Quit social media | Dr. Cal Newport | TEDxTysons

Summary

In this TEDx talk, the speaker, a millennial computer scientist and author, shares his experience of living without social media and argues that it's not only possible but potentially beneficial. He counters common objections, such as the necessity of social media for professional success and its harmless nature, by highlighting its addictive design and the negative impacts on concentration and mental health. He advocates for a life that values deep work and genuine connections over the distractions of social media.

Takeaways

• 🌟 The speaker, a millennial computer scientist, has never had a social media account and advocates for others to consider quitting social media.
• 🔍 Social media is not a fundamental technology but an entertainment product, often compared to slot machines due to their addictive nature.
• 🚫 Rejecting social media is not an extreme act but a personal choice, similar to preferring one form of media over another.
• 💡 Success in the 21st-century economy is not tied to social media presence but to the ability to produce rare and valuable work.
• 🌐 Markets value deep, concentrated work that builds real skills, rather than easy-to-replicate activities like social media use.
• 🛑 Social media use can have significant negative impacts on professional success and the ability to concentrate, which are crucial in a competitive economy.
• 🤔 The harmlessness of social media is questioned, as it brings well-documented psychological harms, such as increased feelings of loneliness and depression.
• 🧠 Constant exposure to intermittent rewards through social media can short-circuit the brain, leading to a pervasive background hum of anxiety.
• 📚 Life without social media can be productive and peaceful, with the ability to focus intensely on work and enjoy restorative leisure time.
• 🌱 The speaker encourages the audience to consider the benefits of quitting social media and to reflect on whether the trade-off is worth it.

Q & A

Why did the speaker choose not to use social media?

The speaker chose not to use social media due to a combination of professional jealousy towards Facebook's early success and a realization of the potential dangers of social media platforms.

How does the speaker describe the impact of social media on professional success?

The speaker argues that social media is not vital for success in the 21st-century economy. Instead, the market values the ability to produce rare and valuable outcomes, which requires deep, concentrated work that social media use can hinder.

What does the speaker suggest is the true nature of social media?

The speaker suggests that social media is not a fundamental technology but an entertainment product designed to be addictive, leveraging users' attention and personal data for profit.

How does the speaker address the common belief that social media is necessary for staying connected and informed?

The speaker counters this belief by sharing his own experience of remaining informed and connected without social media, emphasizing that it is possible to have a fulfilling social and professional life without these platforms.

What are the 'attention engineers' mentioned in the script?

Attention engineers are individuals hired by major social media companies who apply principles from places like Las Vegas casinos to make their products as addictive as possible, aiming to maximize profit from users' attention and data.

How does the speaker describe the potential psychological harms of social media?

The speaker mentions that increased use of social media can lead to feelings of loneliness, isolation, inadequacy, and higher rates of depression. It also disrupts the brain's wiring, leading to a pervasive background hum of anxiety.

What does the speaker suggest is a better use of one's time and attention?

The speaker advocates for deep work, which involves intense concentration on valuable tasks, as this is what the market rewards and what leads to a meaningful and successful professional life.

What is the speaker's vision for the future regarding social media?

The speaker's vision for the future is one where fewer people use social media, as he believes that not using it can lead to a more productive, peaceful, and successful life.

How does the speaker describe the process of quitting social media?

The speaker describes quitting social media as a detox process that can be uncomfortable initially, with the first two weeks being particularly challenging, but after this period, life without social media becomes quite positive.

What are the key points the speaker makes to convince others to consider quitting social media?

The speaker argues that social media is not a fundamental technology, it does not guarantee professional success, it brings real harms, and life without it can be very positive and productive.

What is the speaker's profession and how does it relate to his perspective on social media?

The speaker is a millennial computer scientist and book author, which gives him a unique perspective as he is deeply involved in technology yet chooses not to use social media, highlighting the possibility of success and fulfillment without reliance on these platforms.

Outlines

00:00

🤔 The Rare Case of a Tech Author Without Social Media

The speaker, a millennial computer scientist and book author, shares his unique position of never having had a social media account despite being in the tech field. He explains how his avoidance of social media began as a reaction to Facebook's arrival at his college, driven by professional jealousy towards its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. Over time, he observed the widespread adoption of social media and recognized its potential dangers, choosing to remain detached. He aims to convey that one can lead a successful and connected life without engaging in social media platforms.

