On social media

I wear glasses. I have an eye impairment. Glasses are amazing. A roughly 500-year technology that still amuses me when I upgrade my glass number (after my eyes downgrade). Seeing things crystal clear is a luxury that helped people like mine with some particular type of biological impairment to move on.

Technologies/tools can reopen paths to missed stuff, like seeing the world clearly. They may as well make paths to previously inaccessible, which is slightly tricker than their remedial analog. If something needs a fix, you invent the technology to fix it, and it’s done. On the contrary, with tools which bring new concepts to life, there’s no unique endpoint: If I tell you, “son, you can fly now”, you could stay anywhere between being on the ground up to Icarus-level height.

That’s OK, though. Because we approach these tools with different goals. Yet, we are forgetful species, aren’t we? At least, I am (and I hope I’m not an anomaly). So much that I see myself lurking, scrolling, and surfing here and there, without any purpose.¹ So, what I come up with, you ask? Categorizing them into what they offer! Example, you want? Sure.

• LinkedIn: Only use the job section, sometimes messaging. Never look at the feed and turn off ALL the notifs.
• YouTube: Never visit it unless you want to see a particular video; Never browse and turn off ALL the notifs.
• Twitter: Never read the tweets that Twitter brings to you. Instead, read the tweets from those you have followed, and you want to read their opinion. Turn off ALL the notifs. Also, use the web version.
• Instagram: Just don’t use it.
• Facebook: Just don’t use it. But, if you have one, keep an eye on the company’s policies. They have had questionable ones before.
• …

This actually works quite well for me. Whenever I need a job, I open up LinkedIn, search a bit, and then flee. Whenever I want to update myself from the discourse in some community, I check Twitter, check their tweets, and flee. Whenever I need to learn something, I don’t even visit YouTube! Instead, search in DuckDuckGo’s videos and look at the video on the search environment, thus no need to flee.

In a nutshell, I identify my need, take the one with the correct number, use it, and then take it off.²