A minimalist’s approach to social media use
How to make time for (non-work) online reading? As I work all day at a screen already (and blog as a hobby), spending lots of time in addition on social media isn’t really what I’m after. I’ve therefore adopted this approach, which minimises my time on social media and news sites:
I simply copy interesting content (whether in the form of whole articles or even just interesting bits of online discussions) and paste it all (without any photos) into a Word file. Once that Word file is long enough, I send it off to my e-reader. This often takes just a few minutes. I can then enjoy reading it at my leisure – away from my work screen!
I also use social media apps minimally. I maintain an active presence on Twitter (for English here and for German here), whereas I just lurk on LinkedIn. I’ve never felt the need to own a tablet, but I have Twitter installed on my phone. However, I don’t have LinkedIn or Facebook (or WhatsApp, for that matter) on my phone.
Efficient and proper reading of online content
Reading on my e-reader makes sure I am shielded from the myriad of online distractions and can block out interruptions. That way, I can properly absorb the content (AND appreciate the way in which it’s written). If you’ve ever received a response from me to one of your social media contributions one week or so later, now you know why! It does sometimes take me that long to send stuff to my e-reader and read it.
Sounds like this is not for you? Yes, I do realise this approach may not work for most people; yet it works for me. Although my English is getting better, in the end, I'm still a language learner, and this is the best way for me to pick up new words and phrases, including colloquial ones. What's more, as a translator I’m by nature a text-oriented person. I am therefore perfectly happy in the black-and-white, text-only world which my e-reader provides me with.
This is my current approach to social media use. Watch this space as it's likely I'm going to tweak and further optimise it in the not-too-distant future once I've finished my current book, “Digital Minimalism” by Cal Newport. (Cal Newport's books were recommended to me by Sean Reid from Aye Run, who introduced me to the beautiful city of Glasgow on a sightseeing run last year.)
As I'm usually short of time, I use a dedicated approach to minimise the actual time spent on news sites or social media, while maximising what I get out of it. This approach involves sending online content in a Word file to my e-reader so that I can indulge in interruption-free reading.