05:02

🚫 Debunking the Necessity of Social Media

The speaker challenges the common belief that social media is a fundamental technology of the 21st century, equating its rejection to using outdated methods of communication. He argues that social media is not a necessity but an entertainment product, leveraging fundamental technologies. He compares social media companies to slot machine operators, offering distractions in exchange for attention and personal data. The speaker emphasizes that not using social media is a personal choice, akin to preferring one form of media over another, and should not be seen as a significant social or political stance.

10:05

🎯 The Value of Deep Work Over Social Media

The speaker refutes the idea that social media is essential for success in the modern economy. He asserts that the market values the ability to produce rare and valuable outcomes, which requires deep, concentrated work. In contrast, social media use is easily replicable and offers limited value. He argues that mastering skills and creating valuable products will lead to professional success, regardless of one's social media presence. The speaker encourages focusing on activities that are rare and valuable, rather than engaging in the low-value activities that social media promotes.

💭 Addressing the Harms of Social Media

The speaker discusses the significant harms associated with social media use, including its impact on professional success and mental health. He highlights that social media tools are designed to be addictive, fragmenting attention and reducing the capacity for concentration, which is crucial in today's competitive economy. The speaker also addresses the psychological harms, such as increased feelings of loneliness, inadequacy, and depression, as well as the cognitive consequences of constant exposure to intermittent rewards. He emphasizes the need to consider these harms when deciding whether to embrace social media technology.

🌿 Life Beyond Social Media: Productivity and Peace

The speaker shares his personal experience of life without social media, describing it as initially challenging but ultimately rewarding. He reports increased productivity in his professional life, being able to complete tasks with intense concentration and within a reasonable timeframe. Outside of work, he finds life to be more peaceful, engaging in activities that are restorative and free from the constant barrage of stimuli and anxiety associated with social media. The speaker concludes by encouraging others to consider the benefits of a life without social media and to weigh them against the potential harms of its use.

Keywords

💡Millennial

The term 'millennial' refers to a person reaching young adulthood around the turn of the 21st century, typically associated with being born between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s to early 2000s. In the context of the video, the speaker identifies as a millennial, which is significant because this generation is often closely associated with the rise and use of social media. However, the speaker stands out by never having had a social media account, challenging the stereotype that millennials are inherently tied to these platforms.

💡Social Media

Social media refers to web-based applications that create platforms for people to build social networks and share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content. In the video, the speaker discusses the impact of social media on society, arguing that it is not a fundamental technology but an entertainment product that can have negative consequences on professional success and mental health.

💡Professional Jealousy

Professional jealousy is a feeling of envy or resentment towards someone else's success or achievements in their professional life. In the script, the speaker admits to experiencing professional jealousy when Facebook, created by a fellow student, became popular on his college campus, leading him to avoid using the platform.

💡Objectivity

Objectivity refers to the ability to view situations or subjects without allowing personal feelings, opinions, or biases to influence one's perspective. In the video, the speaker claims that by not using social media, he has maintained a level of objectivity that allows him to recognize the potential dangers of these platforms.

💡Happiness

Happiness is a state of well-being and contentment. The speaker argues that by avoiding social media, he has achieved a greater sense of happiness and sustainability in his life, suggesting that the absence of social media can lead to a more fulfilling existence.

💡Deep Work

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task, producing high-quality results. It is a concept introduced by the speaker in his book, emphasizing that the market values the capacity to perform such work, rather than activities that are easily replicated and produce less value, like using social media.

💡Attention Engineering

Attention engineering is the design of products or services to capture and retain users' attention, often using principles from behavioral psychology and addictive technologies. In the context of the video, the speaker criticizes social media companies for employing attention engineers to make their platforms as addictive as possible, prioritizing profit over the well-being of users.

💡Market Value

Market value refers to the price at which an asset would trade in a competitive auction setting. In the video, the speaker argues that the 21st-century economy values the ability to produce rare and valuable outcomes, rather than common activities like social media engagement.

💡Addictive Design

Addictive design involves creating products or services that encourage habitual use by users, often exploiting psychological vulnerabilities. The speaker in the video discusses how social media tools are intentionally designed to be addictive, leading to fragmented attention and potentially reducing users' capacity for concentration.

