After mucking around on Twitter and Facebook for almost a year, I decided to call it quits.
Sorry, it was mutual, but we can never be together again.
I have already deleted my Facebook account, now awaiting the stupendous 14-day waiting period which Facebook calls a “grace period” in order to convince you back. I have checked back to see if my account has really been deleted since, and I am happy to report that I can no longer access to it. They have killed my account. Still, they do keep my data in their servers, with their obscure TOS giving them rights to my information. No matter; I have no more need to access the darn service, anyway.
Still, I have to make some adjustments with my Twitter account, but I will notify the individuals who are worthy of being my friends, so I will ask them to contact me through some other means.
It has been a rough journey, going through the muck of tweets, posts and pokings from friends and strangers I don’t really know who they are. Most of them are mundane; a few enlightened me with interesting news pieces, web articles and thought-provoking OP/ED; others are rambles about negativity and “rebellion against the real world.” It has opened my eyes to things I don’t normally see, I have been talked down to, on issues that matters, and have been taught on ways of the world.
Social networking is, undoubtedly, a very important tool for connectivity and networking. (On a segue — thanks, @memeranglaut —, meritocracy sucks without knowing influential people to count on for favours.)
Love fangs. (Source: {link:http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=8127704}Tom{/link})
However, as an emotional person (I could not tell which part of the MBTI types I am in), I am also easily swayed by the opinions of others, I get angry over minuscule reasons, and can get quite worked up on information that wasn’t meant for high-blood patients. Having your loved ones suffering from such an ailment increase the chances of you acquiring the same condition. I think I’d erred on the safe side.
I guess the roller coaster ride on Twitter/Facebook was enough for me. Time to get out of the ride.
The reasons for quitting the social network scene are far too complex for this post, so I shall summarize some key points that contributed to the decision to quit:
- I have made preparations to move elsewhere, permanently, out of my home country. To quit the scene is to psychologically prepare myself for the eventual pain I may unnecessarily shed when I crossed the border. I wouldn’t be the first to call living in Singapore a mundane hell, but like the 4,500 who settled on life elsewhere, there is an implicit understanding that life in Singapore is a short-term oasis which will, inevitably, dry up. There is a saying, “the butter is spread too thinly over the bread:” regardless of how many times Singapore tries to “reinvent” itself, there are no more human resources in which it can count on. Don’t get me started on culture, identity and other myriad issues that Singapore lacks as a developed nation.
- Quitting the social network scene means freeing up my waking time spending on either concentrating on work, or having more time to contemplate/spending more time with people I know and care. As some of you have realized, I have ranted a lot of time getting angry at my government’s policies. That’s because I have a deep-sated anger towards the establishment, with what not my involvement in that ugly saga of 2007. What made the anger more poignant was the date in which the whole mess started, which is an epiphany of my sentiments to come.
- In particular for Facebook, the revelations of the CEO’s lax attitudes towards their users’ privacy is disconcerting. It’s an irony, actually, since to be on any social media network is to implicitly allow your information to be publicly available, regardless if you have set the highest of privacy settings. Your friends can disseminate your information elsewhere, and could eventually end up in some forums where you will be ‘sexposed’ for your antics. It has happened to very unlucky people. In view of such possibilities, I decided to limit my online presence.
- I actually am very twisted when it comes to Twitter, though: the interface is uncluttered (unlike Facebook), I spent more time reading through this network than others, and I get to enjoy the short bursts of rambles from my contacts. But here’s the dig: I can’t get to call my contacts, “friends.” I am sure users out there have some “pseudo-masking” techniques to filter the unnecessary contacts, and show tweets “from friends only.” Also, I battled with ongoing requests from contacts I don’t even know of. They only added me in their ‘following’ lists based on search terms that props up my handle. On a whole, though, I find Twitter as another bigger evil to squash, so killing my presence off it will bring me peace in the long run.
- This is particularly personal, but the reason I wanted to leave the social network space is because deep in my heart, something’s gotta give. I don’t know how to describe this feeling, but I fear that social networks are going to go south; how, when and why it will spell doom, I cannot fathom. I’m that kind of person who shuns from popularity contests. (Ironically, I admit I do spam a lot of self-thoughts on Twitter.)
I dunno what it says, but I love the expression of Twit-tan with a bomb. (Source: {link:http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=10758572}草木一山 {/link})
Generally speaking, as a whole, my time spent on Twitter/Facebook means less time on my blog. It’s been almost three months since I’ve done anything on it, and I need to get my writing groove back on. Regardless of that clone Sandtrooper’s blog death call, there still is a need for blogs as a repository for content, and social networks serves as a “word-of-mouth” advertisements to blogs.
Inevitably, though, the itch [to return back to Twitter] is great, and I’ve just applied medicine to cure myself of the “social network” sickness. Clearly I need more than just self-medication to help me get pass through the withdrawal symptoms without Twitter. (As an understanding, I assumed that you can forget about Facebook after their face-heel turn on its users regarding user privacy.)
For my Twitter contacts who wish to contact me further, my Google Mail account can accept both MSN and GTalk accounts. Add me on the following address. (Kudos to those that can add me successfully, that means you know about it.)
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I am not a clone trooper. I am a Sandtrooper.
Anyway good call. Facebook and Twitter is a waste of time. Damn them!
Sorry, trooper. Updated accordingly. Many thanks.
Hurr, easier said, coming from an SGBlogs nominee. (Here’s 2 cheers for you, though.
)
That said, it’s never easy following through social networking.
Hello it’s been a while since i last wandered in here.
Social networking is really difficult on people who has poor PR skills. And it is definately frustrating to keep looking for the so-called ” friends ” who are often too busy with their daily “affairs”.
Actually i really don’t know, it all seems that a indiviual’s self-value is evaluated by others on how good you are and how highly desirable you are. It works nicely if you are highly popular and let a horde of mindless fans do the chasing for you instead. But for my case, i usually end up having to lose more peeps.
Social networking is suppose to get you connected to people but it ends up having to disconnect me from others.
Hey, it’s been a long time since I saw you, Arayden! How’s post-TBE life?
Actually, I have a response to your comments on my next post, so I hope that resolves your POV on the social networking issue. It’s not actually bad to remove yourself from all the social networking hubris; as I said, it can be very distracting to oneself, and may make us lose the point (of having involved in social networking in the first place).
I’ll email you just to say hello