News Investigation

Quit Social Media. Your Career May Depend on It.

Nov 2016 🇺🇸 The New York Times PAYWALLED — LINKED, NOT HOSTED

In this widely shared New York Times essay, Cal Newport argues against the conventional advice that a visible social media presence is necessary for career success. He contends that time spent cultivating a personal brand online is linked to less time spent producing the kind of rare, high-value work that actually advances careers, framing heavy platform use as a low-value habit rather than a professional requirement. The piece became one of the paper's most-emailed articles and prompted a published Times rebuttal disputing several of its claims. It focuses on working adults, not children. TechKids Foundation cites this essay as an example of mainstream skepticism toward unexamined social media use, part of the wider public debate the library draws on when describing passive platform engagement as worth questioning.

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CITATION

Newport, Cal. "Quit Social Media. Your Career May Depend on It." The New York Times, Nov. 20, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/jobs/quit-social-media-your-career-may-depend-on-it.html

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