At one point, I was on a Social Media binge. I defended it as part of my job (which probably wasn’t that far from the truth), but I was in social media sites that had absolutely nothing to do with my job. Foursquare, I would vie for mayorship of places- stores, restaurants, my gym, etc… I would tweet, I even pinned a couple times. I would log into linkedin copiously and patrol my “Who’s viewed you” list. When I was internet dating, I would do reconnaissance before a date, and look them up. I would post my workouts to dailymile. I would participate in an online running forum.

Then something changed.

I mean, the whole date reconnaissance practice died a sudden death when I entered a relationship, but I then decided to go on a social media. I stopped posting my workouts to daily mile. There was no announcement. I just stopped.

I lost interest in FourSquare- and logged in only periodically.

I stopped pinning so long that I removed it from my phone and didn’t miss it.

I posted a short message to twitter (OK, all Twitter messages are short, but this was brief even by twitter standards- and it didn’t include any hashtags #TwitterPunctuation #Twunctuation #ContextualizesMoodWhenStymiedto140Characters). “Taking a break from twitter for a bit. See you around.” Concise. Subdued. The later is something that almost violates the ethos of Twitter.

I’d like to say that at first I was cold and clammy and shivered in the corner, unable to leave my bed alternating between excreting and vomiting- but that would be a lie. In truth, the only effect was that my phone battery was fairing better.

I’d like to say that after the immediate withdrawal effects subsided, that the world was brighter, food tasted better, I saw dazzling colors I hadn’t seen since I was a child- that would be a lie.

Immediately, I had to stop myself with compunction from posting, but overtime- that dissolved. I no longer felt the need to post anymore.  The final step was giving up the ghost of the online running forum.

I realize it could be considered hypocritical that I am writing a blog post about giving up social media. At the very least, it’s ironic- and that irony isn’t wasted on me, I suppose I see the blog as different. It’s not a discussion tool. There’s no way people can comment on like the post.

Granted- I also changed how I am using this blog- what was once solely used for posting Project Management topic blog articles to collect PDU’s, now I use it as a general interest blog articles as well. I still log into LinkedIn and scroll my “Who’s viewed you” feed, but not as copiously. I still log into Facebook, but only rarely post.

I can’t explain the reason for the change. I can’t guarantee it’ll be forever. What I do know is that for now- you want to talk to me- you’ll just have to go all old school and text me.

What? I don’t use the the actual telephone- I’m not 70 years old.