Editing My Social Noise
Editing My Social Noise: Choosing To Remove Certain Social Media Apps From My iPhone
Earlier this year, tired of not being able to hear my own thoughts through the “noise” I subjected myself online on a daily basis, I took a two-week sabbatical from social media. So committed to my “social media detox,” I went as far as deactivating my Facebook account and logged out of everything else on my computer and iPhone. I hid all the apps in a folder on the last screen of my smart devices, buried out of sight and out of mind. A strange thing happened, after the “withdrawal symptoms” of habitually checking my screen every 10 minutes to feel validated as a member of society subsided, I started hearing my own voice again. Gone was the gargled stream of collective consciousness that drowned my own ideas of self, core values and creative expression. I started interacting IN PERSON with friends and family. I exercised and cooked healthy meals from scratch. I read BOOKS! I started writing a workshop and a book. I felt amazing from the inside out. I had rediscovered ME!!! But by June, I was a “social media user” again.
Rewinding back in time before this sabbatical… I have to let you know that I came into being a “user” quite honestly for my job’s sake. It all started back in 2006 with Twitter and Blogger (yah, that old blog platform! thanks Google!) for my destination wedding photography business, Lifework Images. I needed to spread the word about my business in a hip new way and used social media to forge new relationships in cities, states, and countries I’d never been, but would be working in. Then in 2010, I’d gotten good enough utilizing those two platforms that I was brought on to the BlackRapid team to lead social media and assist their global launch in more than 50 countries over the course of a year. At the start were only 800 Twitter followers and a brand spankin’ new Facebook Page with zero followers. Auto-schedulers were not available then and our message needed to be spread real-time, so I’d Tweet and post to our audience by time zones in 16-20 hour marathons.
After my success with BlackRapid, I got back to my photography roots as a freelance shooter and host on CreativeLive. By then I had created and maintained accounts on nearly 30 social sites for just myself: Facebook (profile), Facebook Page, two Twitter accounts, Google+, Google+ Page, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Vimeo, Skype, About.me, Audioboo, Delicious, reddit, Foursquare, tumblr, Vine, Snapchat, Ustream, Spreecast, Myspace, See.me, Flickr, oggl, Quora. On top of that, I designed and managed 3 websites for my business, another 3 for clients, and was changing the visual landscape of theatre with my photography project and coordinating marketing launches with over 20 theatres and 200 artists.
Keeping up on all of this was possible by being glued to my phone 24/7, 365 days a year. Holidays, important family events, on the job, in the car, wherever I was, you could be sure to find my face staring blankly at a glowing screen like a robot.
Let’s get one thing straight: I LOVE MY PHONE. It’s the first thing I touch in the morning, the last thing I touch before bed. And that, my friends, is LAME. The big realization that I was a “user” again was at 4:30am this morning, unable to sleep, and reading a ton of crappy news on every channel available on my phone. But there was only gem: “Getting My Brain Back” by John Biggs on TechCrunch.
So taking John’s cue, at 7:35am this morning, I took Facebook, Twitter, Google + and LinkedIn off of my phone. I’ve always treated social networks as part of “the job” and so now, if I want to be on those social sites, I will be on them via my computer during business hours. Already it’s been a much more positive day and yes, I am getting my brain back and editing what social noise I partake in. You are what you eat read, right?
My home screen this morning (left) and this afternoon (right). No more Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn is gone from my social folder as well. That whole folder will be coming down next…
Now prompts a question that I get quite often: “As creatives/entrepreneurs, how do I keep up with followers/SEO on all of these social networks? I only have a couple now and don’t have time to maintain and interact with people on THOSE, but somehow we are supposed to be active on all of them all the time to get business?” (Thanks for prompting this conversation, Anita!)
Oh boy, do I GET it. And just like you, fight with the same thoughts/challenges every day. You know what? We only have so much time and energy in a day, and we want to be able to live our lives wholeheartedly too. This means we want to be able to touch base with our social worlds but not spend every waking moment glued to a screen, and need to bring our social lives to more in-person interactions with our true family, friends, colleagues, and clients. That’s real life!
My recommendation: choose only a few social networks you WANT to commit to, but have a profile set up on the rest. There are a a ton of social networks so grab your screen name on the most popular ones and set up your name, bio, photo, and link to your website. Then select 2-4 that you really enjoy being on AND where your targeted client spends their time, and invest your online social activity to those select few. They say to consistently post throughout the day every day, but in all honestly, who has time for that when you have a business and a real life? Just do your best and commit to living a happy life. When you choose to post on any platform, the honesty and importance of your words will shine.
