LarrySanger.org

I kept my “no social media during work” pledge just fine

As I wrote in my last blog post,

I’m pledging to abandon social media networks when I am at work, except for narrowly defined work purposes. And I’m asking you to hold me to it and slag me mercilessly if you catch me at it! And I’m inviting you to take the pledge, too!

Yep, so for one day at least—and for many more, I still intend—I didn’t do any social media at work. I could have done some related to work, but I didn’t have any I wanted to do, so I didn’t.

I’ve had a tremendously productive day so far! (Among other things I promoted a plan to get people to write a bunch of one-fact bitts quickly; and I also started a list of our “beat writers,” six listed so far, under the first question of our FAQ. Sorry, you may have to log in in order to see this.)

But, sadly, nobody, not even a single person, took this “No Social Media at Work” pledge. Oh, well! I’ll continue myself, anyway!

by

Larry Sanger

“Internet Knowledge Organizer.” Currently President of the Knowledge Standards Foundation, started Wikipedia and various other educational and reference sites. Ph.D., Philosophy, Ohio State, 2000. [read more]

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Please do dive in (politely). I want your reactions!

3 responses to “I kept my “no social media during work” pledge just fine”

  1. Devon

    Larry, I have a major and minor objection to this pledge.
    Minor: it would be meaningless for me to make it. I teach college. I teach five sessions a week. I couldn’t really FB if I tried, during those hours. (That’s a 3/3 load, four hours a day on MW, and an hour on friday. If that sounds cushy to anyone, I challenge you to give a professional presentation for four hours in a day. Most business sorts fold.) The rest of the week I prep for classes, grade papers, meet with students, etc. it winds up about 40 hours.
    Some of those times are not open, and I couldn’t FB if I wanted to. Other times are flexible, and I reserve the right to stop grading after 4 or so papers and do a little social media.
    Major objection: suppose I had a traditional 9to5 job. Why shouldn’t I FB when I can get awy with it? If I feel the need to FB, then my job is unfulfilling drudgery and I’m not being given any sense of ownership by my employer. I have only prudential reasons to keep from slacking off. Thete’s ceryainly no *moral* imperative to put my employer’s interests ahead of mine.

    Reply
    1. Larry Sanger

      Hi Devon,

      Your minor objection is well taken. I don’t have any obvious response other than that it would be a good discipline to carve out a period free of social media, only on the assumption that it’s a problem for you. It might not be.

      The reason you should not FB during a traditional job is that you bear a moral obligation to work for your employer during the time. Your time is not your own; it’s bought and paid for by your employer. If you don’t like your job, you should do whatever you can do to get a different one. So, anyway, of course there is a moral imperative to put your employer’s interests ahead of yours.

      Reply
  2. Martin Gustavsson – Vetenskapliga partiet

    Congratulations. Try posting a last post on them for ten days! Life improves in a radical way! Next. Try avoid media owned by the few greedy ones for ten days! Life improves even more! Sit in silence and breath deeply for ten days and life improves even more! 😉

    Reply

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