Chimamanda: How much space should social media occupy?

Author and activist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, during a commencement speech to the 2017 graduating class of Williams College in Massachusetts, United States spoke on how much space social media should occupy. “Put the damned phone down. Well, at least for a few hours a day. Read a book. Talk to other human beings. And when […]

Author and activist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, during a commencement speech to the 2017 graduating class of Williams College in Massachusetts, United States spoke on how much space social media should occupy.

“Put the damned phone down. Well, at least for a few hours a day. Read a book. Talk to other human beings. And when you do pick up the phone again, before you tweet or Snapchat or Instagram, call your parents. Or call an aunt. Or go outside and do something that you will not be photographing or videotaping for social media”  The author of ‘Americana’ said is what she tells her niece and nephews.

Chimamada said that in the grand scheme of things, views and likes on social media do mean something, in the way that they represent a fleeting, but still enjoyable, validation.

While adding that in this   age of ‘social media influencers’, they can be monetized. As such “It does have its good uses.”

She however stated that the question is how much social media should matter, how much space social media should occupy in one’s life.

“I would suggest, too, that you be very clear about the artifice that social media is. And that you try and have real connections with actual people that you actually know. Too much social media is like eating too much of a moist, too-sweet, too-rich, too-everything cake. You like it while you’re stuffing yourself, but afterwards, you feel less than good. And you realize you would have been better off with a little less cake,” she explained.