April 14th, 2013 Posted in Life Hacks

Why I Am Deleting My Social Network Profiles

I am gradually closing down my social network profiles. There are many reasons why I have decided to do so:

  • I get way too much email and it’s got to become more manageable.
  • I want considered, meaningful communication with people in my life rather than rushed, ill considered mass broadcasts in each direction.
  • I waste too much time on them. Obviously this is not the fault of the social networks, it’s my lack of willpower. I want to focus on producing good work and experiencing interesting things in the physical world.
  • Work brings me onto social networks a lot. Deleting my personal profiles will keep this separate and stop me getting distracted with my own feeds.
  • I can’t say what I am thinking half the time. It’s mostly public, anyone can read it and post some snarky comment liable to cause a fight.
  • Social networks are mostly drivel I have no need or desire to read. Everyone ‘having a voice’ and being able to share their thoughts doesn’t appeal to me. Most posts are showing off or moaning.
  • Scammers, spammers, the illiterate and people who can’t think critically do the most talking, and I end up pissed off and exerting a lot of effort to avoid engaging them.

So the plan is:

  • Hide YouTube and blog comments using Firefox plugins.
  • Delete personal Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and Tumblr accounts.
  • Unsubscribe from all newsletters and as many notifications as possible.
  • Stay away from blogs about internet marketing, getting rich quick, life coaching and anything else that makes me want to punch my screen.
  • Call people to talk and meet up to do interesting things. This is going to take some getting used to as it means breaking my social media habit.
  • Make it clear to people that it’s not OK for them to stare at their phones while they are spending time with me.

I have a local blog set up where I vent and write about stuff to get it off my chest. The rest of the world doesn’t need to read that, nor do I want anyone to. Writing it down is all that matters to me.

The desired outcome for me is a more meaningful, varied social life.  I reckon it’s probably going to be disruptive but well worth the effort!