Why I Quit Social Media

3/22/2018

"Our voyeurism devalued democracy. Our narcissism killed our privacy. "

I refuse to feed the social media beast. I choose to stop posting and scrolling.

I choose to rebel.

Social media could have been a force for good — connecting people across the world, building communities and creating movements.

In a world so tech connected, we’re more fragmented than ever before. We’ve seen the rise of bullying, nationalism, election meddling, fake presidents and the loss of our personal liberty.

We dived into the world of social media — totally unprepared. We lost our way and became addicted. Our platform developers, with their ever growing social media empires, became smarter and more strategic.
Securing our attention became their business. Our data became the commodity.

We trade our privacy for the allure of a global soapbox. Oversharing our activities with a picture, a check in or a like. We expose almost every aspect of our lives — where we go, what we do, who we’re with and what we eat.

Our personal data is no longer personal.

It wasn’t about bringing us together, it was about building profiles, selling information and taking advantage of our blind trust.

These platform founders are driving billion dollar global businesses designed for profit not people. If we don’t fight it, it will get worse. These businesses now face many ethical questions regarding privacy protection issues and security breaches.

The irony of social media is that government security agencies would deploy enormous resources to build dossiers on individuals with the information we so readily share with the world. The FBI and KGB must be having a field day. The Orwellian state we feared, we have now willingly and collectively created. This is 1984 on steroids.

Our voyeurism devalued democracy. Our narcissism killed our privacy.

In the process of over-sharing and consuming, we also got addicted. Looking for our next ‘like’ — a hit of dopamine to keep us posting and keep us coming back to platforms designed to harness addiction.
The result? We’ve become disconnected in a hyper connected world. We’ve seen the rise of bullying and gutless trolls freely spewing their vitriol. We stopped reading anything that took longer than a few minutes to scroll. Our attention span reduced to the length of a meme. In a high tech smart world, we’re becoming pretty dumb.

I’m done. I’m going to utilise my time better and protect my privacy and that’s why I’m embarking on this experiment.

It’s goodbye Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Messenger, Pinterest and Ello. There’s more to follow.
I’m desperately seeking freedom and liberty. I’m seeking deeper and more meaningful connections and conversations.

I choose to be a creator not a consumer. I choose to focus on taking and sharing beautiful photos and writing thought provoking pieces rather than be sucked into an abyss of posts and fake news. I want to know what’s real and what’s not.

Whilst I will miss being instantly connected to my friends and family around the globe, I’m embarking on this journey for the greater good. I know somehow we’ll still find a way to connect. There’s always old school email. Encrypted of course.

I encourage you to consider doing the same or changing the way you play the game. Use tech responsibly. Don’t be the friend who sits on a table during a social gathering lost in your phone when your friends are in front of you. Don’t be the parent who arms their child with an iPad as a distraction, so you can do the same with your phone. Don’t be the partner who falls asleep with phone in hand instead of an embrace. This is time we never get back. We’re trading our valuable days to build data banks for corporate behemoths.

I also choose to not speak in a tweet. I don’t care if your attention span is only 30 seconds. I’ll take the time I need to tell a story and make it meaningful. In today’s world of instant gratification I choose to go slow.
I choose to value and protect my privacy again and unless the situation changes and we see greater protection for our rights, my social media days are done.

I don’t know how this is going to go. I don’t know how I’ll feel in a week, a month, a year. Will I feel disconnected? Will I feel at peace? Will I be able to retrain my brain? I don’t know. What I do know, is that as father of twin boys approaching their teenage years, it’s my responsibility to help pave the way. To show them it doesn’t need to be like this. To model good behaviour. To teach them the power of listening and a good conversation builds meaningful relationships.

We need to take a stand on this. It’s a stand to highlight that it’s not ok for social media platforms to use manipulative practices to keep us hooked. It’s not ok for our personal information to be traded. It’s not ok for us as independent free thinking global citizens to accept the status quo and feel there’s no alternative.

I’ll stop all activity on social media accounts as of 1st April 2018. No, it’s no joke.

I feel lighter already. I’m looking forward to fostering even deeper connections. Call me. Let’s talk. Let’s meet.

Remember — a movement starts with a simple action.

Pic: Simon Pollock

13 Comments

Deb Rusbourne

3/23/2018 07:26:05 am

I loved this article Nikos. Many of the people that I admire refute any form of social media including my hubbie who just goes kayaking when he needs downtime! He comes back with stories of people he has met on the water. I also manage to keep in touch with my best friend in Amsterdam, amazing really, we tend to use the phone, Whatsapp and (heaven forbid) we make sure we don't leave it too long to see each other!

Nikos Psaltopoulos link

3/28/2018 07:57:39 am

Thank you Deb. I'm looking forward to getting back to basics. Feeling better and more connected already. NP

Muhammad Awais

7/7/2018 08:33:54 am

👍🏻

Colleen Johnston

3/23/2018 09:26:38 am

I agree with you Nikos. I waste time scrolling too. I have to admit I have learnt things from Facebook posts, but I also receive a lot of junk mail which wastes more time. I’m going to give deleting Facebook a go too. I’ll still use Instagram though because I love seeing photos of people I care about. I only use Pinterest when I need some inspiration quickly & usually delete what is sent to me.
Thanks for all your inspiration

3/28/2018 08:06:33 am

Thank you Colleen!

I totally agree, whilst I've had great learnings on FB and loved connecting with friends and family from across the globe instantly, there are so many issues with social media platforms at the moment.

In this new world disorder, I'm opting for an old school approach to communication and hopefully develop deeper and more meaningful relationships.

Let's see where this experiment takes us! NP

Nick Godenzi

3/23/2018 09:38:04 am

Hi Nikos,

A great article and a thoroughly interesting read.

