Greetings and Happy New Year! For our first newsletter of the new year, we will take a step away from purely financial issues and address something that affects almost everyone to some degree: social media. Whether you love it or hate it, social media has become an integral part of modern life. Even if you don’t use it, your loved ones surely do, and understanding the power of social media and how to manage it is valuable knowledge to have. Regardless of your stance on social media, we hope you’ll find some value in these links. 

• Read: A blogger that quit social media? Sounds strange, right? This is an excellently written essay about Mika Perry’s decision to disconnect from social media. Perry touches upon themes of overstimulation, minimalism, and self-worth as reasons for her desire to leave social media. If you’ve ever found yourself mindlessly scrolling through an Instagram or Facebook feed and wondering what the point was, this one might be for you.
• Listen: If you enjoyed the TedX video (under “watch” below) and want to learn more about Cal Newport’s philosophies and other works (of which he has several New York Times bestsellers!), his podcast is a great start. In addition to social media, Cal talks about ways to improve focus, organize your life, build skills, and succeed in all parts of your life. Sometimes adding to your life is as simple as cutting away the things that you don’t really ‘need’.
• Watch: Cal Newport is one of the leaders of the movement for people to engage less with or fully disconnect from social media. In this short TED talk from 2016, Newport lays out the basic premise for why it behooves people to reevaluate their relationship with social media. One of Newport’s key points is that increased use of social media fragments our attention and decreases our ability to concentrate and do the kind of deep work that leads to real success in the world. If you’re interested in learning more, check out The Social Dilemma available from Netflix. It’s chock full of industry insiders revealing what they really think about social media and why it is so powerful. 

Inevitably, the New Year brings with it resolutions and the desire to add positive goals and experiences to your life. Could reducing your use of social media help you do so? We don’t have the answer to that question, but we are moved to this consideration. We’ve got big plans for the new year and can’t wait to share them with you! Share with your friends and family and please send us your thoughts about this. We love hearing from you!

Wishing you and your family a happy and healthy New Year,
The Bona Fide Family