You probably don't realize

that right now, you're actually looking at something quite rare.

Because I am a millennial computer scientist book author

standing on a TEDx stage,

and yet, I've never had a social media account.

How this happened was actually somewhat random.

Social media first came onto my radar when I was at college,

my sophomore year of college,

this is when Facebook arrived at our campus.

And at the time, which was right after the first dotcom bust,

I had had a dorm room business, I'd had to shut it down in the bust,

and then, suddenly, this other kid from Harvard, named Mark,

had this product called Facebook and people being excited about it.

So in sort of a fit of somewhat immature professional jealousy,

I said, "I'm not going to use this thing.

I won't help this kid's business; whatever's going to amount to."

As I go along my life, I look up not long later,

and I see everyone I know is hooked on this thing.

And from the clarity you can get

when you have some objectivity, some perspective on it,

I realized this seems a little bit dangerous.

So I never signed up.

I've never had a social media account since.

So I'm here for two reasons; I want to deliver two messages.

The first message I want to deliver

is that even though I've never had a social media account,

I'm OK, you don't have to worry.

It turns out I still have friends,

I still know what's going on in the world;

as a computer scientist

I still collaborate with people all around the world,

I'm still regularly exposed serendipitously to interesting ideas,

and I rarely describe myself as lacking entertainment options.

So I've been OK, but I'd go even farther and say

not only I am OK without social media but I think I'm actually better off.

I think I'm happier, I think I find more sustainability in my life,

and I think I've been more successful professionally

because I don't use social media.

So my second goal here on stage