2021-05-11
33 分钟After scrolling through your social media feeds, how do you feel? Empowered and connected -- anxious, or exhausted? When stand up, actor, and writer Aparna Nancherla was just starting out, her jokes on Twitter got her recognition in a way that traditional comedy clubs probably could never have. But having built a comedy career for herself, in large part, by being on the internet, she recognizes that social media is not always fun and laughs. Now, for the sake of her mental health, she limits her time online. On today’s show, longtime friends Chris and Aparna talk about the good and bad of social media, and explore some advice on how best to use it-- or even if we should use it at all. To learn more about "How to Be a Better Human," host Chris Duffy, or find footnotes and additional resources, please visit: go.ted.com/betterhuman
Ted audio collective.
I'm Chris Duffy, and this is how to be a better human.
On today's show, we're going to be talking about social media with someone who has built a career by being great at it.
Aparna Nancherla is a stand up.
She's an actor, she's a writer, and so much more.
And she's built that career for herself, in large part by being funny online.
When Aparna was just starting out, her jokes on Twitter got her recognition in a way that traditional stand up comedy clubs probably never could have.
But as someone who's been friends with her for years, something that's been really interesting to me watching Aparna, is that while the advantages to her being on social media have been really clear, so have the disadvantages, so have the downsides, the ways in which it has made her unhappy or exacerbated her anxiety and depression.
And Aparna would be the first to tell you that.
And then on a bigger scale, there's obviously something that we've all, as a society, seen over the past 15 plus years of social media.
Social media has upsides, and it also has very, very steep downsides.
And while there is a lot of advice floating around, the question is, is it possible to just quit social media altogether?
Let's actually listen to a clip that I think talks about this very directly.
This is what author and computer science professor Cal Newport has to say.
I've never had a social media account.
You don't have to worry.
It turns out I still have friends.
I still know what's going on in the world as a computer scientist, I still collaborate with people all around the world.
I'm still regularly exposed serendipitously to interesting ideas, and I rarely describe myself as lacking in entertainment options.
So I've been okay, but I'd go even farther.