
Why I Deleted My Social Media Accounts - keiferski
http://shifter.media/read-why-i-deleted-my-social-media-accounts/
======
ChrisGranger
I wonder how close we are to diagnosing social media addiction as a legitimate
illness. When I hear stories about people like "Mr Instagram" in this blog
post, I really, really wonder... Mobile devices are turning some of us into
zombies. It's like hypnosis.

I've been slowly purging my website accounts for a couple of years, and not
just social media accounts. Early on, I was inclined to sign up and try out
every new service that came along, but more recently I decided that if it's
not a site I'm going to use frequently, I don't _really_ need an account for
it. A beneficial side effect: far fewer logins and passwords to maintain.

As for social media proper, I just don't feel any particular urge to keep up
with the often-trivial details of everyone's life.

As an aside, I find it kind of irritating when a website refuses to allow one
to close/deactivate/delete/whatever your account.

~~~
itchynosedev
Sometimes people coerce me into using services, eg development team found a
cool service to manage the project issues or designers want to check out the
tool to manage the assets.

There's no way around it. I found password manager tools to be invaluable in
maintaining the accounts, "fire and forget".

They usually opt you in for the marketing emails, but unsubscribing is just
one click away in 99% of the cases.

You are spot on about the mobile devices enabling addictive behavior.

I used to have an old Nokia phone, with physical buttons during the
smartphones craze and wasn't able to consume entertainment media while away
from my computer. I though I'd upgrade to be able to interact better with
friends through WhatsApp and whatnot and realized how much more time I fill my
brain with junk media, because the phone is always there hence everything is
at the tip of the finger.

Although, I found playing chess on my phone to be very convenient, it's been
ages since I wanted to try to learn playing chess.

Technology is a double-edged sword and it definitely requires to exert more
self control. It's easy not to be bored, to be somewhere in between of being
satisfied and not achieving or progressing much.

I love this bit Louis CK did about smartphones, even though a bit jokish but
rings true:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c)

~~~
ChrisGranger
That Louis CK bit was great.

(I may be the only person in the western hemisphere who loves computers but
doesn't own a smartphone.)

------
egjerlow
FWIW, I've found the Leechblock plugin (and probably many others like it) to
be a great help. I'm only allowed on FB and similar time-sucking sites (HN not
included....) after 9pm. But I think it ultimately doesn't help unless you
acknowledge the problem, as they say in AA. You're going to find ways of
circumventing plugins like that, for me they mostly help in curbing the
'reflex' of typing in facebook.com in the address field. For that, it's great.

Also curious to know how helpful the HN crowd finds Twitter for actual
networking purposes.

~~~
kenny-log_ins
I like to be able to tweet someone after I have consumed some of their content
- If I read a good guide/technical article or an interesting post it's nice to
be able to instantly send something telling the author that it was useful or
enjoyable.

------
keiferski
Cached:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Mb_omlN...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Mb_omlNg46AJ:shifter.media/read-
why-i-deleted-my-social-media-accounts/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=hr)

~~~
alpb
Tried to reach him out on Twitter to tell his website was down. But guess
what, he deleted his social media accounts.

~~~
AbuAssar
he says he didn't delete his twitter account

------
staticelf
I have been off and on facebook many times, recently started to use it again
because I wanted to keep connected with my colleagues when I switched company.

How naive that was, here I am several months later and I have yet to speak
with them online. I'll probably delete my facebook again sooner or later.

------
eertami
>Twitter (The BEST tool in my mind, and I don’t follow the stream so no
clouded mental space.)

So... the article title a lie, understandable because he needs mad pageviews
yo, but this is what I really don't understand.

Is he saying he only posts to twitter, never reading it - essentially, he
seems to think someone else's words will cloud "mental space" but not his own?
What's even the point. Just write it down in a notebook instead.

How can people be so brainwashed that they fail to see the irony in
disparaging social media but acting like somehow twitter isn't exactly the
same if not worse.

------
eridal
Should "Social Media" be considered part of the OSI model?

Seems like it's another layer to _feed_ people's brains with information.

    
    
      802.3 | IP | TCP | Social-Media | Screen | Brain
    

This model could explain the popularity of feed-based apps, and these are
primarily for entertainment.

