A few years ago my wife tacked a Post-it Note above her work computer. The three words she wrote on that Post-it Note have been my guiding light for everything related to social media. 

Twitter is optional. 

That’s it. Twitter is optional. Instagram is optional. Facebook is optional. TikTok is optional. LinkedIn is optional. All of it is optional. 

Is it good that the son of an emerald miner is buying one of these social media platforms? Of course not. But it’s good to remember it’s optional. You do not have to share your thoughts the moment they occur. 

Is it good the biggest photo sharing platform and most used social media platform is just a rip-off of Hot or Not? Of course not. But it’s good to remember it’s optional. You do not have to upload any photos. You do not have to let anyone know your status. 

Is it good the video service most appealing to young people, the most popular website of 2021, is a large proponent of Covid misinformation and has a boatload of privacy concerns? Of course not. But it’s good to remember you’re no longer a teenager and shouldn’t be on TikTok. 

A decade ago I used social media with abandon. I was not sincere. In fact, I lied. I mostly used social media to lie. I did not spread hate. But I was not sincere. Other than letting people know about a show or whatever I was trying to get people to attend, I lied. My friends and family deserve honesty. That’s it. I thought this was understood. I was wrong. I was very, very wrong. 

After spending 5 years or so lying about fun stuff I stopped. It was fun to tie the band 311 to 9/11 but it stopped being fun once people started to think obvious bullshit was real. What I’m trying to say is I wasn’t chill and now my energy is not amber. 

I deleted most everything on the social media platforms I once enjoyed. I deleted all of my Tweets and currently everything I share is automatically deleted after 90 days. What I share is no longer fun bullshit and definitely not sincere bullshit. I do my best to avoid posting my unmasked face on anything. Elon and Mark and every other billionaire do not need to know anything about me. Lucky for me, social media is optional. 

This is not a screed against social media. I’m still using it. We share everything we publish on the aforementioned platforms. And the platforms have done a hell of a lot of good as well as evil. So for all of the small businesses and citizen journalists that really need these platforms, I hope they’re not shut down. 

For everyone else, you may want to put a Post-it Note above your computer. 

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