Is Social Media Making Us Eat The Marshmallow?
Whether it be Facebook on your iPhone, Twitter on your Droid or email on your Blackberry, it is likely that (if you are reading this) you are rarely far from some form of social media. This type of connectivity provides us with immediate discussion and recognition, which many of us are beginning to crave in a way that we’ve never really considered.
Recently a wonderful woman I know sent me a TED link (a site hosting talks which I highly recommend as ‘motivational timewasters’ for anyone interested). Joachim de Posada’s talk got me thinking – is social media turning us into marshmallow eaters rather than those who can be patient for a greater return? Since a summary from me could never do it justice, take 6 minutes and enjoy the video below. Then perhaps you can appreciate what I am musing about.
Other than causing you to laugh out loud at the girl who ate the middle of the marshmallow, my aim in posting this is to spark some thought on how the immediacy of social media could be affecting our ability to self-discipline. Also, I am wondering if the immediate nature of current communications is affecting other areas of our lives.
Take, for example, my new game of Monopoly – which came complete with a Speed Die for those who want the game to move more quickly than with (gasp!) two dice alone. Apparently the fast-paced, property-owning, friendship-ruining competition of Monopoly has become so slow and monotonous that we need to light a fire beneath it!
The access to wide and immediate constructive criticism on something you think or produce, the ability to grow the market in which you are trying to promote yourself (or your product) and the encouragement of self-awareness are just a few of the amazing benefits that can be found with the dawn of Web 2.0, but there are obvious drawbacks too. There are many studies and posts out there which can attest to how email decreases productivity or how Twitter can hurt your ability to focus.
But are those just symptoms of another deeper problem? Is the instant gratification of online interaction changing our ability to control our impulsiveness? I suppose the question to ask yourself is this:
Do you believe you would be more likely to eat the marshmallow now than before the dawn of Web 2.0?
I would like to think that I would wait for the second marshmallow, but the anxiety I feel when I can’t check my email for a 2-hour stretch during my work day indicates that I’d be more likely to hold my head in my hands and end up devouring that marshmallow guiltily.
I think I’ll work on that.
I just finished reading Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky and in it, he talks about this. He calls it “Insecurity Work” where you want to frequently observe the progress you are making and confirm the status of everything you’ve created (pg 104). He argues that in order to be truly successful, you need to reduce the amount of time you spend in this area.
PS – I’ve seen a video of that marshmallow research – hilarious!
Thanks for the comment, Rebecca
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The description you give sounds as though ‘Insecurity Work’ could also be described as overzealous micromanagement of yourself (to the detriment of the work you should really be doing). I suppose that gives us a good reason to try and balance it, too, because if it was a manager expecting constant progress updates like that they would be incredibly difficult to work for. Those same rules should really apply to ourselves in our own work ethics.