The Lesbian Romantic

Why I’m leaving social media

I’m leaving Twitter, Facebook and Instagram today. I want to explain why without writing a long rant. 😉 Here I go… *draws in deep breath*

  1. I believe social media platforms are destroying everything that brings out the best in us: empathy, human connection and the ability to see things in context.
  2. I believe the corporations that run social media platforms have only one goal: to make as much profit as possible, no matter the consequences for human dignity and our democracies.
  3. I believe these corporations will never change their ways unless people stand up for their rights. That’s what I’m doing. I’m disconnecting until they do better. (They already know better.)
  4. I believe the internet and technology can be a positive force in our lives. We don’t have to put up with this shit. We are in this shithole because the people at the corporations mentioned above made a conscious choice to do things this way. We can embrace human dignity with technology rather than destroy it. We just have to choose to do things differently.

What I will be doing to support a better (online) world:

  1. I will no longer supply these corporations with interactions on their platforms, our interactions, that they can study in an effort to predict our future behavior and then sell it to the highest bidder.
  2. I have joined an independent, Belgian privacy watchdog ‘the Ministry of Privacy.’ As a board member, I will help this non-profit raise awareness among citizens, and will strive to hold corporations and governments that violate our privacy laws accountable.
  3. I will continue to run my own community with respect for human dignity and connection. No addictive notifications on your phone, no creepy algorithms to keep you ‘engaged’, no spying trackers and no annoying ads.
  4. I will pivot as a marketer. From now on, I will try to convince fellow marketers to invest in trust-based relationships with their customers. Too many of us have reduced human beings to a set of numbers in a spreadsheet or a reporting dashboard. We must do better. We must become ‘humane marketers’.

Okay, that’s it! *blows out breath*

If you’d like to hear more about this, let me know in the comments. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments. If you’d like to get some book tips on all of this……. You can guess: let’s chat in the comments. 😉

A first great link: https://humanetech.com

Love,

Sigrid

12 responses to “Why I’m leaving social media”

  1. Sarah
    SarCatDunh

    Wow

  2. Sara
    Sammy25

    I like it

  3. Marcie53

    One thing you definitely are not is a hypocrite.

  4. Surabhi
    surabhiseth

    You rock!!

  5. Shannon
    sassygurl31

    Sigrid, I TOTALLY agree with you 100%. I was hesitant but I just joined Twitter days ago only to follow you. How funny that you decided to leave. I never had a Facebook account and never will. That’s why I posted on my TLR wall that this is all new to me.
    Needless to say, I canceled my Twitter account and I will stick to TLR Community.
    Shannon

    1. Sigrid
      Sigrid

      Oh no! I never considered that some people might join or stay on Twitter to interact with me! Now I’m even happier that I left! Thanks for joining us here 🙂 🙂

  6. Stewart
    Stewart

    So about four years ago I left FB and social media. I could no longer stand how it made me feel. The Lesbian romantic community has been the only social media I have engaged in this time. And not much at that. My reasons for leaving were many. Some similar to yours. Some smaller annoyances but generally I feel social media has made people vain and slaves the opinion of other people. Not to mention an addiction to Likes. One of my biggest peeves was seeing old friends, woman in particular, change their profile pictures to such an extent that it was not true to who they were in the least. I would often see a woman post a picture from ten years ago, where she was maybe 10kg lighter and people would write comments like “wow you looking so good” and then she would just say “thanks”. IS this really what people have become? FAKE? I was in frequent contact with another person who I can only describe as creepy. He would join groups of people and take selfies with random strangers, especially pretty woman and the post them on his feed. His feed looked like the guy who was always doing cool things with lots of cool friends. Actually I knew he didn’t have any friends. Probably because he was such a jerk. My point being, in both examples, it’s totally fake. People start living a fake life with other fake people online, instead of meeting real people and dealing with your reality. Social media is also biasing people with other peoples manufactured opinions. I found I was very anti people and things I had no business having an opinion about. In conclusion Social media is ok and perhaps even useful to a degree if one doesn’t let it take over one’s life, as in the case of millions of users.

    1. Sigrid
      Sigrid

      Yeah, I don’t like that effect of social media either. I’m very concerned about keeping this place as real as possible, while still making room for anonymity and safety. I don’t want this community to become just another ‘like addiction’ platform. This is something I really want to think about and take steps in this year!

  7. JDavis💚
    jdavis

    I really admire your decision and commitment to modeling the way to live humanely. You epitomize integrity. #bethechange

    1. Sigrid
      Sigrid

      *blushes* Thank you. Brené Brown inspired me to stay within my integrity. It can be a struggle and it’s a process, but it feels way better than living away from integrity as a default!

  8. Thea

    So cool! You are literally one of the few people I know with such strong ethics who practice what they preach. It’s admirable how much you care about the world around you and the effect your actions have on people. It takes guts to live your life with integrity and conviction.
    Keep up the good fight! 👊🙂🧡

  9. Juaquita
    Jdcallmd

    Good for you for standing on principle. Everything you said is correct. I use my FB and Twitter to post positive messages.
    The account that I have for my business is just for that. I know that because I post positive information, it’s not likely to receive the attention I desire, but it’s linked to my website and will show that I have fresh content, which helps with my business website search engine optimization. So I use it for indirect gain.

    Social Media Addiction is a real problem, and I hope others pay attention to how it is impacting their lives and make changes.

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