anti-Social Networks

With my latest 30 day posting challenge wrapped up I thought I may as well explain now what has been going on with me in regards to social networks.  I would not at all say that I have become anti-internet or anti-networking but in regards to Social Networking I have definitely moved myself into the anti-Social Network camp.

There are many who believe that Social Networks in reality breed anti-social behaviour, and I would have argued against this view for years when I was a member of various social networking sites, but I think as you gain a little more perspective on their use you do have to stop and think about what you want to be on a Social Network for and what you gain from doing so.  We can start with Facebook as I axed that recently.  Now as I explained elsewhere you can deactivate your account, and reactivate at any time - I didn't do this though.  I actually deleted my account, which is a two step process, you request deletion and then get a confirmation, that tells you your account has been marked for deletion, you have two weeks to change your mind.  Two weeks pass and if you didn't log in then the account is deleted.  I did this for mine.

I first joined Facebook in 2006 when I was at University, when Facebook was a closed service, you had to be a student at a University that was part of the Facebook network and you had to have an Academic email address in order to sign up.  Facebook was very much for students.  There were a lot of networking features, each Network had its own Network home page so my University had one, you could easily find people at your University, I met a few through it and I engaged with the people I went to Uni with on it.  Over the years the purpose of Facebook has become more and more ambiguous for me, slowly it moved to the point where I really only logged in to see what other people were up to, check messages and reply to anyone that had contacted me.Then came Applications mainly Games I played a few of those but I have the Android versions of the ones I played now.  I have other ways of contacting the people I want to speak to and as for posting things to Facebook with the Public nature of the site even with privacy controls the motivation has very much died.  My blog serves the purpose of letting me publish things I want the world to see, and there is no ambiguity here, there is no access control you see everything and anyone can comment, it's simple and I am conscious of the simple guideline: "If you don't want people to see it, then don't post it".

Twitter has been the same as Facebook in essence.  Google+ however was an interesting endeavour and in the end I realised that it wasn't for me, the reason being that it was far too easy for trolls and other negative commentators to trawl.  With a blog you have to go out of your way to find it, that or it will be something you discover in passing and bookmark for later.  With social networks you tend to log on with the intent of engaging.  I don't mind if people read my blog and don't comment, I'm not really here for comments, although they are appreciated, they aren't the reason I blog - and therein lies the main problem with social networks, the reason many use them is because the comments, the likes, the retweets, the favourites, the +1s and the reposts are the reasons many people use social networks.  They want to feel popular and they want to showcase that popularity to the world or to their world.  I have never been one for fame.  I would much rather have fortune, I would much rather have happiness more than anything, I have never seen popularity or fame as a means to that end so I have never sought it.  In my life I was always quite private, and it was my time at University that flipped that side of me to become one that was quite Public, there was a freedom and a sense of liberation in being that way but I have gained insights into the kind of people who treat anyone with that attitude as a piece of entertainment, as something they can watch or "play with" in other words:  the more open you make our life the less sincere the people who look into it will be.

To that end I am reverting to my teenage self in many ways.  The last 9 years of my life are being undone and I am becoming the private, quiet person I once was, the type of person who spoke to others when spoken to and only told others what they asked, if you don't ask I won't tell.  This blog will remain a window on my life and the level of openness I have exhibited on here will remain constant but as I said in my About Me section, if you want to know more you'll have to ask me, and I have very much made that a requirement more than a suggestion now, you won't find me on any social networks, you won't be able to find out things for your self so if there is anything you want to know, you really will have no other choice but to ask me.