💡Mental Health

Mental health refers to an individual's psychological and emotional well-being. The speaker in the video highlights the negative impact of social media on mental health, including feelings of loneliness, isolation, inadequacy, and increased rates of depression.

💡Life Without Social Media

The concept of 'life without social media' refers to the personal experiences and outcomes of individuals who choose not to engage with social media platforms. The speaker shares his positive experiences, emphasizing increased productivity and a more peaceful existence without the constant barrage of online stimuli.

Highlights

The speaker is a millennial computer scientist book author who has never had a social media account.

Social media's introduction to the speaker's life was during his sophomore year of college with the arrival of Facebook.

The speaker avoided using Facebook out of professional jealousy towards its founder, Mark Zuckerberg.

The speaker observes that social media has become addictive for those around him.

Despite not using social media, the speaker maintains friendships, stays informed, and collaborates globally.

The speaker believes he is better off without social media, experiencing more happiness and success.

The speaker aims to convince the audience that they would also benefit from quitting social media.

Social media is not a fundamental technology but an entertainment product, akin to slot machines.

The market values the ability to produce rare and valuable goods or services, not social media presence.

Deep, concentrated work is rewarded more than easy, replicable activities like social media use.

Social media use can permanently reduce one's capacity for concentration and focus.

The psychological harms of social media include increased feelings of loneliness, isolation, and depression.

Social media's intermittent rewards can lead to a pervasive background hum of anxiety.

Life without social media can be productive, with the speaker finishing work by 5 pm and having time for leisure.

Leisure time without social media can be restorative and peaceful, akin to a 1930s farmer's lifestyle.

The speaker suggests that more people would be better off not using social media, dismissing common objections.

The speaker invites critiques and negative feedback, directing them towards Twitter.

Transcripts

Translator: Peter van de Ven Reviewer: Denise RQ

You probably don't realize

that right now, you're actually looking at something quite rare.

Because I am a millennial computer scientist book author

standing on a TEDx stage,

and yet, I've never had a social media account.

How this happened was actually somewhat random.

Social media first came onto my radar when I was at college,

my sophomore year of college,

this is when Facebook arrived at our campus.

And at the time, which was right after the first dotcom bust,

I had had a dorm room business, I'd had to shut it down in the bust,

and then, suddenly, this other kid from Harvard, named Mark,

had this product called Facebook and people being excited about it.

So in sort of a fit of somewhat immature professional jealousy,

I said, "I'm not going to use this thing.

I won't help this kid's business; whatever's going to amount to."

As I go along my life, I look up not long later,

and I see everyone I know is hooked on this thing.

And from the clarity you can get

when you have some objectivity, some perspective on it,

I realized this seems a little bit dangerous.

So I never signed up.

I've never had a social media account since.

So I'm here for two reasons; I want to deliver two messages.

The first message I want to deliver

is that even though I've never had a social media account,

I'm OK, you don't have to worry.

It turns out I still have friends,

I still know what's going on in the world;

as a computer scientist

I still collaborate with people all around the world,

I'm still regularly exposed serendipitously to interesting ideas,

and I rarely describe myself as lacking entertainment options.

So I've been OK, but I'd go even farther and say

not only I am OK without social media but I think I'm actually better off.

I think I'm happier, I think I find more sustainability in my life,

and I think I've been more successful professionally

because I don't use social media.

So my second goal here on stage

is try to convince more of you to believe the same thing.

Let's see if I could actually convince more of you

that you too would be better off if you quit social media.

So, if the theme of this TEDx event is "Future Tense,"

I guess, in other words, this would be my vision of the future,

would be one in which fewer people actually use social media.

That's a big claim, I think I need to back it up.

So I thought, what I would do

is take the three most common objections I hear

when I suggest to people that they quit social media,

and then for each of these objections, I'll try to defuse the hype

and see if I can actually push in some more reality.

This is the first most common objection I hear.

That's not a hermit,

that's actually a hipster web developer down from 8th Street; I'm not sure.

Hipster or hermit? Sometimes it's hard to tell.

This first objection goes as follows,

"Cal, social media is one of the fundamental technologies

of the 21st century.

To reject social media would be an act of extreme [bloodism].

It would be like riding to work on a horse or using a rotary phone.

