Practical PKM How to Avoid The Slope of Terribleness
Oct 13, 2025
Dive into the concept of the Slope of Terribleness, exploring its impact on social media. Discover how your usage patterns, rather than the platforms themselves, shape your experience. Learn valuable filtering questions to assess the voices you allow in your life. Hear about the importance of auditing your information sources, including cutting out negativity for mental clarity. Emphasize the value of choosing platforms like LinkedIn that enrich your experience and investing attention only in information that aligns with your goals.
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Social Media's Escalating Harms
- Cal Newport's "slope of terribleness" maps how social platforms cause distraction, demoderation, and disassociation.
- These harms escalate from lost attention to tribal hostility and eventual ethical numbness.
Use Over Blame For Platforms
- The problem lies more in our usage patterns than in platforms themselves.
- Anchoring information flow to identity, vision, and values prevents passive slide into toxicity.
Anchor Your PKM To Values
- Build a PKM stack anchored to your identity, vision, and values to filter incoming information.
- Use that filter to align actions and discard distracting or low-value content.