Comments so far seem to be focusing on the social media aspect of this piece, what struck me was the acknowledgement that he has a limited number of productive years left, and the Longfellow quote. In my mid 40's, I also have come to feel the weight of years passed, without achieving professional goals (ie starting a succesful software based company).<p>This feeling of unfinished business really set in after the birth of our second child. I had always claimed to be one of the best developers around, yet, I could not master myself to be truly productive when working of personal projects. Overcoming my self imposed limits is where I'm at now. Has anyone else experienced this?
This essay might be deeper than it first suggests.<p>My first interpretation: knee-jerk reaction after reading it that it's a very typical lament about social media getting in the way of doing more important things in life. There are thousands of blog posts repeating this message and this variation of it happens to be on HN because it's from N.S.<p>My second interpretation: I lingered on his chosen word "<i>sociomediapath</i>". Since it's a riff on "sociopath", I think what he's saying here is that he's going to <i>give the impression</i> that he's a social media hound but behind the scenes, he's doesn't care. Likewise, a sociopath like Ted Bundy on the surface can shake your hand and charm you with his smiles but underneath it all, he'll kill you.<p>N.S. has to be a "sociopath" in media because he's a published author. He <i>can't</i> go full Howard Hughes detached-from-society-mode and therefore, has to at least fake out the public with a social media presence.<p>Maybe that means there's a need for a web service that generates random and periodic posts on behalf of users to give the appearance of "Facebook normality". E.g. the website service posts random inspirational quotes from dead people or TIL from random wikipedia pages. You never have to log into Facebook and yet it seems like you're "with it".<p>I believe other celebrities accomplish this with "public relations" staff. The PR firm makes the celebrity look "connected" to the fans via Reddit AMAs and Twitter updates but in reality, he/she really isn't.
Abstaining from "social media" is for <i>amateurs</i>!!! ;-)<p>Many years ago, I threw my TV out and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.<p>Internet is the new TV.<p>I see the irony of writing this on HN but I really try to find the internet analogue for throwing out the TV.<p>The problem is that you need services like maps, online banking and tickets, mobile payments, etc.<p>What I want to get rid of though, completely, is news and noise. I tried and tried but self-regulation is too hard; I still waste so much time and poison my brain with all this crap; I think the time has come to try self-<i>binding</i>.<p>My current setup is to not have internet at home (where I work) except for a mobile connection, and to pull the SIM card out by default. I only put it back in when I need to do something specific (or when I am on the go, for maps).<p>Obviously, this is not a perfect solution yet (as I somehow found my way back to HN, grrr…) but I'm working on it.<p>I should probably get a dumbphone for emergencies, and I also want to habituate myself to a weekly rhythm where I bunch all the stuff (like emails, software updates, articles to be downloaded, references to be checked, etc) to one day a week (say Sat) and do all my "internet errands" in one go.<p>The rest of the time, I rely on my books and articles and downloaded documentations and offline Wikipedia. If I want to watch something, I can make a note and download the movie or entire season along with the other "internet groceries". To keep in touch with current events, I can read weekly news magazines. That also dials down the noise. Something like that. Interestingly, since I got a big tablet, I read news magazines like The Economist or Die Zeit in PDF format and it seems to also affect me somehow. There is no outside clicking and endless linkbait anymore, and I feel less monitored and stressed (even though I already have all these adblockers and Little Snitch and whatnot). It also gives me back a feeling of a natural end to my reading session when I reach the final pages of the PDF. On the web or online, the next article or curiosity is always right behind.
In Seveneves, Stephenson discusses "Amistics, the study of the choices made by different cultures as to which technologies they would embrace or spurn."<p>"Anyone who bothered to learn the history of the developed world in the years just before Zero understood perfectly well that Tavistock Prowse had been squarely in the middle of the normal range, as far as his social media habits and attention span had been concerned. But nevertheless, they called it Tav's Mistake. They didn't want to make it again. Any efforts made by modern manufacturers to produce the kinds of devices and apps that had disordered the brain of Tav were met with the same instinctive pushback as Victorian clergy might have directed against the inventor of a masturbation machine."<p>You see those kinds of choices being made at a cultural level all over the world. Developed countries where nobody uses leafblowers, or in-sink food waste disposals, or what have you. People understand how those things work, they just don't want the effects.
I took a week off of facebook two weeks ago. No interaction with facebook, at all, except one messenger session with a design contractor who is doing our UI overhaul. I haven't been so productive in years. And, it mostly broke my facebook addiction...I check it once a day now, often just on my phone while standing in line at the grocery or during some other downtime. I'm able to ignore it most of the time (notifications have been turned off for years, because I hate anything dinging at me and interrupting my thought process; I leave the ringer on my phone off for the same reason, I can check my voicemail in Google Voice a couple times a day to deal with important stuff).<p>I'm considering doing the same "fast and then reduced consumption" for my other social media habits: reddit, HN, twitter. When I traveled full-time, in the past, I would often find myself with little or no Internet connectivity for a week at a time, and that imposed periodic social media fasting, and it was sufficient to keep the addictions in check. After living in a fixed house, with very fast Internet, for a little over a year, the urge to check my phone/tablet first thing in the morning and last thing at night has become notable and annoying.<p>In short: He's right, and I notice my own inability to do things of substance has been significantly impaired by the time and attention I give to social media, and it's only reasonable to abstain in the interest of spending more time doing the things I truly value. It can be hard to make that choice, however...one more shot of dopamine (or whatever chemicals the constant affirmation of social media provides) seems harmless.<p>(I note the irony of this being an HN comment.)
