Social Media: The Return!

Today, I return to social media, having given up interaction for Lent. Throughout Lent, I have gone from missing social media interaction, to welcoming the lack of knowledge about people's lives, and back to missing it again.

I think what I have missed of social media is the few people I don't keep in touch with any other way, in whom I am genuinely interested. I've missed being able to ask 800 people at the same time whether the buses are running or what is going on with this or that news story. Realistically though, that sort of thing only makes up about 10% of social media, doesn't it. There's a whole lot of bitching and sniping and crap which you can't help but get sucked into if you're there watching it, but it does nothing for you but bring you down.

On Good Friday, I was looking forward to getting back to social media. Then I stumbled across this article by someone who did a "Facebook detox." In it, the author makes a few salient points: that if you're on Facebook, you're so busy living in someone else's present, you're not living in your own; that we can often get caught up with what people we barely know think of our ideas and desires, rather than our own opinions; that so much of what you see on social media is negative, and it's difficult to filter all of it out.

It has been interesting, over the course of Lent, to see who has stayed in touch with me. It has also been refreshing to hear only the things my friends feel warrant a phone call, email or text. Things have been quiet, and sometimes that has felt rather lonely. But it's also been quite refreshing and relaxing not to be vaguely involved in all sorts of randomness that I used to see on Facebook and Twitter all day, every day.

Although I am looking forward to going back to my newsfeed, I don't think I'll be spending so much time on there!

Simon's thoughts:

Taking joy in the simple things in life:
piggy backs at Hengistbury Head

It’s Easter Sunday and the end of what has felt like a really long 40 days off Social Media.

Long not because I’ve been missing it or pining for it especially but having logged in and seen the last event I tweeted and posted about (a photo at a gig on the 4th March) feels so long ago.

I’ve had a lot of fun since then. Fun doing mostly the everyday stuff that I’ve always done.

I’ve read a few articles from other people about giving up facebook and found myself nodding in agreement to many of them.

Sarah Anne Stewart is really spot on when she says : “When you're on Facebook 24/7 you aren’t living in the present, focusing fully and savouring the experience that's right in front of you.

Facebook had been really useful to help me through an unsettled few months.

It was there as a reassurance in lieu of someone special in my life and stopped me needlessly rushing off to fill that gap.

No need for pills, no need to sit around and feel remote when your social network is just a few clicks away.

But just like the role anti-depressants play in some people’s lives it was only really there to help me cope with the low times.

As for Twitter I’ll be continuing to use that as a way to connect with the audience of the radio station at which I work.

Although it looks like I have picked up more followers by doing nothing so clearly the broadcasting maxim of “less is more” applies to tweeting too.

You can follow me there @simonontheradio

You can read our first post about giving up social media for Lent here.

Social Media Ban for Lent - The End is in Sight!

My friend Simon and I have given up social media for Lent.

While Simon has had a blanket ban on all social media, I've been banned only from interacting on social media - so that I can still post links to the blog and suchlike (yes, I was worried about my stats ok!)

You can read our first post about it here.

Because I am still using Facebook to promote the blog and to run my clients' pages, it's a bit tricky - I am still logging in every day, and catching glimpses of my increasing number of comments and friend requests... I seem to have become very popular over Lent, with a lot of people I'm not sure I know attempting to add me as a friend.
I find though, that as Lent draws to a close I'm not really looking forward to trawling through 60+ notifications and fourteen friend requests. No offence to people who have left comments and suchlike, but I doubt much of it is of any substance.
Being away from social media for Lent has meant I'm away from all the drama, and the people who tend to thrive on it. It's so nice when people say "did you see what she said on Facebook?!" to say "no, and I don't much care!" Life is easier when you're not involved in drama - but it's also less stressful when you're not watching it, not even vaguely aware of it. This is similar to the day I realised I was wasting large chunks of my life with watching soaps - I stopped watching all of them, and my mood instantly improved. I do think there will be a fair few deletions when I return to Facebook - and the people I can't delete (for political reasons) I will be hiding from my newsfeed. I don't need to see it!
What I have really missed about Facebook recently is that it was S's birthday, and I know people will have

