A case against the social media.
Would you like to give a thumbs up to a stranger on the street?
No you wouldn’t like to give a thumbs up to anyones on the street. So why do you feel compeled to do so, on-line? Don’t get me wrong about that. I too have in the past ‘liked’ tweets, posts, photos and the lot. Why? Not sure, social; engineered pressure. Why now know ofcourse. Why ; thanks to people like Tristan Harris the word is out. But, how many of us have cut loose from the ropes that held our attention captively?
I haven’t.
I definitely don’t deserve full credit for my absence online. My wife, who has never fallen in the ultra modernist trap known as social media has consistently steered me away from all that nonsense. Twitter was poison of choice and I have not missed it. I remember posting crap for UX design and having long winded conversations with 10 people on 1 thread, arguments even! Much wasted time spent tweeting and interacting with morons on the internet, constantly keeping up with them; and when I posted a virtual goodbye to my late brother… Tumbleweed.
That was the last staw, I left Twitter, which was the last medium of strangers in my life. This was 5 years ago. I see people are still stumbling in and out from the toxic waste land. Good luck to them, really! The only app that I have that drained my attention for the last few years was YouTube. I now have deleted all my personal accounts from the platform, I use it for work only, when I need a quick tutorial on a very specific subject, and music. That’s it!
There is a huge amount of liberation; I have so much time to interact, play and work. My productivity has gone through the roof, my general wellbeing, I have no words to describe it. It’s like I am back in the 80’s with a better ‘walkman’ and a better personal computer. Bliss!
I am no Jason Lanier, but I agree everyone needs to change direction in most areas. Leaving social media is a great start.