This is a small thread about procrastination and the use of social media. (1/n)
But first, I want to share a very cute animation by John Kelly, that I saw in SIGGRAPH animation festival in 2005. (2/n)
Everybody seems to agree that social media is a major distraction and the cause of procrastination, for whatever a person wants to do. But why is this so, any more than talking to people in the real world? (3/n)
I think a big reason for procrastination is the fear of failure. Psychologists may chip in here.. But I think people procrastinate when they fear bad judgement of to their work. (4/n)
Social media amplifies this problem in two ways:
1) By expanding your audience, it creates far more people who may judge your work unfavorably.
2) By making it easy (and urgent) to respond, it dissipates your energy into smaller chunks. e.g, tweets instead of blogs. (5/n)
1) By expanding your audience, it creates far more people who may judge your work unfavorably.
2) By making it easy (and urgent) to respond, it dissipates your energy into smaller chunks. e.g, tweets instead of blogs. (5/n)
Of course, there is the added problem of unending distraction, which high-jacks the dopamine circuit in your brain, for constant pleasure seeking in novelty. Your anterior cingulate cortex, which rewards patience and long-term planning, will be depleted. (6/n)
Over time, this will destroy your will power and sense of self. This destruction of internal consciousness is mirrored in how your external identity is fragmented: the web makes it easy to take things out of context, because it doesn't track context in the first place. (7/n)
Most people don't know that the web was not an inevitable choice for an internet protocol. Other choices were available and hotly discussed, e.g, @TheTedNelson's Xanadu, which explicitly track context. But unfortunately, WWW eclipsed them all. (8/n)
WWW destroyed context in inert web pages. But social media, which is WWW 2.0, destroyed context in the identity of the users. Consistent use of social media will naturally show effect on the cognitive capacity of the users, making it decoherent. (9/n)
For supporting a person's creative process and prevent procrastination, it is possible to use technology:
1) Help stick to a rhythm and daily schedule for creative process.
2) Manage the audience to be sufficiently small, such that the person may not fear misjudgement.
1) Help stick to a rhythm and daily schedule for creative process.
2) Manage the audience to be sufficiently small, such that the person may not fear misjudgement.
We voted to have crap technology. But it is possible to build good technology. Social media is no exception. (End of thread).
