I’ve been thinking about social media lately. Mostly because I’ve been busy getting rid of quite a few of my social media accounts.
In my On My Mind Monday post, I wrote about how freeing it felt to delete them. Every time I closed another account, I had that wonderful feeling of, “Don’t have to think about that no more!”
But it also got me thinking about why I had all those accounts in the first place.
Because here’s the thing. I’m not really much of a social media person.
Which might sound a little strange coming from someone who spends so much time online, creates videos, writes blogs, and has been part of the internet for decades.
But there’s a difference between loving the internet and loving social media. At least there is for me.
Following the Stream
Over the years, I’ve signed up for all sorts of platforms. Some because they were new and everybody seemed to be talking about them. Others because I thought they might be useful someday.
And quite a few simply because I wanted to make sure I could get the username @pixelpia.
That was actually a big part of it.
Whenever another platform appeared, I would think, well, maybe I should grab my username before somebody else does.
So I signed up, created a profile, perhaps added a picture and a short description, and then…
Well, not much happened.
In many cases, I never really learned what the platform was about. I didn’t spend much time exploring what people did there or what I might enjoy doing with it.
I just had an account.
And that was fine, until it somehow started to feel like having an account meant I ought to be using it.
I should post something there. I should figure out how it works. Maybe I should share my latest video or blog post.
But why?
I didn’t particularly enjoy spending time there. In some cases, I barely knew what people were supposed to do on the platform.
Yet there I was, feeling that I should somehow be participating.
It’s a rather strange thing when you think about it.
The Content Creator Problem
I think being a content creator makes this even more complicated.
There’s so much advice out there about where we should be and what we should do.
You need to build your presence. You need to reach people where they are. You should share your content across multiple platforms. You need to stay visible.
And then there are all the recommendations about posting schedules, engagement, algorithms, and consistency.
Now, I’m not saying all that advice is wrong. For someone trying to grow a business or build an audience, social media can be incredibly useful.
And I certainly understand wanting people to discover what you’ve created.
After all, I don’t make YouTube videos and write blog posts because I want them to disappear into some forgotten corner of the internet.
But somewhere along the way, I think it’s easy to start confusing creating something with constantly promoting it.
You finish a video, and instead of simply being happy that you made it, there’s this whole other list of things you supposedly should do.
Share it here. Post it there. Make a shorter version for another platform. Perhaps create something especially for a platform you hardly ever visit.
And before you know it, you’ve created another job for yourself.
One that you might not even enjoy.
I wonder how many creators spend more time worrying about where they should post than thinking about what they actually want to create.
I know I’ve sometimes felt that pressure, even though I never became particularly active on most social media platforms.
And that’s perhaps the strange part. The feeling of obligation was there even when the actual activity wasn’t.
My Little Corner of the Internet
When I think about where I actually enjoy spending my time online, the answer is pretty simple.
My websites, YouTube, and a little Facebook.
That’s it, really.
I’ve always loved having my own websites. There’s something special about having a place on the internet that you’ve built yourself. A place where you can write what you want, organise things the way you like, and change things simply because you feel like it.
Maybe that’s because I started using the internet long before social media became such a big part of it.
Back then, having your own website was one of the ways you expressed yourself online. You made pages, experimented with layouts, wrote about things that interested you, and linked to other people’s little corners of the internet.
Of course, maintaining websites was work too. Sometimes quite a lot of work, especially when you had to figure out why something wasn’t behaving the way you expected.
But I enjoyed it.
And I still do.
YouTube is different, but it’s also a place where I feel at home. I enjoy making videos, trying new ideas, and having conversations with people who watch them.
And Facebook? Well, a little Facebook still fits into my life. Mostly to keep up with friends and family.
But I don’t feel the same connection to most of the other social media platforms I’ve tried.
And why should I?
Just because a platform exists doesn’t mean I have to be part of it.
Having an Account Doesn’t Mean You Have to Use It
That’s probably the biggest thing I’ve realised during this cleanup.
Somehow, over the years, I had collected all these little digital obligations without really deciding that I wanted them.
And nobody had asked me to take them on.
Nobody was standing over my shoulder telling me I had to post on this platform or update that profile.
It was something I had created in my own head.
Maybe because we hear so much about how important it is to have an online presence. Or perhaps because once we’ve started something, we feel we ought to keep it going.
Even if the only thing we started was an account with a profile picture and a username.
I also think there’s a difference between trying something and committing to it.
I’ve always enjoyed experimenting with new technology. I like seeing what people are doing and finding out what’s possible.
But experimenting doesn’t have to mean staying forever.
Sometimes you try something, discover it isn’t particularly interesting to you, and move on.
That’s perfectly fine.
Or at least it should be.
A Smaller Internet, but Not a Smaller Online Life
What’s interesting is that I don’t feel as though I’ve lost anything by deleting those accounts.
Quite the opposite.
I’m still creating videos. I’m still writing. I’m still experimenting with AI and coming up with more ideas than I probably have time to explore.
My online life hasn’t become smaller in the ways that matter to me.
There are just fewer places where I feel I should be doing something.
And maybe that’s the difference I’ve been looking for.
I don’t want to spend less time creating things online. I want to spend less time thinking about all the places where I’m supposedly meant to be sharing them.
Perhaps I’ll miss out on some opportunities by not being active everywhere. That’s possible.
But there’s also an opportunity cost to trying to be everywhere. All that time and attention has to come from somewhere.
And I’d rather use mine on the things I actually enjoy.
So, do we really need to be everywhere?
I suppose that depends on what we’re trying to accomplish.
But for me, I’ve realised that I don’t.
I’ve got my websites, my YouTube channels, and a little Facebook.
And I think that’s quite enough internet for me.
Well, enough places on the internet, anyway.
I still have plenty of things I want to do there.
