Social Networking Is Killing My Ability To Write // Plasticmind Blog

Social Networking Is Killing My Ability To Write

When I wake my computer in the morning, my inbox is full of messages and notifications from social networking sites. I work through these quickly, hoping to begin the day with a clean slate. Then come the instant messages: friendly hellos, work requests, miscellaneous and sometimes frivolous comments about the day. With a little discipline, I’m able to ignore these for now; but I have a harder time with the telephone. Most calls require full attention, bringing other work to an abrupt halt. And while I’m on the telephone, the messages and comments and requests are piling up in the other channels. The miracle of instantly connecting with people all over the world from my living room is lost in the sheer volume of conversations this produces.

There’s no doubt this impacts my productivity; but the greatest victim of this mental fragmentation is my writing.

“But isn’t writing communication? And isn’t social networking all about communicating with others?” Yes, undoubtedly; you could probably even argue that writing this article is a form of social networking. But most of what we’d call social networking is missing something essential for meaningful writing: cohesion.

I find that the diverse habits of people across varied channels of communication condition us to become splintered thinkers. We call it multitasking and it can be helpful on occasion. But meaningful, cohesive writing requires time to think.

Some of my greatest writing has come from the times I’ve been the most isolated, the most angst-ridden, the most lonely. Being alone is an important catalyst for good writing. In the quietness of your own thoughts, devoid of social interaction, you have the time and sagacity to pursue an idea to its logical conclusion.

Of course, you can’t live like that forever. Even Thoreau had to come out of the woods eventually. We occasionally need our ideas challenged by others; but I have a suspicion that isn’t this generation’s problem. What we need is more time to reflect, more time to think carefully and critically about relevant topics. That’s the foundation for good writing and ultimately for a more meaningful social network.

posted on 27 January 2010
by Jesse

Comments (14)
in the chapter, "Writing"
tagged with angst, cohesion, project52, writing

InterAction:

27 January 20101. Rogie King:

Jesse,

So so true. Creativity works exactly this way for me. Sure, inspiration from others, CSS galleries, design snippet galleries and the like are great. But honestly, my creativity needs isolation to bloom. Some of the best creative moments I have had is at 3am with nothing but darkness and silence surrounding me. It is in this state of rest that I can grow.

All tasks need this sort of focus. In college, I desperately needed to hole up in a coffee shop for hours on end. At home with my bustling, busy, and loud family, I have to strap on the headphones and zone out.

I've done this ever since I was a kid. My teachers would always comment on my grades as "Rogie is doing well, but he is always zoning out." Perhaps this is the opposite of the focus you are talking about, but for me, to create, I need to get lost in the creation I am working on.

Great read Jesse.

27 January 20102. Dougal Matthews:

Slightly ironic post. It seems (since you just wrote about the subject) that social networking helped your writing at least today!

But yes, well said! I enjoyed the read.

27 January 20103. Anton D Peck:

I'm with Rogie. Too much noise (even virtual) prevents me from getting the proper focus I need to reach my desired level of creativity. I think though, that although writing is communication, it's also a way of adding permanence to our deeper thoughts, whereas social networking is more to the satisfaction of our shallower, more casual ideas. Things like this seem to require a deeper level of concentration in order to "get out" what we really intend on saying.

27 January 20104. Jesse Gardner:

Dougal: Not quite... Social Networking helped the promotion of my writing, not so much the creation of my writing.

27 January 20105. Chris Wallace:

I've noticed since dropping Facebook and twitter I've felt much more of a desire to write in-depth, meaningful blog posts. I don't have all the noise, all the clutter, and with that, the time it steals from thinking, reflecting and pondering. With social networking previously being a focus for me, I never needed to think for myself, I was too busy reading what others were thinking, ignoring my own inner dialogue (or monologue) as a result. I would challenge you to spend a week away from social networks and write down/record what you think about during those times you typically would have spent on them.

27 January 20106. Brennan Novak:

Definitely turn off email notifications from social sites. It's a whole better world once you do that. Each site becomes a task that is mangeable and you feel a sense of completion once you are done checking/responding to all your messages.

27 January 20107. Michael Castello:

I'm finding this affects my ability to write decent emails too. I often want to give a coherent, reasoned response to something and end up putting it off.

I've been trying to use multiple desktops / Spaces to give myself more isolation at work. On one I have my work applications, allowing my distractions to be contained on the other. I can switch when I need to do something, or to take a break, but otherwise those applications (and the constant influx of messages) are invisible.

27 January 20108. Nick Pepito:

Great post and timely. I've started to isolate myself as well in order to minimize distractions that can side track. Hard enough to keep on task alone, add all the pings and pops from various other nodes of communication and 3 hours later I'm just remembering what I actually sat down to do.

Sometimes social media is a bit too social.

27 January 20109. Liz Hover:

Great post Jesse. But ...

I'm not sure everyone is wired the same way. My flashes of inspiration for writing usually come in the shower, walking to catch the bus - when I least expect it. I don't need prolonged quiet time to write. I just sit and do it (yes, with many of the distractions you list above). I find it easy.

I do agree that we are increasingly pummled with noise from our social networks but we must learn to tune it out when we need to focus on something else.

I loved Dougal Matthews comment ;)

First time visiting your site. Very cool space.

15 February 201010. Enrique:

I much rather talk about the science of distractions then the feeling of it. From a purely scientific point of view, multi-taskers or people who get distracted easily, aren't good at any thing. Though every single one of them will claim they are but in reality they aren't. As an experiment, top MIT students were recruited and turns out even they are lousy at multi-tasking, to the point of being worst then an average person on simple tasks. Although its true that multi-taskers feel a lot of brain activity while they're multi-tasking but that brain activity isn't focused on a specific task so the end result is below average. Problem is, there is no connection between the thoughts they're producing because they're constantly distracted. In regards to our brain, we not only need the stimulation or activity but 'strong' connections as well. And multi-taskers simply don't make those 'strong' connections. They can only create a lot of activity.

Now to put it in plain words, in order to be good at something you have to think in 'depth' as well as 'breadth'. Multi-taskers can only think in depth. Chess engines couldn't beat humans as long as they were thinking in 'depth', they were simply labelled stupid, but when the engine design changed to analyze the 'breadth'. They transformed.

18 February 201011. Keith Gardner:

"Some of my greatest writing has come from the times I’ve been the most isolated, the most angst-ridden, the most lonely. Being alone is an important catalyst for good writing."

The longing to write is, at heart, a desire to connect. So, being a successful communicator carries with it the hidden danger of failing by being too good. Like a blues singer whose career is destroyed by success, or NWA in an era of racial harmony and social equity.

26 February 201012. Jesse Gardner:

Very good points, Dad.

7 March 201013. Kerby Olive:

"Being alone is an important catalyst for good writing."

Probably the most important catalyst besides inspiration. I typically get my best ideas at night right when I'm about to sleep when everything is quiet and the day has finished winding down... or when I get done reading some writing that sparks me off.

"What we need is more time to reflect, more time to think carefully and critically about relevant topics."

This is exactly how I feel. I do a lot of design and writing myself, and I've found that when you can devote a block of time for what you want to do with no distractions. I couldn't have said it better myself.

14 May 201014. kathy smith:

Hi Jesse,
You created my website on vox... I just wanted to stop by and thank you so much for your artful creation. So I find this blog which unlocks a major writer's block showing the interference that can get in the way of being a writer that creates the effect intended. Your blog solved this for me and gave the correct handling to creating the space to write once more. I am grateful for your gift of writing.