Q: Social media: Writer's friend or foe?

"For every twenty minutes of joyful interaction, how much time is spent mindlessly absorbing random opinions from a stream of strangers?"

Welcome to our weekend conversation!

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As I mentioned last week in my conversation with Brian Mihok (Editor of matchbook), I’ve recently been reading a book called Deep Work: Rules for Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. It was front and center on the shelf at my local library and I couldn’t resist its summons. Who doesn’t want to work more deeply? Who doesn’t want more focus?

I’m about a third of the way through (distracted, admittedly, by the eight other books and lit mags I’m trying to keep up with in any given week). But it’s been pretty illuminating so far. I mean, do we need 263 pages to tell people that if they want to make something lasting and meaningful they need to PUT DOWN THE PHONE AND GET OFF THE FRICKIN INTERNET ALREADY? Probably not. But there are lots of helpful instructions, interesting case studies and really solid explanations for why he gives the advice he does.

There is also an entire chapter called “Rule #3: Quit Social Media.”