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“We had a good run,” is a cliche way to say that you have accepted the end of a successful period of time in life. I pondered this statement instead of responding immediately, because it was rhetorical. If I could have completed the thought in the moment I would like to have replied, “better than a bad stand.”
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Since retirement, I have felt less interested in maintaining public social media profiles. Two reasons are possible, I don’t serve the public anymore is one, and the other is a feeling of betrayal by my online persona. For these reasons I have deactivated or deleted all of them.
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These past ten to twenty years we have experimented with social media, sharing our lives online. These online profiles are made in our image and presented to the internet. The connections we make only see that part of us we allow them to.
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At first, we only saw what our connections shared. Now, the technology reflects back at us how it perceives we interacted with it, showing us things it deduces we are interested in. We are charged a fee to continue maintaining these connections through advertising and propaganda.
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Imagine not having to scroll through these feeds designed to influence our moods. They do it so subtly it is in perceptible, to interacting with it trying to reach your friends. Just stop, you can still pick up the phone and call, write them a letter, walk next door.
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I will keep up this blog and create new works on this site, but as for my social media profiles you used to know me by, goodbye. That’s not the real me. I won’t be betrayed anymore by those avatars. Social media won’t steal my gains and use them against me.
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It’s been a good run, to try and continue would be a bad stand. I walk away at peace knowing that there is no substitute for real connection. I will see my friends again in person someday, and not through a device screen.
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