How can I miss you when you won't go away? Or that time when James Altucher inspired my 'pseudocide.'
I love social media. I’m just sick of being my own paparazzo. And I know I’m not alone.
We are tweeting, updating, posting, liking, pinning, IM’ing, DM’ing, +1'ing, YouTubing, and Googling now more than ever.
Ask yourself - How many times did I check <<insert favorite online social network>> today? I did. And I didn’t like the answer.
There were many other days I had asked myself that same question and was okay with it. The ROI was there – and it wasn’t just the false self-affirmation I got every time someone responded favorably to me online.
For most of us the ROI for personal online social networks is apparent. Exciting friendships are forged, business deals made, reputations built, and new things learned every day. Social media is like a psychological orgasm that leaves us begging for more.
It’s not that I’m getting sick of the kinds of things I’m posting. (But if you are, does Chris Brogan have some great suggestions for you on that.)
Perhaps it’s that I’m more concerned with feeding my channels than actually experiencing any of what I’m talking about online. Learning anything new with my bare hands. In the real world. Is my brain suffering because of it? Will my creativity bloom even further by taking a break from my personal networks?
After talking with a good friend about what he described as social media “malaise” – he suggested I stay off of my online social networks until the first day of summer, June 20. We both had projects we were planning on diving into this spring and, in a show of solidarity, agreed to go off the social media grid with me. The idea – while completely terrifying – guaranteed an ROI. For a few months, every minute not spent on an online personal network can be put toward my project. As an added bonus, I would have greater insight into my online networks I would not have gained otherwise.
James Altucher’s recent post “How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found” – a thought which sounded really great when I read it – got me thinking that perhaps by going off my social networks people might forget about me. Like suddenly my relevance to the rest of the world will diminish because I am no longer in the apparent context of the online conversation.
Will I be in essence faking my own death by going off the grid? A pseudocide of sorts?
Clearly something must be wrong with me to deliberately abstain from my online social networks for a while, right?
