This is my breakup letter with legacy social media. I sit at my writing desk on the cusp of my birthday. I do not know whether we are celebrating another trip around the sun or the promise of the next trip. Either way, I will celebrate me. As a present to myself this year I have decided to finally get rid of my social media accounts. On my birthday I tend to make lists for the upcoming year and evaluate where I have come from the last. This year, while examining the last year, I noticed that I am wasting too much time looking into the lives of others online.
I have hoards of online acquaintances and very few real friends. In part I blame the fake sense of familiarity that is found on social media. I have a moment-to-moment accounting of almost everyone that I have ever come into contact with inside my pocket. This leads me to believe that I know these people and it also leads them to feel like they know me and what I am up to. It’s a lovely invention and it has made keeping in touch very easy. Unfortunately, now that there are so many people on each platform I find it overwhelming. People expect you to see their posts and engage with them. I have been an active participant since 2006 on Facebook. Fortunately for me it is finally time to call it quits.
I will miss all of my online friends. Many people have liked my posts and pictures (for what that is worth) but now it is time for me to shift. That old legacy social media energy is getting stale and me right along with it. Time to pivot, shift, and generally become someone else. My newly found free time will be spent freeing my mind, focusing on creativity, fitness, homesteading, fishing, reading, and any other whim that strikes my fancy. I will be using this blog/site to randomly throw updates up. Don’t expect them to be regular at first. I understand that this process should be treated like an addiction detox and I will be treating it as such.
This will be a great journey. I look forward to connecting with you more often and in meaningful ways. Please, don’t be a stranger, drop me a line once in a while and I will be sure to do the same.
-Dirtbag
Dirtbag Yuppie 