BONUS READ:
My current iPhone app organization: Messenger is a nice app to maintain important conversations and I find a lot of my clients use this in lieu of email. Pinterest I use as a fun creative outlet a few evenings a week planning meals, figuring out my wardrobe, and designing my home. The eye candy here I use to enhance and uplift my lifestyle. I’m really happy and positive when I create something fun here. Instagram is the insight to my photography, fashion, and celebrity world. Besides a few spammy ads that people put up, it’s a visual creative outlet and de-cluttered from most negative news. Lots of fun camera and video apps – because I’m a photographer! And music, games, restaurant and shopping apps. I actually save about $100-$200 a month by comparison shopping on some of these. But looking over the entire lot, I think I’ll be able to par this down quite a bit and will be working on minimizing the configuration.
Thanks for reading, liking and sharing this post! You are the reason I shared it.
LaRae…this is exactly the balance I’m trying to achieve. I am not on nearly as many social networks as you are/were, but it’s like muscle memory checking Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare every ten minutes. In fact, when I’m writing, if I stop for 3 minutes, I have always gone right to FB. On Monday (Aug. 11) I decided I had had enough of all the crap that was barraging my brain all day long. I decided I wouldn’t check Facebook. But that muscle memory kicked in. So, on my computer I logged out…being faced with the log in screen is enough to remind me that I don’t want to be on there. On my phone I moved the FB app to a middle screen somewhere where all my forgotten apps live (though a folder would probably slow me down more). I look at Twitter twice a day, though I’ve muted so many people now…and I am trying to mostly just view my biz account.
I don’t miss Facebook at all…but I am going to be managing an organization’s FB feed for a couple months, so I will have to be very disciplined. I get most of my news from Twitter, so I think I won’t be able to ditch it completely. Facebook remains to be seen. I get nothing out of it, other than talking to friends…which I can do via text, email, and Twitter DM (I used DMs for “texting” with out of the country friends).
I read the same article you referenced above…and I wanted to shout, “THIS!!!” But that would have meant breaking my self-imposed exile from social media. In short (too late): I don’t feel like I’m missing anything from not being on FB; I feel much clearer without the litany of garbage filling my brain; I don’t know what to do with myself when I have 5 minutes between projects.
Thank you for posting this so eloquently…I may re-post this as my grand return to Twitter!
Muscle Memory! I love how you describe it, Erica. That really is how it becomes in our lives. So proud of you for changing it up on August 11th! Perhaps this is the big month of people taking our lives and brains back, hopefully more will follow suit by personal choice.
Wishing you luck in balancing the organization’s feed with this new era for yourself. I believe you will be able to take care of their business, while at the same time avoid the majority of negative noise out there. It can be done!
“THIS” thanks John Biggs! So thankful to have seen his article in the Twitter feed too.
Social media and social networks are not evil, and I do enjoy being on them, but pairing back and having a healthy relationship with our networks is what it’s all about.
It’s funny how some people feel they need to persuade people to stay on social media. I was taking a break for me…not telling anyone else they had to. People kept reaching out to me to extoll the virtues of Facebook and Twitter, or to tell me how to edit my feed so it was more what I wanted. I know all that…just wanted to do without for a while. I started explaining that it’s like when you rough it for the weekend by hiking in to a remote area and living in a tent. You’re not saying electricity and hot showers are a BAD thing…just feels good to do without. I’m kind of used to the reactions, though…when I tell people that I don’t drink they often feel bad for me. “Aw, you can have just ONE!” I know I can, I choose not to. Not making a statement on YOUR lifestyle, just my own. Sometimes I think it’s people that wish they could stop or cut back and haven’t been able to.
I’m not asking anyone to leave Facebook, or to stop drinking, I do what I do for me. But, what do I know? I don’t have TV, got rid of most of my belongings, don’t want to be a millionaire, and I moved to El Paso from Denver just because I wanted to. Hah!
See you ’round the social media world!
Doing what is right for you is what’s it’s all about! You are on the right track and living a happy life 🙂
Loving life here, for sure! And I’ve culled back my Facebook noise…mostly clicked “unfollow” on some of the more persistent (read: annoying) people I am connected to…also, anyone that friended me that I don’t really know. I used to friend everyone but for the past 2 years, I only friend people I’ve met (and not ones that saw a class or attended a seminar). Not really interested in what their kids/cats/pet goldfish are up to and they’d be disappointed in my feed, I’m sure. Hah!
Twitter is set to make some new changes that seem to be more Facebook-like in nature. Twitter has always been my favorite social media platform, but that has been changing. If they start messing with the timeline and what I see in my feed, I will probably jump ship. TwitPic is already shutting down and I’ve used them and Twitter since 2007.
Oh well…new home, new life, new beginnings, I guess! And I am super happy to see you living the beach life and enjoying yourself…makes me smile every time! (No, I didn’t unfollow you…you made the cut!)
So happy to hear you are loving life in a new home. It takes a while to adjust to the local lifestyle, but make it yours!
Picking my battles with Facebook, trying to use it properly for true personal activity and work promotions 1-2x per week only. Seems like a more healthy use of the platform for me now.
Here’s to new beginnings and glad I made the cut 😉