by Kevin Pointer Sr.
From this Gecko’s point of view there’s little question that technological and digital advancements, especially those related to hitting my keyboard to get on the web, have arguably made the planet a better place in many seemingly too often underappreciated ways. If I need to know what the acronym SWOT means and get background I Google it. If I need see the best examples of white papers I google it. If I want to know what preprandial means …… as in Preprandial Ruminations Regarding Delivering Better Content in a Deeply Distracted World . . . I . . . You guessed it . . . I Google it! Don’t you?! . . . Heck from an early age I taught my little Geckos that if they really wanted to know something to just . . . well Google it . . . that would certainly be a start!
Not only Google but other technologies and even social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have made the planet a worldwide village where online social interactions can occur. We now can now have connections in countries that we’ve never been to and may not ever visit. Indeed social media also provides non-stop opportunities for trading and business expansion. Therefore, social media can be a blessing in terms of building interpersonal and professional bonds.
Nonetheless, the positive, “blessing” side of social media, digitalization, and technology may actually be a curse for some. Some thing to be minimized or to quit altogether the logic goes if one is to be able to perform the kind of deep work that real progress and substantive work contributions demand. Within this blog post we shall review, and suggest however, — even as a graphic designer might periodically take stock and perform a SWOT within their freelancing environment — some details involving when to Minimize, Quit, or Better Just “SWOT “ social media or technology. To do this review we shall crawl up on three disparate, yet connected narratives. Let’s see what we might glean.
Digital Minimalism / Cal Newport Chapter 7 — Join the Attention Resistance
Minimize technology . . . cut back on your digital pursuits . . . that’s the theme here. Wrong! While Cal Newport does a headline a click-bate like edict within this chapter that says unequivocally to “Delete Social Media from Your Phone” his actual copy here is less prescriptive. Indeed Cal qualifies his stance basically indicating that if you are going to use social media stay far away from the mobile phone versions where the attention engineers at companies like Facebook and Twitter are investing the most money to make them “sticky” to your eyeballs. Extracting eyeball minutes, Cal goes on to say and demonstrate, has become significantly more lucrative than extracting oil! In addition to his practice edict of “Delete Social Media from Your Phone” within Chapter 7 Cal Newport adds the practice edicts of “Use Social Media Like a Professional” and “Dumb Down Your Smartphone”.
Cal Newport’s Rule #3 / Quit Social Media — Quit? . . . Cal Newport, in the Rule #3 segment of his Deep Work book is not as radical as it might sound. In fact, as you continue reading you will realize that Cal offers more realistic, moderated, and practical advice along the lines of allowing media “thresholds” and [just] being more selective applying a “craftsman approach to ’tool’ selection”.
Moving on it is not actually until several pages into this section where Cal let’s the hard case “Quit Social Media” shoe drop where he actually makes a cogent case — including discussing the media giants calculated and encouraged strategy of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) that probably accounts for social media’s grip on large parts of our society. Importantly this author ultimately encourages people to give up social media for 30 days to see who approaches them, indicating that they miss your activity, messages, or Tweets. Consider if it is really value-added if no one misses it.
SWOT Analysis For (Web) Designers/Mark Des Cotes — So . . . in a sense we have gone from (if you believe Cal Newport’s book section titles alone) from minimizing to quitting technology, or social media as the case may be. Now, perhaps from a technology agnostic sense of balance and from a careerist’s point of view we briefly expose a few article notes from podcaster, blogger, and author Mark Des Cotes. Specifically imagine this Gecko has trekked up the world’s highest mound and, with Mr. Des Cotes has deliberately, dispassionately, and objectively made none of the previous edicts of “minimizing” or “quitting” technology. Rather, when it comes to the career of the designer we pose the following informational Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats (SWOT) “food for thought” . . . Hey . . . The following information may benefit some of you creative-type Geckos! and a periodic review and reflection of whatever career landscape you may find yourself should be worthwhile. Specifically from the hot “gig economy” (freelancing) world a few SWOT ideas that we can adapt and flesh out as a designers and creative types from Mr. Des Coats include:
· Determining if our interactive media education is in alignment with the needs of the marketplace.
· Determining if a client is a right fit for us.
· Figuring out how to tackle a design project.
· Vetting potential candidates to hire as contractors.
· Figuring out the best design strategy sessions with clients
The basic idea is to determine on a piece of paper or electronically, say in M.S. Word, “What are the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities , & Threats” involved for each of the bullets above.
References
Cotes, M. N. D. (2020, February 10). SWOT analysis for designers – RD202. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://resourcefuldesigner.com/swot-analysis-for-designers-rd202/
Newport, C. (2016). Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. New York City, New York: Grand Central Publishing.
Newport, C. (2020). Chapter 7 Join the Attention Resistance. In Digital Minimalism. New York City, New York: Penguin Books.
