Just finished watching a Ted talk about social media and it’s design to keep your attention engaged at a certain location—facebook, Ted, YouTube and Netflix. For most of us this is the auto play or the stream additions that pop up in Facebook. This dovetailed nicely with another talk about how the algorithms will feed you more extreme versions of what you were initially watching to gauge your interest. I can certainly see this in the feeds of friends I follow before and after the election and made me hyperaware of when it happened to me.
And while I think anyone with a working brain can see what a time suck social media is, I didn’t realize the impact it can have elsewhere (other than realizing my friends had idiotic tendencies when they didn’t agree with me:P)
Apparently, it takes an average of 20 minutes to focus after being distracted.
20 minutes.
Every time those text message notification ring.
Every time those newsfeed updates chime.
Every time there’s a comment on a post I make.
20 minutes.
I think I’m going to turn off those push notifications. But then I worry about missing something important from my family. Hmmm. I’ll just tell them to call:D I’ll answer the phone if I recognize the number. LOL
Until next time
Linda Andrews 
Sadly, I think we also need to be very wary of all the warnings we are suddenly receiving to get off social media because it’s damaging [fill in focus du jour]. On the one hand, we’re being told a few stupid memes and off-putting posts by semi-literate trolls swung an entire US election. Well, maybe. But it might! That would seem to suggest social media influence is quite effective. Which would in turn suggest it could work equally well to put truth to power.
But then, suddenly, it’s dangerous. We’re frying our brains! We’re damaging our health! Oh, and Facebook is going to make sure you only see stuff you want to see from your family and friends, not all that nasty news and fake stuff. Better yet, just get off social media altogether. Kill your accounts. Just get your news from reliable sources like CNN and MSNBC and the New York Times.
Oh, wait…
Call me paranoid, but I see the way alternative news sources are being censored every day. I find this entire “get off social media” trend highly disturbing.
Oddly enough the talk centered on how to use social media to manage your time so as not to be distracted by the constant chime of notifications.
I do that by turning off notifications. 😉