It's interesting. I thought I didn't lose much time to social media because I only used them in "dead" time, e.g. waiting for a train. But I've come to believe this was a mistake in two respects. Firstly, no time is truly "dead", and there's almost always something better I could be doing. Secondly, almost any use of social media trains me to crave more -- it genuinely is addictive, and the unreliability of the novelty ("refreshing in the hope of seeing something new") makes this all the worse.
Perfectly captures the way I feel. I spend very little time on FB & twitter these days. I fear I'm still spending too much time on HN though...
I was able to fully quit Facebook - with the help of my wife. Not that she needed to help me actually close my account, but rather she keeps me posted (via her Facebook) page on the comings, and goings of my/our family.<p>Without her I'd probably feel pressure to at least have FB for close family, however I'm not sure it would be enough to lure me back in, given the use of group texts etc.
I just unfollow everybody by default on FB, and I can highly recommend this. (Basically I just use FB to find interesting events, and see where everybody is going).
I am almost 38 and I look at the founder of the company I work at in my day job. He started the company in his early 40s and now he is worth in excess of 8 billion. 40 is not too late to start something.
Social media is a tool, useful for business and self promotion. Also handy for checking up on what friends and relatives are doing.<p>That said, I agree with Stephenson (I really enjoyed his latest book Seveneves) that it's use can get in the way of doing more creative and productive things.<p>I am a big fan of "self monitoring" to keep track of types of food eaten, time spent on social media, TV, etc. Personally, if I spend more than 15 minutes a day on social media that is a warning sign that I need to do better time management.
This strikes me as a pretty serious failure on the part of Facebook, Twitter and their ilk. I'm not sure what the solution might be, but I would prefer to read the posts of the actual author or personality, rather than a stream of PR posts. Neal Stephenson is not the first and surely won't be the last person who's account will now be ghostwritten (by publishers, agents, trusted people, etc.)<p>I understand why he's managing it this way and I might do the same if I were in his position. My hope is that Facebook, etc. start to realize that their current approach isn't the best fit for everyone.
I think learning to do things in moderation is really the key here.<p>I liked that the article is not vehemently chastising social media as the bane of modern civilization nor praising it as the second coming. There are pros and cons to adopting most new technologies.<p>It's better to develop a discipline to use them in moderation rather than to cut it off completely or depend on them excessively.
But why does Neal Stephenson of all people feel he needs to write as many more novels as possible? Sure, it's good for us that he feels that way, but strange that he thinks he still has something to prove.
This is a bit offtopic, but his latest book is 'Seveneves', huh? I worked on a puzzle game for the DS and Wii called 'Neves', which was named that way because there was a 'puzzle in the name', being seven backwards, and there was seven pieces in each puzzle.<p>I feel like I should probably read Seveneves now, even though I know it's just a coincidence they're named similarly.
HN is the only social media I use. Quitting social media is really the best thing I have ever done. I used to check facebook and twitter every 2 minuter when I had nothing else to do. The result was to never have a dull moment. It just stressed me out.<p>After quitting I realized how much I need all those small breaks. I am less stressed and much more productive. Jobs kept coming by word of mouth.
Well, I relate to both this and the older 'bad correspondent' article immensely. I have struggled with this for at least 2-3 years now. The only times I can be truly productive (in music, programming or visual stuff) is when I feel like I have a cocoon where there will be no interruptions with 100% certainty.<p>For me personally the cell phone is a bigger problem than the internet, since people get annoyed when I don't pick up the phone, but I also notice I need to stop clicking endlessly all night on web sites to calm my mind down to get to that mental space for creativity.<p>Basically the best periods I've had were when others were on vacation or I was, and there was some natural unbroken few days where there was no anxiety at all about being interrupted. The question is how to make it happen. I basically just turn off my phone, close the browser, go for a walk, try to get the nerves calmed down, and hopefully something comes out of it that night.<p>It's really quite annoying though, because 7 years ago it wasn't like this. I don't want to be a recluse, I just want to balance the two things and have that be okay.
"With that said, here are the links to my social media:"
<crickets><p>I think a rendering issue in Safari hid them, or something, but I thought it was humorous to have that article, followed by no way to follow him on social media! (presumably unintended.)
> I completed SEVENEVES recently and have three other novel projects in the works. Somewhat perversely, however, using social media has now become part of a novelist's job.<p>I find amazing the fact that he manages to write 3 or 4 novels at the same time.
I think this is a good time to repost a link to pg's "disconnecting distraction": <a href="http://paulgraham.com/distraction.html" rel="nofollow">http://paulgraham.com/distraction.html</a>
Not related to the content, but yeesh, this color scheme is awful. The yellow gradient... Blegh.<p>I couldn't make it through the article because my eyes kept getting lost between the lines.
If anyone else is interested, here's a link to someone's repost of "Why I'm a Bad Correspondent"<p><a href="http://www.carlkingdom.com/neal-stephenson-why-i-am-a-bad-correspondent" rel="nofollow">http://www.carlkingdom.com/neal-stephenson-why-i-am-a-bad-co...</a>
Nothing to do with the function, but the form...<p>I really struggle with white on black text. Most of the internet is black on white, so, when switching back to a light screen I see black line after images. I really dislike it.
If Charles Stross, Georges RR Martin could do the same, maybe we could stop having shitty milfan boy creepy SiFi and have good SiFi again with bits of humor.<p>If Neal read this and meet Charles please tell him to stop post photo of his cats on twitter and go back to work.<p>The quality of his writing is going down, and the only thing that make me stay away from social medias are good books.<p>I get it. I am a Sociomediapath because of him in fact. I blame him 100%!<p>PS neal makes good funny books, but he has difficulty making ends that don't involve deus ex machina. (REAMDE ending is a tad disappointing after quite a good development. Still it is a good essay on virtual currencies).