S appreciating the Minion birthday cake
her auntie made for her

left comments and messages wishing her a happy birthday. I would have loved to be able to thank people for their kind wishes, and to thank all the people who came out for her birthday - we really had a lovely day and feel very blessed.
Another reason I'm wishing I'd been paying attention to Facebook though - something very odd happened with the blog this week. I wrote a post on Monday about nurseries and pre-schools, and how I think we expect too much of the staff. I'm not sure at what point one considers a post to have gone "viral," but at the time of writing, that post had received something like 17,000 hits. To put this in perspective - the second most popular post on my blog (the nurseries  one is now most popular) is from July last year, and has 2300 hits. From what I can tell, the majority of people finding that post, have found it through a link on Facebook. I'm really not sure I've ever attracted that many people to the Facebook page for the blog (what do you mean you don't already like it? Go and like it now please!); I'm thinking someone somewhere has shared my link somewhere and I really would love to thank them for that. I'm utterly gobsmacked by the traffic I've received over the last few days!

How is Simon getting on?

Easter is just over a week away, and with it the end of my social media ban for Lent. I felt ready to return for a week or so, but have not let curiosity get the better of me. I miss keeping up with my friends, but they will still be there when I get back. I am looking forward to seeing what they've been up to, which was after all the original reason for me getting a Facebook account after resisting for so many years.

Aside from that, I have not missed Twitter or Facebook at all. I imagine there has been a lot of comment on both networks,  following the passing of Peaches Geldof. Social media allows everybody to become a columnist, and to pass comment and opinion on everything. As a radio presenter I am taught to be relatable to our audience by doing just that. But this week I found myself ignoring it all together. Not because of a lack of empathy but because I honestly felt it was none of my business. A father has lost his daughter; children have lost their mother; it is unquestionably sad when a young life is lost. But I didn't know her personally and I felt it was more respectful to allow her family the privacy they deserve than adding even the slightest contribution to the media fire that burned around the story.

And it always burns. The thirst for fresh content from newspapers is insatiable now they are online and essentially 24-hour news organisations like our television channels. I was horrified to see that in an attempt to find some fresh content one newspaper turned its attention to Katy Hopkins. She famously sparred with Geldof in the past, and according to The Daily Mail Online was guilty of "failing to acknowledge" the news of her death by passing a comment.

A woman who has become infamous for generating attention by polarising the public with her opinions stepped away from the opportunity, and I have a little bit for respect for her for in doing so and for once maintaining a dignified silence.

One of the first bits of advice I was given as a broadcaster was this : it's not about what you say, but what you don't say.

I think I'll be considering that more with my use of social media when I'm back on it after Easter Sunday.

Our Final post is here.

If you've enjoyed this post I'd love if you would nominate me for a Brilliance in Blogging Award:

Giving Up Social Media for Lent - Week 3

My friend Simon and I have given up interacting on social media for Lent. You can read our first blog post about it here.

We're now three weeks in...

I don't watch live TV any more. I use the catch-up service on my cable TV to scroll through what was on TV last night or the night before, and decide if any of it is worth watching... Quite often, none of it is. What's struck me this week about not being on social media, is that it's kind of the same. I'm not on Facebook or Twitter being bombarded by every detail of people's lives; I choose who I interact with, whose stories I hear or read, whose problems I know about. It's quite refreshing to have pulled myself out of that constant stream of it all. And yes, I know that I post a lot myself (even at the moment) but I do at least try to keep it positive and upbeat. So many people are miserable, whiney, spreading hatred and fear and distrust and general unpleasantness - or just schadenfreude I suppose. I haven't missed any of that at all. I miss knowing what my friends are up to, but I'm sure if anything terribly important happens, I'll receive a text or an email!

Last week, a man I vaguely knew died. When I say "vaguely knew" I mean that we were Facebook friends and had exchanged comments from time to time. I had known he was ill, but he wasn't on Facebook very much so I didn't really know how bad it was. When he died, Facebook was (apparently) awash with messages of condolence - and rightly so, the man was a legend and will be sorely missed. I wasn't on Facebook though; I found out he had died because Simon (who works in radio, and weirdly just seems to know everyone who has ever worked in radio) called to tell me.

