How to balance time: on one's personal world vs. the wider world?

[softwareNerd]

 

A friend posted this to Facebook.  Meanwhile, other friends complain about just the opposite: their feeds are 90% politics-related memes. 

 

Facebook-apart: should one really spend most of one's time on "the future of the country" than on making an enjoyable dinner or playing with Rover? 

 

It's a false dichotomy: spend time on politics etc. vs. spend time on more personal things. Clearly, one can do both.

 

But... in doing both, how does one go about deciding and budgeting one's time? What's the right way to think about this? How do you think about this?

 

Also, is there a difference in dividing one's time vs. dividing one's Facebook posts? If so, why?

Edited October 9, 2013 by softwareNerd

[JASKN]

The contexts assumed for people answering these questions are going to vary as widely as those who answer them. Even very broad contexts such as your country of residence will still yield answers on each end of the spectrum. Broad principles such as, "Weigh your goals and desires and prioritize accordingly" don't really say much about how someone actually decides to spend his time.

For me, I know that if I'm not doing enough related to my goals, and also if I don't take at least a little "downtime," I wont even care about "the culture" or "country," I'll just default to some activity which takes my mind off of everything. If I can manage to squeeze some "cultural change" activity out, the resulting feeling and product is so dismal that it's embarrassing.

So, after I get everything I want in some kind of order, when juding the results of my activities related to work, leisure, friends and family, and culture, I pay attention to how I feel after everything is done. If I'm miserable, the activity ratio could be out of line... or it could be something else. But how I feel about everything is where I start.

I don't use Facebook with the expectation that people are going to begin a following behind me -- I don't really havy an agenda other than to easily keep in touch with people socially. I don't comment or post statuses that wouldn't reflect what would otherwise be my real-world interactions with people. I don't view it as a very good tool to reach a broad audience, and I'd be talking with the people I know or care about on cultural topics either way. If there's any difference, it's that I may put more political posts on Faceboom than I say in person because it's easier to reference the sources behind the posts. And once it's said online there's less reason to say it in person.

[Nicky]

For most people, politics is just another subject that happens to come up. But the real purpose of the conversation is to socialize with friends and acquaintances (be it real life or just online "friends"), not to make an impact on the culture of one's country. It's no different from talking sports, or movies, or books, or romance, etc. It's just a subject people have SOME interest in, and therefor talk about it when there isn't something more interesting to talk about.

This is just as true on online forums as it is in social situations. Message boards/facebook conversations/twitter, etc. are even worse: they exist mainly to kill boredom. That's not even "socializing", many times. Frankly, none of them are well suited for the exchange of complex ideas. Some are better than others, but none of them are anywhere near a good fit. I guess the exception would be an invite only message board with a narrow enough focus, but as far as ones open to everyone on the Internet, it just doesn't work.

Back to the subject, I think JASKN's approach (if I'm reading it correctly) is right: if it's fun, do it, it it's not, change the subject. Personally, I stay away from political arguments with people I tend to disagree with on the fundamentals, only talk about politics if someone has a rational base to begin with, and is seeking further clarity (just like I am).

As far as taking it more seriously than that, I think that's only worth it if one has a significant, interested following, or is planning on a career writing about social and political issues. (when I say interested, I mean that there are people looking to read someone's political views specifically, as opposed to the person being just some random celebrity who's feeling preachy).

[thenelli01]

I think talking politics with people that have an irrational philosophical base is pointless. Most of my posts, and conversations in real life (unless it is with Objectivist-types), are not about politics. I usually try to avoid the subject. My main topic of conversation is the metaphysical-epistemological-ethical premises. I did have a chance to talk to talk to an Objectivist at Yaron Brook's lecture yesterday and we talked mostly about politics for about an hour. It was a great conversation, much better than I have had with almost anyone else. The reason is that I didn't have to start at square one with him and refute his basic premises before we can even talk about politics.

 

My primary goal isn't to change the culture though. I do it because I love ideas and I love arguing (in the logic sense, not arguing dishonestly). I enjoy exchanging ideas and if I'm not evenly matched, I enjoy teaching or explaining my ideas logically if the person is honestly interested.

 

You should spend the most time doing things that you enjoy doing the most so long as the context calls for it. If you are in a context where talking politics is appropriate and satisfying to you (i.e. not pointless argument or with people that reject reason), and talking politics is something you enjoy doing, then do it. If you are not in that context, do something you enjoy less such as playing with Rover.

 

You have to justify this rationally, however. I wouldn't recommend talking politics (because you enjoy doing it) at the negligence of a higher value. So if your life is consumed with politics and you are neglecting higher values such as your relationship with your spouse or productive work because you are too busy talking politics online, then that is immoral and not good budgeting of your time.  

Edited October 10, 2013 by thenelli01