I can't take such a big stance in my life."

My reaction to that objection is I think that is nonsense.

Social media is not a fundamental technology.

It leverages some fundamental technologies,

but it's better understood as this.

Which is to say, it's a source of entertainment,

it's an entertainment product.

The way that technologist Jaron Lanier puts it

is that these companies offer you shiny treats

in exchange for minutes of your attention and bites of your personal data,

which can then be packaged up and sold.

So to say that you don't use social media should not be a large social stance,

it's just rejecting one form of entertainment for others.

There should be no more controversial than saying,

"I don't like newspapers, I like to get my news from magazines,"

or "I prefer to watch cable series, as opposed to network television series."

It's not a major political or social stance

to say you don't use this product.

My use of the slot machine image up here also is not accidental

because if you look a little bit closer at these technologies,

it's not just that they're a source of entertainment

but they're a somewhat unsavory source of entertainment.

We now know that many of the major social media companies

hire individuals called attention engineers,

who borrow principles from Las Vegas casino gambling,

among other places,

to try to make these products as addictive as possible.

That is the desired use case of these products:

is that you use it in an addictive fashion because that maximizes the profit

that can be extracted from your attention and data.

So it's not a fundamental technology,

it's just a source of entertainment, one among many,

and it's somewhat unsavory if you look a little bit closer.

Here's the second common objection I hear

when I suggest that people quit social media.

The objection goes as follows,

"Cal, I can't quit social media

because it is vital to my success in the 21st century economy.

If I do not have a well-cultivated social media brand,

people won't know who I am, people won't be able to find me,

opportunities won't come my way,

and I will effectively disappear from the economy."

Again my reaction is once again:

this objection also is nonsense.

I recently published this book

that draws on multiple different strands of evidence

to make the point that, in a competitive 21st century economy,

what the market values

is the ability to produce things that are rare and are valuable.

If you produce something that's rare and valuable,

the market will value that.

What the market dismisses, for the most part,

are activities that are easy to replicate and produce a small amount of value.

Well, social media use is the epitome

of an easy to replicate activity that doesn't produce a lot of value;

it's something that any six-year-old with a smartphone can do.

By definition,

the market is not going to give a lot of value to those behaviors.

It's instead going to reward the deep, concentrated work required

to build real skills and to apply those skills to produce things

- like a craftsman -

that are rare and that are valuable.

To put it another way: if you can write an elegant algorithm,

if you can write a legal brief that can change a case,

if you can write a thousand words of prose

that's going to fixate a reader right to the end;

if you can look at a sea of ambiguous data

and apply statistics, and pull out insights

that could transform a business strategy,

if you can do these type of activities which require deep work,

that produce outcomes that are rare and valuable,

people will find you.

You will be able to write your own ticket,

and build the foundation of a meaningful and successful professional life,

regardless of how many Instagram followers you have.

This is the third comment objection I hear

when I suggest to people that they quit social media;

in some sense, I think it might be one of the most important.

This objection goes as follows,

"Cal, maybe I agree, maybe you're right; it's not a fundamental technology.

Maybe using social media is not at the core of my professional success.

But, you know what?

It's harmless, I have some fun on it - weird: Twitter's funny -

I don't even use it that much, I'm a first adopter,

it's kind of interesting to try it out,

and maybe I might miss out something if I don't use it.

What's the harm?"

Again, I look back and I say: this objection also is nonsense.

In this case, what it misses is what I think is a very important reality

that we need to talk about more frankly,

which is that social media brings with it

multiple, well-documented, and significant harms.

We actually have to confront these harms head-on

when trying to make decisions

about whether or not we embrace this technology

and let it into our lives.

One of these harms that we know this technology brings

has to do with your professional success.

I just argued before that the ability to focus intensely,

to produce things that are rare and valuable,

to hone skills the market place value on,

that this is what will matter in our economy.

But right before that,

I argued that social media tools are designed to be addictive.

The actual designed desired-use case of these tools

is that you fragment your attention as much as possible

throughout your waking hours;

that's how these tools are designed to use.

We have a growing amount of research which tells us

that if you spend large portions of your day

in a state of fragmented attention -

large portions of your day, breaking up your attention,

to take a quick glance, to just check, - "Let me quickly look at Instagram" -

that this can permanently reduce your capacity for concentration.

