I’ve been fairly fascinated by the concept of going “analog.” It means leaving social media behind for older ways of doing things. For many, the headache, tension, frustration are almost enough to unplug. I’ve come to a few conclusions about how to best use social media appropriately which I hope to share in the future. Among them is the idea of minimal engagement with responses. But many are taking it a step further and unplugging all together. I’ve written about some dangers here and the natural consequences of a plugged world here.
In an interesting interview with Parks and Rec star, Aziz Ansari, he makes some observations for why he quit social media. Here are some highlights:
…in a post-truth world, it doesn’t feel like we’re reading news for the reason we used to, which was to get a better sense of what’s going on in the world and to enrich yourself by being aware. It seems like we’re reading wrestling rumors…it all just seems so sensationalized,” he said. It’s not that the news doesn’t matter… it’s that reading the news is “putting me in a bad state of mind.”
I wanted to stop that thing where I get home and look at websites for an hour and a half, checking to see if there’s a new thing. And read a book instead. I’ve been doing it for a couple months, and it’s worked. I’m reading, like, three books right now. I’m putting something in my mind. It feels so much better than just reading the Internet and not remembering anything.
The interview contains some bad language, and Asiz seems strongly anti-Christian, but the ideas are fairly interesting to contemplate. The concept of “post-truth world” is an idea Christians need to wrestle with in this age. How do we communicate and what must we do to speak truth in a day when truth is not valued?
