Are you reading this blog post on your phone? Are you scrolling through social media accounts, telling yourself you're taking a break from whatever it is you were working on? How many minutes ago was that, exactly? Over the course of the last 20 years, the rise of social media platforms as the largest companies on the planet has had a profound impact on numerous aspects of our lives. It's an ever present part of many of our daily lives, despite the talk of doom-scrolling and the fears about too much screen time for children. We could discuss any of a number of concerns related to the internet and social media usage, but I want to think about something a bit more basic. I want us to think about time.
The internet emerges and took hold when it did in part because we had the time to start paying attention. After WWII, our collective way of life changed drastically as increases in salaries and education, coupled with advances in health, meant that for the first time, we had more free time on our hands. This free time, and the choice to do any of a number of things with it, amounts to what author Clay Shirky calls cognitive surplus. In essence, we have been gifted with a surplus of time, attention, and energy to direct towards any of a number of endeavors. These might be recreational hobbies, creative output, or mindless consumption of online content. As a result, the pace of creation far outpaces the ability of anyone to consume it all. At present, it would take you over 17,810 years to watch every YouTube video available. We are not lacking for ways to fill our newly found free time.
Despite this new found free time, our society continues to wrestle with many of the problems that have haunted us for generations. Racism, health inequity, gun violence and climate change continue to be alarming problems that we seem to have no good solution for (or are unwilling to make the obvious changes), and instead lead us to create Band-Aid after Band-Aid. I often wonder what it would mean if we were all able to shift the use of our cognitive surplus from social media and other more recreational endeavors to more socially conscious work.
I won't go as far as saying our consumption of social media and streaming content is frivolous. I fully acknowledge that it serves other value functions, and can have educational and mental health benefits. I don't foresee a time where we cast off the enjoyment of these relaxation efforts, as they most certainly allow us to better endure the very concerns we need to be taking action to address.
The middle-ground here, of course, points to the opportunities for communication and activism that have been born during the social media age. Like-minded folks can find each other around the world easier now than at any other point in history. That desire to seek community is strong and will always be present. In some instances, that community offers support for victims of the very problematic social institutions that continue to harm individuals. In other instances, it allows for the radicalizing and hate speech that so often fuels the violent actions that take place daily.
We inevitably get into a discussion of the nature of Western society in particular, and it's commitment to individualism. The result of that individual focus is a constant cost-benefit analysis that goes into every decision we make and informs how we spend that cognitive surplus we work so hard to accrue. As is often the case, the individual reward that comes with scrolling through Instagram reels or TikTok videos often far outweighs the fairly abstract reward that comes with using that time to effectuate social change. We certainly have the available cognitive surplus to solve many of society's ills. The question is how do we help each other see the benefit of the work without the instant gratification that comes with watching cute animal videos?