In other words, you could permanently reduce your capacity

to do exactly the type of deep effort

that we're finding to be more and more necessary

in an increasingly competitive economy.

So social media use is not harmless,

it can actually have a significant negative impact

on your ability to thrive in the economy.

I'm especially worried about this when we look at the younger generation,

which is the most saturated in this technology.

If you lose your ability to sustain concentration,

you're going to become less and less relevant to this economy.

There's also psychological harms that are well documented

that social media brings, that we do need to address.

We know from the research literature that the more you use social media,

the more likely you are to feel lonely or isolated.

We know that the constant exposure

to your friends carefully curated, positive portrayals of their life

can leave you to feel inadequate, and can increase rates of depression.

And something I think we're going to be hearing more about in the near future

is that there's a fundamental mismatch

between the way our brains are wired

and this behavior of exposing yourself to stimuli

with intermittent rewards throughout all of your waking hours.

It's one thing to spend a couple of hours at a slot machine in Las Vegas,

but if you bring one with you, and you pull that handle all day long,

from when you wake up to when you go to bed: we're not wired from it.

It short-circuits the brain,

and we're starting to find it has actual cognitive consequences,

one of them being this sort of pervasive background hum of anxiety.

The canary in the coal mine for this issue is actually college campuses.

If you talk to mental health experts on college campuses, they'll tell you

that along with the rise of ubiquitous smartphone use

and social media use among the students on the campus,

came an explosion of anxiety-related disorders on those campuses.

That's the canary in the coal mine.

This type of behavior is a mismatch for our brain wiring

and can make you feel miserable.

So there's real cost to social media use;

which means when you're trying to decide, "Should I use this or not?",

saying it's harmless is not enough.

You actually have to identify a significantly positive, clear benefit

that can outweigh these potential, completely non-trivial harms.

People often ask,

"OK, but what is life like without social media?"

That can actually be a little bit scary to think about.

According to people who went through this process,

there can be a few difficult weeks.

It actually is like a true detox process.

The first two weeks can be uncomfortable:

you feel a little bit anxious, you feel like you're missing a limb.

But after that, things settle down,

and actually, life after social media can be quite positive.

There's two things I can report back from the world of no social media use.

First, it can be quite productive.

I'm a professor at a research institution, I've written five books,

I rarely work past 5 pm on a weekday.

Part of the way I'm trying to able to pull that off

is because it turns out, if you treat your attention with respect,

- so you don't fragment it; you allow it to stay whole,

you preserve your concentration -

when it comes time to work

you can do one thing after another, and do it with intensity,

and intensity can be traded for time.

It's surprising how much you can get done in a eight-hour day

if you're able to give each thing intense concentration after another.

Something else I can report back from life without social media

is that outside of work, things can be quite peaceful.

I often joke I'd be very comfortable being a 1930s farmer,

because if you look at my leisure time,

I read the newspaper while the sun comes up;

I listen to baseball on the radio;

I honest-to-god sit in a leather chair

and read hardcover books at night after my kids go to bed.

It sounds old-fashioned, but they were onto something back then.

It's actually a restorative, peaceful way to actually spend your time out of work.

You don't have the constant hum of stimuli,

and the background hum of anxiety that comes along with that.

So life without social media is really not so bad.

If you pull together these threads, you see my full argument

that not everyone, but certainly much more people than right now,

much more people should not be using social media.

That's because we can first, to summarize,

discard with the main concerns

that it's a fundamental technology you have to use.

Nonsense: it's a slot machine in your phone.

We can discard with this notion that you won't get a job without it.

Nonsense: anything a six-year-old with a smartphone can do

is not going to be what the market rewards.

And then I emphasized the point that there's real harms with it.

So it's not just harmless.

You really would have to have a significant benefit

before you would say this trade-off is worth it.

Finally I noted, that life without social media:

there's real positives associated with it.

So I'm hoping that when many of you actually go through this same calculus,

you'll at least consider the perspective I'm making right now,

which is: many more people would be much better off

if they didn't use this technology.

Some of you might disagree,

some of you might have scathing but accurate critiques

of me and my points,

and of course, I welcome all negative feedback.

I just ask that you direct your comments towards Twitter.

Thank you.

(Applause)