Going Private on Social Media

A week or so ago I decided I’d hit the Social Media Wall. Y’know - where the quality of interactions is on the wane and you spend more time figuring out how to make your accounts so that A: people can’t find you, or B: only a select few can actually message or interact with your profile?

Yeah.

That’s where I was at.

The news is heavy - the year has been grading (at best) - and I was just finding it hard to see the forest through the trees. Especially in terms of online content consumption and investment.

In my line of work, you have to be Open and Willing to Connect with everyone, all the time. That hasn’t changed. Everyone can connect with me, or attempt to, via this Website and on Twitter.

Facebook was the first to go. Yes, I still have a Page which I use from time to time. Generally to spread awareness about something I’m passionate about. I try to keep my Page fairly empty because, in my experience, Facebook is a magnet for negative interactions which I’m no longer interested in tolerating.

Instagram is private for the time being. Maybe I’ll open it up again but maybe not. I think there’s a real crunch to Have the Most Likes and Be the Most Followed and it starts to spiral into obligations and/or heightened expectations from strangers to spread positivity or ‘influence’ others into thinking some type of way. I like to tell the truth and a lot of the time, Social Media expectations don’t really reflect that.

The observations I’ve made in ‘going private’ have been this:

• more meaningful conversations or interactions with real people and friends

• less spam, bots and targeted ads

• seeing more things on my timeline that make me happy or feel engaged

That’s what I want at this time. Take control of your social media profiles and use it in a way that works for you.