Facebook went first

A year or so ago I deleted my Facebook profile. This was mainly because I felt really creeped out (sort of like finding a house guest going through your sock drawer) by people I was only vaguely acquainted with from 20yrs ago friending me, then rifling through my photos and posts only to reward my trust with absolutely no, nil, zilch interaction. I don’t know about the rest of humanity, but for myself being a “friend” means interaction as in “Hi, How have you been?”.

Apparently social networks are breeding

But I’ve gradually been collecting other social-networking accounts Google+ (we have more circles and less Farmville), Instagram(A artsilly fuzzy picture is worth a thousand words) & Twitter(You just get into typing a thought and then run out of …) .

So the problem is partly due to OCD

There is nothing wrong with social networks (when used wisely). You know — checking up on family etc. But given a TV remote I surf channels, and given a social network account I surf profiles… And before I know it I’m totally distracted and not adding to the sum total of human contribution but being a (shudder) consumer.

So I’ve “deactivated” (from the social networks point-of-view) and attempted to delete (from my point of view) my social networking accounts.

But what about the webalogical benefits?

Do I care about “Social media viral traffic uplift” for this website? Some, but not enough to warrant keeping the distracting time sinks that are social networking accounts in easy reach.

Downsides

Will my friends miss me? Possibly, no probably not. But they can still email, phone or go retro and post me an invite if they want to.

Will I be unable to take part in local rebellions and rioting if I’m not tuned in to the mass consciousness via social-media. Sigh I’ll have to make that sacrifice.

Social networks seem to increase the number of weak links you have with people. I want to have many good friends, many good acquaintances, many good colleagues and ex-colleagues. But not at the expense of so much of my life passing with me in front of a social-network screen with built in side-shows of endless advertisements.

In Conclusion

Less is more. We only get so much time. Why waste it by being subliminally advertised to, under the pretence of socializing with friends?