Social Media Sane Defaults for Mindfulness and Digital Wellbeing

sanedefaults.io

1 point·hosolmaz··2 comments

For some of the social media listed here, the best technique would be to simply stop using them. There is such a thing as near-necessary social media use (where your professional or social life would be harmed as a result of total abstinence) but most people would find that it is in fact possible to drastically decrease their own usage with no ill effects by sticking to the essentials.

Cal Newport wrote something similar to this where he mentioned that you can actually compress and the social media activity that you realistically need to do (i.e. 80/20 rule) within a short weekly burst and leave it at that.

I was about to write the same thing. Thanks and +1. No one needs social media. Phones work for actually calling people. My "sane default" was abandoning all social media. I meet friends and family in person, use email, phone calls, and occasional posts in forums like this one.

Anyone older than 35 can remember not having any social media. Somehow the world worked without it for millenia. How can it possibly be a necessary part of our lives all of a sudden?

Imagine publishing "sane defaults" for lead in drinking water, or asbestos in furniture. How many cigarettes should we sanely default to smoking? We strive for zero when we recognize something as toxic. Same principle with social media.

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