In the last year or so, several people I know have made the decision to say goodbye to social media. Facebook in particular seems to be losing its attraction, although Twitter is not immune to this either.
The pruning of social media is a trend, to be sure. More and more well-known blogs are closing their comment section for instance.
Another way this trend manifests, is that people reduce the amount of social media they’re active on. Celebrities especially—and I’m talking about bloggers and Internet celebrities here, not the Hollywood type—choose two, maybe three media to be active on, with one as primary. Or they’ll use one or two only for private purposes only.
The reason most people leave—aside from those who have an issue with Facebook’s complete lack of privacy—is that social media have become bothersome, a chore, a time waster rather than something that brings value. Even for some bloggers and others who built their success through social media, the price they had to pay to keep it all up was too high.
I get this. I love connecting with others through Twitter and Facebook especially, but it does require a day-to-day time investment. It’s why I’ve decided to focus most of my energy on these two, at the expense of other possibly useful media like Google+. After all, there’s little sense in spending so much time on social media in order to build connections to promote something, that you don’t have the time anymore to actually create what you want to promote in the first place.
Can You Stomach It?
But there’s another reason I keep hearing, and this one says a lot about the nature of social media, or rather, what social media have developed into. Another reason some people say goodbye to social media is because they can’t stomach it anymore.
The criticism, the trolls, the self-aggrandizing comments, the incessant self-promoting: it requires a thick skin to navigate this, especially if you’re well-known.
Isn’t it beyond ironic that the reason people quit social media is because they’ve stopped being social?
I’m not sure what the moral is here though. I mean, I could encourage each and every one of us to make Twitter or Facebook a better place—an easy first step would be to stop posting game invites for instance, or sharing every urban legends that comes along. But I doubt we could counteract all the negative stuff and people ‘out there.’
It makes me sad, I guess, to see people leave simply because they can’t take it anymore. I’ve made so many great connections and even real-life friendships through social media, that I’m sad and disappointed to see it come to this.
Joey Basta says
Yes I can definitely understand. It does seem like social media is all about “the sale” and sometimes kinda selfishly “all about me” etc.
We all just need to realize we can filter out what we don’t like and interact with what and whom we do like. It’s kinda like real face to face interactions as well! Social media can and IS a good thing. Like you mentioned, I also have made many good friends on social media and well as had to “unfriend” many also.
We all just need to focus on the WHY we are using social media and as Christiand we need to remember the WHO we are doing this for – to spread His Good News. And while we are doing that, just as in real life, it could get messy and we need to stay focused and strong and ingnore the non-sense. Amen?
Rachel Blom says
Couldn’t agree more. Sadly, it’s not just non-Christians that behave badly on social media though…
Eric Dye says
I can understand why some people leave it. Whenever I begin to feel that way at all, I just take some time and curate my feeds and followers—and in the end—go back to enjoying ‘social’ media again. 🙂
Rachel Blom says
Yup, I’ve been known to do a massive round of unfriending and weeding to get rid of some people who spoil it for me.
Chris Wilson says
You know I’ve been really thinking of cutting down my social media engagement to one or maybe two social networks only. The issue I have is that I find there are good things about each network. Facebook has friends from a long time and is often the only way I can contact some people. In addition I am part of some great groups there. Twitter can be a boring stream of automated messages but I have made some great friends from places I would never have met due to it. Google+ is probably the network I have the largest community with and I have some very dear groups and friends on there.
I guess I better just grasp the nettle and choose one, or give each one a month off and see which I miss most.
Rachel Blom says
Like you, I am on various networks that I use for various reasons. Living so far away from my home country, Facebook is my primary way of keeping in touch with many of my European friends. For that reason alone, I’d never want to quit it – even if it does get tiresome and demanding at times. For me, the key is not to quit, but to limit and make my interactions more specific.