Digital Minimalist

As I wind down my digital life, I have decided to turn my back on social media as a form of entertainment.

My life has been an endless series of ups and downs. At one point, I even lost my mind! I am glad that social media wasn’t a part of my life when I was growing up. It would have been a disaster for a troubled youth like me.

For a few years now, I have been trying to find a way to reduce my digital footprint. Sure, you can go cold-turkey and walk away, but that still leaves the huge tracks in the digital snow.

Trying to remove those footprints is not easy. So, I will only use social media as a tool for any business-related work that I am doing. That’s it.

The problem is I fucking hate Facebook. I hate Instagram and I hate WhatsApp all owned and operated by the Facebook cartel. I’m not happy that their business model is all about stealing my attention. It isn’t a fair trade. So, I am going to turn my back on them. Coming back to Facebook will not be an option for me. Instead I will post regular updates to my blog and to my newsletter.

My current smartphone will be the last one that I own for the foreseeable future. Once I am out of contract, I will pass it on to my son and use my Punkt MP-02 dumbphone. The MP-02 makes and receives calls and lets you send SMS messages, that’s it.

Leaving WhatsApp behind might be problematic in the short-term. I am enrolled in quite a few group chats, so I will have to find an alternative way of communicating with them. Email will have to do.

I’m not sure that many people take the time to read this blog. It is a labour of love. Who knows, one day it might become useful, so I keep on writing here.

So, there we have it. My declaration. First stage – STOP USING SOCIAL MEDIA & WHATSAPP! Second stage – close my social media accounts and unsubscribe from email newsletters. Third stage – find joy.

That is all.