubles as the measure for how well you’ve spent your time. In contrast, well-spent leisure should be valuable in itself. Staying active doesn’t guarantee leisure, but it should bring us alive because the heart dies in moments of sloth. If work is guided by utilitarian outcomes, leisure is driven by intuitive awareness. Leisure is not a time to retreat from the world. Rather, it’s a time for poetry, prayer, and philosophy — a chance to reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going.”
Leisure doesn’t need to be mindless lazing around, scrolling on social media. However, social media is a business and the shareholders demand profits. It turns out that people using their apps for long periods means more profit. Advertising companies want to advertise on apps users spend long hours on. When algorithms are formed to prioritize the amount of time spent on these apps, the users begin to lose any benefits. Algorithms boost content that keeps people on the app, which doesn’t necessarily translate to quality.
Social media isn’t all bad.
I see it as a way to learn and to entertain. There’s a whole bunch of dedicated people skilled and knowledgeable in a wide range of topics. But what happens when one goes too far off into the extreme? People must understand that there is no real predecessor to this. We must be vigilant in how we use our technology to live a healthy and balanced life.