So, with the latest updates that have come from Facebook and privacy issues that have arose from it, coupled with the fact that I have integrated social networks into just about every facet of my life, I have decided to go on a 30 day Social Media Detox. Say what? You got it. I will be “going dark” for the next 30 days. No posting, no tweets, or anything. Detaching for a while. Why am I doing this? I’ll get to that in a second.
But what does the detox entail? I’m so glad you asked (or didn’t), because I’m about to explain it to you here. Here goes:
- *TweetDeck will be turned off for the duration of the 30 day experiment. (When I turn it back on, my computer will surely ASPLODE!)
- *TweetDeck, Echofon, UberTwitter, Facebook Mobile will all be removed from my mobile devices.
- *Facebook Bookmarks will be removed from my browsers.
- *Updates made to Fan Pages I administrate will be created via email and sent to my wife to place on Facebook.
- *Any interacting with Fan’s on said pages or from @replies will be be given to me via my wife and I’ll respond accordingly, otherwise, I will not be monitoring.
- *All notification emails from Facebook & Twitter will be automatically sent to a sub folder using an email rule and I will review them in 30 days.
- *My blog will serve as keeping everyone up to date via RSS feed posting out my blog posts to both Twitter & Facebook automatically with a Hashtag of #SocialDetox
- *All wall posts, notifications, @replies, RT’s, etc will be handled after 30 days.
Information OVERLOAD
Think about it for a second. I currently follow 385 people on twitter. On Facebook I have 721 friends. That’s a little over 1100 updates in some form or another that I interact with on a daily basis! I’m wondering what my number of notifications will look like in 30 days (See picture to the right for super Back To The Future Special Effects). To have this level of information streaming in constantly is overwhelming at times. Instant, interstitial updates for one, popping noises from another, it just gets heavy. What I find interesting is that, even after trimming down my follow list, and setting my chat to “offline” on facebook, it still calls the attention. So I am disconnecting from it all for 30 days. What do I hope to accomplish? A sense of clarity & management to start. Having all of this constantly bombarding me, no matter how I try, removes my focus from the tasks at hand. And hopefully, it’ll do the same for others.
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| I’m Sure Marty’s kids have twitter and facebook going in those glasses |
I’ve read many stories of people that feel that social media is overtaking their lives. This is particularly troubling. It’s almost as if Social Media is turning into this generation’s alcohol. Almost an epidemic of digital addictions. But like addictions, for some, they can take a drink and be fine were others can get carried away and become drunkards. If taken with moderation, I think social media is more than fine. Not saying that involvement is bad (I do plan on returning to it in 30 days, in a modified state). But with people facebooking at dinner, tweeting while driving, integrating twitter/facebook into their WEDDING CEREMONIES, something has to give. I also must mention that it’s part of my job to learn/use/create social networks and the tools to administer them. Which brings me to another point. I will, during the next 30 days, analyze smaller, localized social networks for a personal project which really excites me.
So that’s it. I’m flipping the switch as of now. No more posts directly from me on any of the social networks I’m personally apart of for 30 days. There will be posts to the Evince Unlimited & Augusta’s Choice fan pages as needed. So, without further ado. This is Kenny/Oddzuki… officially detoxing.
That’s Right. I Just Had Sam Jackson Flip The Switch. Jealous?
Came across this entry while reading about “un-facebooking” experiments. I don’t see a follow up post, so i don’t know how it went. I hope it worked out well, anyway. (I do see posts from the next month, 2 of them.. Both tagged “tweeted”. So I guess I mean I don’t see a post specifically relating to this experiment.).
Still, curiosity gets me every time. While I read your list (above), I wondered how your wife’s facebook interactions were affected by your experiment.
Hey! Wow, that was from a while ago. And being that I manage a bunch of different Facebook Pages for various businesses (and did so at the time of that post), I found it incredibly difficult to make it past 20 days… As much as I wanted to continue doing it, it was hurting my bottom line.
Info:
What I did find comforting though was that I realized just how awesome it will be when I can turn Facebook off for good. Honestly, I liked life without it! Placing the burden on my wife for my interactions ended up being unfair in a sense. I’m the social butterfly of the family.. I simply needed to be the one to do it.