UPDATE after 3 months – I thought it would be a good idea to make a note of any impact or feelings I have about leaving Facebook, Twitter. I don’t use any of this type of SM now, and it’s been 3 months. So what do I miss?

Well, really it’s been enlightening as to the main reason I used these platforms. That, it seems, must have been to just sound off. I’m sure lots of people use Facebook & Twitter to keep up to date with their family and friends, but that’s a 2 way street, isn’t? I only had about 400 followers of Facebook, but I had about 60,000 members of different groups. On Twitter, I had about 20,000 followers across a few accounts.  I posted I was leaving these platforms and gave people the URL to here if that wanted to keep in touch. I’m not going to say it’s disappointing none have, I understand human nature, but lots of them questioned my reasons for leaving and asked me to stay, some even said they would miss me. So whose interests were they concerned about ? Probably validates my reasons for leaving – rather than giving Twitter & Facebook data to sell, I just use my own space for my own notebook. This blog tell people what I stand for and why and that’s all I need.

What have I missed? Only that go to place to post comments, send photos etc thinking others might enjoy them. I’ve found instead I wait till I have something worthy for this blog. Now things are only shared with direct family.

UPDATE END.

This week, I’ve been busy removing my Facebook & Twitter accounts.
This is no easy task, having used both for some years. On Facebook, I had built up groups with 20,000 users. These were moved to a friend’s account, who I know will look after them well. But sadly my Twitter accounts which also had around 20,000 were just deleted. But why would I do this? Well let me explain, you might not agree, you might think I’m daft, you may be right.

I used these accounts for two things – The first I wanted to promote my business, which no longer exists so that reason has gone. The second was a sort of notebook. A place to put my thoughts down – most moans. Things I thought were important to day about me, but to remind me that I had said them. I was saying to the world, this is me & what I think. I thought that was important at the time, now see it’s pointless. No one cares about what others think unless they are thinking it about them, and then they really care – That’s probably one makes sense to me.

The is another big reason, and that’s the way Facebook & Twitter have evolved over the years. I can cope with the nutters who use them, and I don’t really have an issue with what people tweet or post. My own opinion is it’s OK to say anything. And by you saying it I’ll know who you are and if you are a cunt I can avoid you. The law is already there to deal with everything else. But now both Facebook & Twitter are moderated so much & by automatic word checking that it’s easy to fall in dispute. Someone like me who tend to use swear words for effect, it’s almost a daily risk. So to continue using Facebook & Twitter I would need to change, and I’m not going to do that and don’t see why companies should try to “educate” me to the way they want me to behave. That’s more or less it, but they are a few other issues that in themselves are not important but add to the whole. So the result for me Facebook & Twitter are too much to be worth my time.

I certainly don’t get enough out of them to make it worth my while to create content that gives money to companies with too much money already. They are not like YouTube, at least with that system if you create content that attract 20,000 people to view it you’ll earn a share on the money it generates. Facebook & Twitter insert adverts into your content that earns them billions, and then they have the check to demand you change your behaviour to suit them or leave. So I left.