Hey Friends,

Would you like to use social media without succumbing to its addictive advances ?

I'm a big fan of Cal Newport. I follow his blog, have listened to his podcast and even read a couple of his books, the latest being 'Digital Minimalism'. This week I read with interest his latest blog post entitled 'Deweaponising Network Effects' in which he proposes an idea of how to utilise social media, without falling prey to the time sucking bottomless feed, or the litany of enticing recommended videos. Cal poses the question:

What if we got more serious about ceding users ownership over all of their social internet data: both what they’ve posted, but also their links; followers, friends, etc.?

In essence his idea is that everyone should be assigned a cross-platform universal ID and should be in full control of their own data across all platforms, not siloed into each individual platform. He suggests that if, for example, you join a new social media platform, you should be able, with a click of a button, to import all of your existing social connections from other platforms e.g. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

In addition, he suggests each platform should provide an API (a way to access data) so that you can pull all of the Tweets you have ever posted on Twitter or photos on Instagram, and import them into the new platform.

The ultimate goal would be to have a new central system which interacts with Twitter, Facebook etc, pulling in all your data, and pushing out all your replies. Essentially providing you with the benefits of those platforms, without being exposed to the tactics they use to keep you hooked. You would never login into the individual platforms, just the new "hub" which you have full control over.

I like Cal's thinking in this area, however, I (like he) can see many challenges, and if I am honest, I just don't see the tech companies ceding their most valuable asset - our thoughts, emotions and interactions.

For now we may have to stick with my default suggestion: only use social media if you absolutely need to, but if you do, set strict time limits and rules. Otherwise, that one video of a cute cat may in turn into four hours of mindless media consumption, and that is no good for anyone.

Let me know what you think about Cal's idea.

Stay safe

Chris

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Things I've found interesting this week

\\ One Article: US Military Base hacked, or was it ?

\\ Two Article: Just goes to show it can happen to even the best of us!

\\ Three Article: Interesting book (which I haven't read) but I think what it is suggesting is interesting. They claim that online advertising, the heart of the attention economy, may be on the brink of collapse. On one hand this would strike a blow to the beast I am trying to fight, but on the other hand, it would likely mean many 'Free' services would disappear (remember there is no such thing as a free lunch - you are the product)

Favourite Quote

Social media companies commonly design their platforms in a way that renders them addictive. Some governments have declared internet addiction a major public health concern, and the World Health Organization has characterized excessive internet use as a growing problem

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