Ok, so I guess it is time. I think I will be pulling back from Facebook for a while.
Because of my former self-employment with Moyers Design, I’ve needed to be heavily involved in social media. I’ve done that for the past several years. Now that I’m employed at a church, my need for social media is greatly diminished. My desire for social media, on the other hand, seems to be as strong as ever. Social media is a drug. I’ve come to dislike it.
Facebook has become a portal that makes me mad more than anything else. 50% of the posts I see are reposts of things that I saw a year ago (usually video). Another 40% are nothing more than thinly veiled click-bait designed to get you to their website where they swamp you with ads that they get paid for showing.
Let’s see… that’s 90%. Since my percentage calculation is highly scientific, I would say that leaves me another 30%. Great.
At least 20% of the posts are “like-bait.” You know what I mean. Like this post for good luck, or like this kitten because he’s cute, or I wonder if I said hello how many of my friends would respond, or my personal favorite… like and share if you love God. I even saw one today that had a picture of a twig that said “like this stick for no particular reason.” So, we like and we share and then we wonder why some corporate spamming starts showing up in our stream. If you don’t know it yet, you need to understand that those accounts that are racking up the “likes” on generic posts are doing so to gain followers so that they can sell their account to someone else. Those kittens you liked last week may be an account for Sears next week… or something far worse.
Let’s see, another 10% of the posts are political/social inflammation. Somebody gets on their soapbox for their personal rant (sort of like what I’m doing now) and says something that has no other intent than to cause social havoc. And then, someone will repost it. Tons of people start commenting. People get ugly. NOTHING goes away on Facebook. What you say is like a permanent record.
The last 7% are posts that actually have merit. There are people with whom I like to stay in touch. I enjoy what they have to say. Unfortunately, it’s become unbearable wading through all the muck just to get to the good stuff.
That’s leaves 3%. I guess those are my posts. That makes 130%. Good to go.
Ah, but then there’s Twitter. The Twitter is dead, all hail The Twitter.
I was talking to a friend recently who told me of a test he conducted on Twitter. He wanted to see just how many people actually see what he tweets. He had slightly over 2000 followers on his account, which is pretty decent overall, considering he’s not a celebrity or national figure. His post went as follows:
If you are actually reading this, email me at (insert address) and I will send you $100.
From 2000 followers, he mailed out $200. Twitter is fast-paced noise. The Twitter is dead, all hail The Twitter.
Don’t get me started on LinkedIn. What’s the point of LinkedIn anyway?
Do I sound a bit jaded? Maybe I am. Nevertheless, I will be pulling back. I won’t be out completely, as I will still need to do some work related activity. But, I believe I will spend my wasted time elsewhere. Maybe Bookworm or Flipboard.
