Why I'm Not Much for Social Media Anymore

I've probably tried most of the social media platforms out there, beginning in the mid 1980s when the only "social media" available was local dial-up "bulletin boards".  There were chat rooms on Compuserve and Prodigy, AOL instant messenger, MySpace, Ning, Geocities, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, ad nauseum.  However, since the end of last year, I have significantly scaled back on my social media use.  I haven't used Twitter or Instagram in ages and haven't used Facebook since the beginning of the year.  I do believe it is time to delete all of my social media accounts.

On the one hand, it is great to use social media to keep up with what the kids and grandkids are doing (although they are using FB less and less as well), on the other hand, as the saying goes, 'when something is free, the product is you.'  And no social media service has made that more true in the past many many months than Facebook.  From the psychological tests conducted on unknowing users to the most recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, I'm fairly tired of being (unwittingly) used as a pawn in social media mind-farming.  I'd prefer to curate my own news and information, check in on friends that I want to check in on, avoid the daily hoaxes blasted through social media as the truth, and, you know, not have my every moved tracked.

It would also be nice to go back to the days when people engaged socially in person instead of having their head glued to their cell phone even to the point of death.  And it would be nice if young people were to learn some basic social skills,  Then there was this little gem.

I'm not sure what is coming next on the digital horizon but I think the overuse--and over-abuse--of social media has pretty much reached its breaking point.  I, for one, will show myself out of the dismal swamp that is now the social media landscape.