My time on social networking sites
Over the past couple of years I have been a member of several social networking sites.
I decided to pull my membership from all of these.
The internet is for instant information.
Beyond regular e-mail, there should be very few requirements for user name and password, registration, account sign up, reminders to upgrade membership, be a good consumer, buy more stuff, go look and see who tried to check you out, etc.
It’s not just social networking sites- we have a local (Seattle) TV station- if you try to send them a weather pic- they want you to fill out something like a job application to send the file- another local station will take an image you send with e-mail and put it on the air.
Some social networking sites charge a membership fee, then dumb things down and restrict creativity with ATM-like menu-driven profile creation prompts and templates.
Some feature tortuous navigation while restricting the posting of links, e-mail addresses & attachments- personal photos must be approved, etc.
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I can use regular e-mail to share links and to send and receive almost any kind of file. The internet is for learning and sharing information in a decentralized way.
On social networking sites, my popularity may be scored based on how many friends I have. I used to go and look and see that I had only one or no friends and it started to screw with my mind.
I join several sites, then have several places to go and log in so I can communicate- as if I can't interact with others on the web without some middleman to create structure, conformity, rules, restrictions, advertising, etc.
Anyone can view it without registering, logging in, signing up, creating a new account, leaving any trace of their visit, etc.
You don’t have to create your own page to look at anything I have posted. Imagine that.
I chopped the advertising & “Friends” head-count / tally / scoring system.
Before Picture (Pending hair restoration procedure)
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After Picture