Should College Students Quit Social Media? | Deep Questions with Cal Newport
Chapters
0:0 Cal's intro0:46 Cal gives his short answer
2:25 Cal's long answer
00:00:00.000 | But let's try to fit in one other quick question here before we wrap up this episode.
00:00:05.440 | Comes from Vasilky.
00:00:06.920 | He says, "Do you think a college student should abstain from social media completely?
00:00:15.360 | Many students communicate with social media.
00:00:18.040 | Completely abstaining has made me feel like I'm missing out on opportunities to discuss
00:00:22.280 | homework.
00:00:23.280 | When I miss a class, I can ask a friend over Messenger for notes.
00:00:26.240 | Even if I use only email, other people may feel discouraged to send you over email notes
00:00:30.840 | because they find Facebook or Discord more easy to scan with their phones.
00:00:33.760 | I don't live near the campus, so I can't interact with other students.
00:00:37.960 | What do you advise to give a student to communicate to their peers that need to abstain from social
00:00:41.800 | media but to remain in the community?"
00:00:44.760 | Well short answer, long answer, short answer, separate communication tools from social media.
00:00:50.200 | What do I mean by social media here?
00:00:53.400 | I mean things where you post information to people you don't know or consume information
00:00:57.640 | posted by people you don't know.
00:00:59.440 | Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook.
00:01:04.000 | Don't do that.
00:01:05.000 | I mean you can, but I would say yeah, abstain from that.
00:01:07.920 | I think you have other things that are more important in college.
00:01:10.560 | That's a distraction.
00:01:12.680 | It's not giving you any benefit.
00:01:14.840 | But separate that from the fact that you use WhatsApp for your study group.
00:01:18.880 | Separate communication tools from the social media.
00:01:22.120 | The key thing to keep in mind is that latter context, that the tools where you post information
00:01:25.920 | to people you don't know or read information from people you don't know, that's engineered
00:01:28.760 | to be distracting.
00:01:29.760 | That's what you want to stay away from.
00:01:32.280 | Having a study group on WhatsApp or having a Facebook group that you're, you know, whatever
00:01:37.440 | club uses.
00:01:38.800 | If you've configured Facebook like I talk about in digital minimalisms, you go straight
00:01:41.800 | to the groups and have no news feed, that's fine.
00:01:44.080 | I don't care about communication tools.
00:01:46.920 | But don't use social media tools that are engaged, I mean that are engineered to distract.
00:01:51.920 | That's what I would recommend.
00:01:52.920 | And in fact, in general, I think college students, there's so much intellectually, socially,
00:01:59.240 | just spiritually, philosophically to enjoy during that period of life that gets leeched
00:02:05.000 | away if you're looking at TikTok videos as just a default when you're bored.
00:02:10.760 | I mean, it's just life is really interesting and vibrant at that point.
00:02:14.360 | And if you take that out of your life as a college student, what's left is in technicolor.
00:02:21.240 | It's just like a much more interesting period of time.
00:02:24.980 | My long answer is be wary of the justification game you're playing.
00:02:28.720 | I get this type of thing all the time, a little bait and switch.
00:02:32.680 | You find this corner case of technology that there's no debate you need to use, then allow
00:02:38.600 | that to justify chaos.
00:02:42.320 | I hear this from students a lot like, "Look, Cal, my math teacher post our homework on
00:02:49.600 | the internet, so I need to use the internet to download my math homework.
00:02:54.240 | So that's why I'm playing Fortnite till 3 a.m."
00:02:57.560 | These are two really separate things.
00:02:59.840 | And I'm seeing this in your answer here.
00:03:01.880 | You're like, "Maybe a friend doesn't want to share notes with me over email, so I'm
00:03:07.400 | going to be on TikTok all day."
00:03:10.680 | Remain specific.
00:03:11.680 | And I think that's at the core of my philosophy of digital minimalism.
00:03:15.320 | Figure out the life you want, what's important to you.
00:03:18.540 | Figure out what technology will support that and what rules you want to use it to get the
00:03:21.920 | benefits and avoid the cost.
00:03:24.080 | And outside of those decisions, be comfortable missing out on everything else.
00:03:26.900 | So be specific.
00:03:28.220 | Don't just use the term social media and lump the fact that you ask a question over
00:03:34.200 | WhatsApp with the fact that you're on Instagram all day.
00:03:37.760 | Be specific, work backwards from values.
00:03:39.680 | And yes, your main question, should you abstain from the social media that you can?
00:03:45.880 | Almost certainly the answer is probably yes.
00:03:47.120 | I think for almost any college student, that is going to make their college life richer.
00:03:52.080 | [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03:55.440 | (upbeat music)