I am somewhat rare in that I have dumped all my Social Media.
Being of an age where I was privileged to grow up without this newfangled method of communication, so I have seen and experienced both sides and this gives one some perspective. To the younger generation and certainly millennial’s its inconceivable how someone can function and live without Social media. Like many others I was slowly getting addicted staring blindly into to the small screen forever in my hand, oblivious to the world eagerly waiting for a noise or buzz to feed the addiction.
I grew up in an era where there were no video games, no social media, no cell phones no texting, 4 channels on the TV with no video recorders. We played outside in all weather, amused ourselves with soccer, bat and ball or in these brilliant “adventure playgrounds” swinging on ropes with tires ion the end, building precarious and dangerous camps with old pallets and nails resulting in lots of tears, cuts and bruises and sometimes broken bones… and I fucking loved it !! best days of my life. All of this sadly gone now, destroyed and replaced by the endless array of “electronic” gizmos plus an over protective generation (and government) who have wrapped all our kids in cotton wool under the guise of “protecting” them when in fact they have done irreparable damage. Playgrounds now closed and boarded up or replaced with something deemed to be safe and harmless which by definition is going to be lame and boring to a young adventurous mind and therefore ignored. I would not be who I am now without those learning experiences growing up. I see the spoilt, over protected, entitled youth of today and it’s just plain sad.
I have dumped it all, the APPS gladly gone from my smart phone and tablet (but are they ever really gone, I am sure they leave behind convenient little nuggets of code to continue the tracking and monitoring of our activity) So far, no cold Turkey !!! in fact I feel invigorated. like most my age I mainly used Facebook and Twitter, I must admit Facebook was a useful tool to keep in touch with friends and distant family but at what cost. I had Instagram for a while (because everyone had it, so you feel compelled to get it also, something else to feed the addiction for more connectivity more likes, more shares more endorphin fixes) its like graduating from Pot to Coke to Crack and then to Heron – always seeking the new high, we go from Facebook, to Twitter, to Instagram and to snapchat…
Some are just plain silly. Pinterest, well I signed up, but I still have no clue what the appeal of that is. As for Snapchat, well that’s clearly for kids and teenagers and from what I can see the main contribution to society is its ability to add animal features (or other useless artificial objects) to your face. It easy to see the appeal to the mindless. The young are also herded from one social media platform to another as their parents start to get on Social media. Teens, sorry “young adults” abandoned Facebook for Instagram as their parents started to get on Facebook and wanted to “friend” their kids, an innocent act for which parents (stupidly) thought that their kids will think them “cool” to be on social media, when in fact the opposite is true. The last thing our kids want is us parents looking over their shoulder seeing what they are up to in our news feeds.
Every teens nightmare is the inevitable friend request from their parents, what do they do? what a dilemma. Ignore it and face the relentless questioning and implication there is something to hide (which there is, it’s called being a stupid adolescent with incredibly poor judgement) accept the request and big brother is watching forever. So, wallop, let’s all abandon Facebook to our parents and now Instagram is the thing… and as us old farts slowly graduate from Facebook to Instagram (looking or our new fix) then off they go again onto the next available platform which seems to be this pointless Snapchat, which is a significant advantage because the older more mature generation (or more importantly parents) don’t usually do “stupid and pointless” so we are less likely to start using it, so they can do whatever it is they do online with each other (and we know we are not stupid) with some anonymity
I confess I kept my LinkedIn account open, it’s useful place to keep track of all my business contacts, but I rarely ever used it, and still don’t.
I am enjoying the hiatus so far, there is still texting for the immediate, and email for the less immediate and not forgetting the primary function of the device we hold in our hands, for which is was invented in the first place yes TALKING – yes there is still old-fashioned ringing someone and actually speaking to them.
I am finding that a combination of text, email and phone calls is enough. I have not gone all “Quaker” and abandoned all technology just moderated it down to the essentials and got rid of the superfluous. Now I have TIME. Yes, time to do the leisurely relaxing things I used to do, listen to records (yes, I said records – I like my vinyl). I again can explore photography, work and ride on my motorcycle, do some gardening and tinkering around in the garage on various project’s, and I want to desperately get back into model making. And not forgetting reading novels and books again. Not on a Kindle or a bullshit electronic display of some kind, but thumbed and used paperback books, the feel of pulp in your hand, the smell of old dry discolored paper, the joy of turning pages, the story unfolding in your mind’s eye..
Before I was slowly dying. Like so many others zombied out, neck cricked over looking at an impossibly small screen oblivious to the world, anxiety levels increasing because no one liked my last post yet. Dropping everything and I mean everything if the screen lit up it made a noise or buzzed. My brain was being sucked into that small screen and it was becoming the center of my life. Take a look at yourself, I mean really look at yourself, how much time do you spend on Social Media each day?
If one morning you forgot your phone, and worked 20 miles away and only realized when you got to work, would you turn around and go back home to get your phone? I would have considered it, and I never considered myself hooked or addicted. Could you even contemplate a day away from your social media or connected device? You think you’re not addicted and you don’t need social media? OK do this harmless experiment, delete all Social Media accounts from your mobile device (don’t panic you can re-install the APPs and you would have lost nothing – it’s all safely “in the cloud”) See how long you can last.
I think back to my younger years and the absolute horrors I would be going through now if back then all my sometimes-misguided unsavory antics were photographed or videoed, then posted, shared tweeted (or whatever). My entire life indelibly etched in the “cloud” forever, never to be erased, only to be discovered by family, friends and employers in my later years.
Everyone is busy documenting their entire life experience online and in public, which will be stored forever and can never be deleted. We all make questionable decisions when we are young and stupid and I am so happy mine only exist as distant memories, some better forgotten. I feel sorry for the young of today when all this documented “fun” will spin around and bit you in the ass at a future big important Job Interview, or a new significant other finds evidence of previously unspoken and forgotton sins…
I am just glad Social Media was not invented when I was growing up, and had no opportunity to ruin my life.
Rudge