What if you can’t quit social media, because you’re career does depend on it? (Topics, Nov 22)

Yeah, I know - another edition? Well, I’m experimenting. 

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Today I have just one Topic: Quit Social Media. Your Career May Depend on It. This advice, from Professor Cal Newport in the New York Times, may seem counter-intuitive. 

Which is exactly the point. Running against the flow of the tide, going a different direction to the herd, is exactly how you will cultivate your own personal uniqueness.

So I thought I’d experiment with a different type of enewsletter by riffing off this:

“the market rewards things that are rare and valuable. Social media use is decidedly not … Any 16-year-old with a smartphone can invent a hashtag … The idea that if you engage in enough of this low-value activity, it will somehow add up to something of high value in your career is dubious”

I joined Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn in 2007. I’m still there, and have kicked the tyres of most other platforms since. 

Have we been wasting our time? 

For me, the answer is No and Yes. 

No, because I am supposed to know something about communications, which means deep familiarity with these platforms. Newport’s post is best aimed at people in other professions who try to ‘build their career’ via social media, rather than building actually useful skills and experience.

And Yes, because I have tried 'building my career’ via social media. I don’t think it’s working. I do get work through people reading my blogs, which is where I get my serious thinking done, but the real benefit of blogging is that it forces you to think originally in the first place*.

Social media doesn’t make you think, it just makes you click. It does help you get those original thoughts out there, but nobody will ever offer you serious work just because you connected on LinkedIn.

Or, as Newport puts it:

“As you become more valuable to the marketplace, good things will find you… you don’t need social media’s help to attract them“

Mitigate the damage

Moreover, think of the damage social media is doing to you:

the ability to concentrate without distraction … is becoming increasingly valuable … Social media weakens this skill because it’s engineered to be addictive … cultivating your social media brand is fundamentally passive … diverts your time and attention away from producing work that matters …

I came to some similar conclusions a while ago (see January’s Where is social media taking you in 2016?). But I sort of have to be on social media, and so can’t just quit.

But I can mitigate this damage. Hence my previous newsletter (Nurture your mind) which (inter alia!), highlighted my continuing struggle with controlling social media’s pernicious effects. 

But the last word should stay Newport’s:

If you’re serious about making an impact in the world, power down your smartphone, close your browser tabs, roll up your sleeves and get to work.