I’ve often felt very similar to how you’ve described and tend to be a slow adopter of new services - e.g Twitter - preferring to wait until there’s a genuine benefit for creating yet another account or profile. As a continuing user, I primarily use social media platforms for the convenience of connection, upcoming events and birthdays, more than anything.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on where LinkedIn sits in all of this. Like Facebook, I feel they began from ‘genuine’ intentions, but as shareholders jump on board and financial returns become the paramount driver and not social benefit, do you see LinkedIn being a final bastion; or is it also crumbling under new features and services it offers to drive financial returns?

Cheers and hope to meet up when I’m back in Melbourne in April!
Nick

3/28/2018 08:21:59 am

Thank you Nick.

As you probably noticed, I hadn't included LinkedIn as one of the platforms which I'm disconnecting from immediately.

I didn't include LinkedIn because I still saw it serving as my online CV more than anything.

Interesting to note, whilst my post is being widely read on LinkedIn, the commentary to my post is surprisingly negative - even from associates who I thought would be a bit more understanding.

This again highlights my point about the evolution of 'keyboard warriors' who feel they can spew out anything without regard for people's well intended stands and their emotions.

In light of this, I think disconnecting from LinkedIn is on the agenda sooner rather than later.

As you also pointed out, the stream of features being rolled out on LinkedIn align it closer to every other social media platform which will in turn create the same issues we're facing with other players.

Looking forward to catching up. NP

Bob

3/23/2018 04:38:51 pm

Hello Nikos,

This was an interesting article.
Good on ya!
:3

I just got a notification sorry byeeeeee...

AlexiTheGreat link

3/23/2018 08:30:44 pm

WOW!

Daniel Milnor link

3/24/2018 01:53:40 am

Nikos,

Five years ago, on my birthday, I deleted seven networks. I called my boss first, told her what I was intending to do, and she said "Fine, but write about why you are doing it." Boom, gone. I experienced roughly two weeks of withdrawal symptoms, things that I expressed to my friends who all acted incredulous, as if I was alone in this detoxing predicament and they were totally and utterly in control of their social media life even though they sat through dinners and meetings with phone in hand, right thumb flicking page after page of FB or the even more deadly and most addicting of all; Instagram. Once the impulse to grab my phone at all times, moments and hours of the day subsided I noticed I physically felt better, and my brain felt as it was returning to a more natural state. I began to read. A lot. 160 books in the first two years and this continues today. But I have admission of guilt. I KNEW what these networks were about when I signed up. I KNEW the only real reason for their existence was to sell me, my data, my life, and I signed up anyway. Now I look back and feel ridiculous for ever being a part of the charade, and I find myself unwilling to even spend time around those who are still caught in the lie of living a life designed around being artificially popular, scaleable or the dreaded "influencer." I've spent my entire adult life in the creative world where agent after agent tells the masses "You MUST be on IG." "You MUST be on FB." Sheep mentality at it's most basic. Conform, get in line, find your box and get comfortable. Where am I today? I was asked to keep my Twitter account, which I did, but it takes up no real space in my mind. I was also asked to return to IG, by my employer. My first response was "never going to happen." An account was created in my name, which still exists, but hasn't been updated and will not be again. Just knowing the account was there was enough to invade my mindset, even after the years away. It proved to me the power these networks have, and the effectiveness of the addiction teams. I will soon rid myself of everything once again because I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that life on the outside, real life, although slow, imperfect and quiet is a far more interesting place.

Sandra

3/24/2018 06:52:19 am

Nikos I hear you and actually logged into Facebook today to say farewell myself.
While the instant connection to family and friends overseas or all over the country is a magnificent tool - but with all of the new information filtering through we can no longer trust our data is safe.

Looking forward to following the progress

Freda

3/24/2018 05:17:16 pm

Great article. It echoes what I was thinking and saying a long time ago but the fear of being ‘out of touch’ with the world was too great at the time. I signed up back in 2006 when a friend living and studying in the UK told me about it as an easy way for us to stay in touch, and for a very long time I only used FB to communicate with my overseas and interstate friends.
Fast forward to 2016, living in beautiful Ireland, I found myself sitting on my bed in my bedroom and scrolling mindlessly through social media. Jumping from FB to IG to checking my emails and back to FB just to see what my loved ones (and those I hardly knew) were up to 10,969 miles away. As I looked out of my window at the greenest of green, luscious fields and mountains and then back to FB again, I thought to myself what the hell was I doing? I should be out there living life where it had brought me this very second, taking in every smell, sound, sensation, experiences. I was done then and there. I deactivated from the toxic scroll, put my rain coat on and headed to the local shops for a 99 (Irish ice-cream). I have not looked back.

Amongst the many bear bugs I have with social media, is that whilst travelling around Europe I ran out of storage space on my then iPhone and refused to use the cloud. So I thought storing them on a ‘private’ album on FB would be the right thing to do. I am not the most tech savvy; I know a bit more now though. It proved a difficult thing to try to get MY photos back on MY device and off FB.
I have never missed FB. Not once. The only thing I noticed, however, was some people were horrified that my partner and I chose to do this and, worse still, we ended up not being included in certain life announcements/birthday parties/invitations. No grudge there. Just sad evidence how focussed on social media we have become and not on the actual person we want to connect with. Kind of ‘out of sight out of mind’.
Anyway, Nikos, I’m glad that I will now be in good company, with you and many others deciding to make this ‘radical and rebellious move’ out of the zombie state. Welcome to a relaxed and connected world. Connected to others, yourself and the Earth.

Amy Truslove

3/25/2018 02:56:20 pm

Brilliant yet again my friend. I am right there with you and looking forward to catching up with you old school!