Not so long ago, an old friend from school died; I found out through Facebook and it didn't feel very nice. I'm actually glad that I wasn't on Facebook last week, and found out through a phone call - it was much more personal and not sandwiched between comparatively unimportant status updates about TV shows and what people were having for lunch.

On the other hand though, the nominations for the BiB Awards opened last week. I wasn't really aware of I am going to Brit Mums Live, thanks to a lovely lady who offered to sponsor me. And since I'm going to a spangly awards ceremony, I have a fair bit more interest in who wins an award - I'd quite like to get one myself! As soon as I realised nominations had opened, I wanted to get onto social media and start... er... politely pointing out to every person I've ever met that the nominations are open. But I couldn't. I posted a link on my blog's Facebook page (which I have still been updating with links etc), but that was it. No posting in the many groups of which I am a member; no chatting to people about how I'd love them forever if they nominated me, nothing. It will just have to wait until April 20th.

the BiBs or what they were last year, but this year

So how is Simon getting on?

Has it really been 2 weeks?

Simon's hilarious photo.
Facebook, you missed a treat.

Here are some things I have not been able to do this week as a result of my Social Media Ban for Lent:

Rave about how proud I am following the Year 5 parents evening at school.

Complain about how bad the communication has been about the Year 3 parents evening being postponed again.

Canvas opinions from friends about current accounts (I’m thinking of changing mine).

Share a picture of the sand school at the stables, which I levelled for the first time using the dump truck (#proud #ILoveDrivingTheDumpTruck #BigKid).

Share a hilarious giraffe/spider picture I found on a website while researching something.

Status update about having a powercut. Not a flicker, but an actual power cut for 3 whole minutes. Can’t remember the last time that happened.

Some things I have done as a result of my Social Media Ban on Lent:

Call Vicky to tell her that someone she had mentioned in passing before had died (I wasn’t sure how close they were and didn’t want to let her know by text).

Call another friend to find out how his sabbatical from work went, and see it had given him perspective on his job (he wasn’t loving it before he went, to the point that I was a bit worried about him).

Drive for an hour to meet a friend for a coffee, and then drive back to work 90 minutes later. The time passed in an instant as we caught up on our lives.

So as you can see my life actually seems to be better for not being on social media.

And I’m guessing everyone else’s is too, given the banal nature of what I would have shared.

I just need a few more hours in the day to be more sociable.

Or perhaps I just need fewer friends?

I fear there may be an Easter Sunday Facebook Massacre on the cards...

You can read our next post here!

Giving Up Interacting on Social Media for Lent - Week 2

Myself and my friend Simon have given up interacting on social media for Lent. You can read our first post here.

Two weeks in now... how have we been doing?

Me writing this post, not missing Facebook.

I still have to go into Facebook and Twitter daily to maintain pages for my clients. On Facebook it is hard no to notice the increasing number of comments, private messages and friend requests building up... but I find that actually, I don't much care. I sincerely doubt any one of those 50+ comments from the past couple of weeks contains anything that can't wait until Easter.

It's been interesting to note, over the past couple of weeks, which people I have stayed in touch with - or rather, who has stayed in touch with me!

When I began this challenge, I was worried about a nagging feeling that I was forcibly removing myself from society. I made a conscious decision that I would make a more concerted effort to stay in contact with people.

It has been nice to have personal emails turning up in my inbox instead of the tons of marketing junk I usually get. I've had text messages and phone calls from people I usually really only speak to over Facebook - and I've even visited friends and family I've not seen in the flesh for a while. It's actually been really nice to be in proper contact with people.

On the other hand though, I have over 600 "friends" on Facebook, and over 2000 followers on Twitter. One person from Twitter has stayed in contact. The rest... I didn't really expect to if I'm honest - Twitter is a bit different, and of those 2000 people, I don't actually know many of them in person. 

This seems to have become some sort of an interesting exercise in finding out who sees me as a friend, and who sees me as that person who updates Facebook and Twitter a lot. That's not me being all maudlin and "nobody loves me" - it's me wondering why I had such a guilt trip about deleting over 100 friends before Lent started, when perhaps I should have considered deleting a few more!

So how is Simon this week?

