After writing this blog post, I would usually have twitted it, put it on some facebook groups, and on linkedin. This will no longer be the case (except for the blog twitter account), as I have decided to go off social media. I have deleted my twitter account, deactivated my facebook account and will no longer check my linkedin.
I have taken this decision after watching and digesting ‘The Social Dilemma’, although I had been ruminating on it since I watched ‘The Great Hack’. If you watch them, in under 4 hours, you will get a much better explanation for the reasons behind this decision than I could ever articulate. And perhaps you will decide that you, too, should go off social media — or at least change your usage of and relationship with this technology.
I am hoping that this decision will not only make my personal life better, but also my research (though this may perhaps seem bizarre for someone that is precisely researching digital technologies’ use for public governance) and, perhaps, make a small contribution to the sea change required for social media to become a force for good. Of course, I also have a few worries about whether this will muffle my voice, but I hope that there will be other ways of making myself heard where it counts (and, to be honest, I do not think all my shouting into the twitter abyss ever had any effect, so probably not much is lost at all). Whatever happens, at least, I have already felt some relief from knowing I am no longer feeding the data mining while it is an evil force.
Anyone interested in staying touch can still do so through this blog, and I can always be reached at a.sanchez-graells@bristol.ac.uk. I look forward to staying in touch.