I’ve had another busy weekend of living life and not sharing it beyond those I’ve spent time with.

Simon at the beach, not missing Facebook

A few friends have taken the trouble to share their news with me by text and email, including my friend Lou. She sent me a text to let me know she had a new job "because I know you're not on social media at the moment." How special did I feel knowing that she made an effort to text me? Very. But it was tiny compared to the pleasure it was to hear her news as I know it had been concerning her for a while.

It did make me wonder briefly about what other good developments I'm missing out on in my friends' lives... But it wasn't so great an urge that it led me to login and have a peek.

One thing I’m not missing is the negativity. Life has its ups and downs, it’s joys and its tragedies. That’s the nature of life.  We’re told “it’s better out than in” but you don’t realise the domino effect that someone else’s mood can have on your own until you’re away from it.

Like the sarcastic divorced friend who has been single for 2 years and fills up their timeline with negative comedy pictures about how crap/inadequate their ex/all men are. You don’t notice how contagious emotions can be on social media. It’s the same way that a positive song playing on the radio can lift your mood.

You’d have to be in a pretty dark place to want to hear Nilson “Without You” followed by Adele “Someone Like You” on repeat and not change the channel.  

And who wants to hear dreary ballads about heartbreak when the sun is shining?  

If I've missed anything of note in your life, please do either email me or leave a comment here to let me know! More on our social media experiment of doom next week.

Read about Week 3 here!

Giving Up Social Media for Lent - One Week Down!

I've given up interacting on social media for Lent with my friend Simon. You can read our first post about it here.

Last Wednesday, I was interviewed on BBC West Midlands about my challenge. You can listen to the interview here.

Things have been... Different.

On the one hand, I have a lot of "spare" time. Previously, I would "just check Facebook" when I got up in the mornings, when I got home from the nursery run, while I was on the phone, when S went for her nap, several times during the day, when S was in bed. Possibly more so for my Twitter feed. It slowed my day down, and often delayed my work by an hour at a time as I forgot what I was doing and ended up trawling through my newsfeed. Now that interacting on Facebook and Twitter are not an option, I'm getting my work done sooner. So far, this means I've been able to fit more work into my day, and my evening is more likely to be free for watching dvd box sets. Or reading. I had intended that my extra spare time would be spent broadening my mind, but so far it's just meant I've been able to get addicted to Arrow.

On the other hand, I am finding it hard to not have that interaction in my life. I can't ask a potential 2000 people on Twitter if they have a contact email for a company that I want to get hold of. I can't ask my Facebook friends whether they have any novel ideas for what I can do with the over-ripe bananas I have on the side in my kitchen.

Me looking a bit of a twat at the awards

On Monday I went to an awards ceremony, and normally in that sort of situation I would have been present. I think quite often I'm so busy tweeting something amusing that happens, that I miss the next two amusing things.

Instagramming, Facebooking and Tweeting all day. (I have still updated Instagram periodically but I'm trying not to do it more than once or twice a day.) It was really difficult to not tweet and Facebook... but on the other hand, it was so nice to just be

Another strange thing I am finding is that my brain has become programmed to identify "tweetable" things during my day. Several times a day, my brain begins to compose a tweet or Facebook status. I get half way through the sentence before I realise there's no point. I've started noting down some of them, as a sort of experiment to see whether I ever post anything of any consequence... so far, the evidence suggests that I am full of shit. Perhaps as time goes on, my brain will lose this habit, and when Lent is over I will forget to post updates!

What about Simon?

Simon looking less of a twat at the beach

I am a week into my self-imposed ban on Facebook and Twitter.

Although, if you believe some of my friends: “you’re still using it – I can see you’re active!" Let me explain. While it has been easy for me to give it up, I accept that for other people social media is still very much a part of everyday life.

One example is a friend of mine who is trying to arrange a surprise party and has chosen to organise it by Facebook chat. I know this because I use an app called “messenger” which connects to Facebook's messaging function. Apparently when you are using this, it shows you as “active” as far as other people on Facebook are concerned.

Does the odd RSVP and picture constitute breaking my social media ban? No more than sending a text, as far as I'm concerned.

I also forgot that the fitness app I use when cycling updates directly to Facebook and received a barrage of “you can’t keep away!” texts when it did just that last weekend.

During my absence the Facebook page I use for my private DJ work is being updated by a third party. Just a few times a week to promote a testimonial and get further bookings (it is far more direct and cost effective that ads in print these days). I personally have not seen either Facebook or Twitter timelines for 7 days.

Life continues, but the only difference is that I am keeping mine to myself and missing out on what everyone else is doing.

Have I become a virtual hermit in today’s world? Not really, as I am still hearing from friends via text and phone - and more than I have done recently.

Do any of my friends miss out on the constant updates from my life? I’ll ask them in the middle of next month.

The big difference for me has been a better work/life balance. Because social media has been such an important ingredient of my job for the last 3 years, I didn’t realise quite how much it had blurred the lines between life and work. Not being on Twitter means that the radio producer side of me is no longer permanently at work gathering content, and the presenter side of me isn’t looking for an opportunity to interact with the audience outside of normal working hours.

Is the rest of the world missing me?

I’ll know in a few weeks.

It can wait till then.

If you've given up anything for Lent, and have blogged about it, please do leave a link in the comments.

You can read about week two here!

Giving Up Social Media for Lent: Day One

My friend Simon and I have given up interacting on social media for Lent. You can read our first post about it here.

Before I went to bed last night, I put a status on my personal page, and the page for this blog, explaining what I was doing and inviting people to stay in contact with me in other ways. I also changed my Twitter profile for a similar message.

It felt quite sad to be honest, as if I was removing myself from society. The last time I withdrew from Facebook in this way was when I had a breakdown and couldn't cope with the interaction. I am a little worried that, by withdrawing myself from contact with friends, acquaintances, support, I might cause something like that to happen again.

Having been a single parent from practically day 1, social media has filled a gap for me in terms of sharing S's special moments. There was nobody here to care that she'd smiled in an extra cute way, or that she'd learned to sit up, to crawl, to walk. No one person wants to be inundated with the sort of texts I would have sent her father if he were around (even my family don't seem particularly interested, if I'm honest) so Facebook and Twitter (and Instagram) became the places I would share these things. Don't ask me why I felt I needed to share with someone; probably just to stop me from feeling quite so alone in my parenting journey.

On the plus side, I have had lovely comments and messages since deciding to do this, many from people I would not have expected to hear from. People have sent me emails and private messages, and I've exchanged phone numbers with several people. Facebook seems to have become this way for us all to convince ourselves we're being sociable and keeping in touch with friends and family. Sometimes though, we are all guilty of using it as a way of saying we're in touch when we've actually not bothered to get out of the house and visit each other for months.

Part of me likes the idea of withdrawing from the distraction and inconsequential nonsense of social media; I'm looking forward to having more time available for doing things that could feasibly pass as constructive, rather than time wasting. Facebook and Twitter do in some cases seem to be the background noise of life these days, and I've been reading in Chopra about how beneficial silence can be for the mind. I would include online silence in that also.

On the other hand, I already feel quite isolated. And I seem to have forgotten what I ever used the internet for before Facebook or Twitter! In fact, now that I stop and think about it, before I had Facebook or Twitter, I had a blog on LiveJournal and a close community of friends there with whom I would waste time online all day and night. And before that... AOL chat I suppose. Same thing. With none of it available, I'll be forced to (*gasp!*) make actual conversation and be sociable with real life people. I logged out of the Facebook and Twitter apps on my phone last night... now I feel like I'm stuck in the "noughties," using my mobile just for texts and calls!

Today I texted at least two people I would normally probably have just Facebooked. I even had an actual telephone conversation, with words and anecdotes and giggling and all sorts. I'm hopeful of more of this.

Also, one really important point is that quite often, shamed though I am to admit it, S would lose my attention for minutes at a time during our days together. I would be so busy updating Facebook or Twitter or Instagram about some clever thing we'd just done together, I would miss several more clever things she was doing while I was typing. Without Facebook to distract me, we had a lot more time where we were actually together today.

Since I wasn't so distracted by Facebook, we made cakes instead.

So how is Simon getting on?

I don't think I thought this through properly. 

Day one of giving up social media for lent has provoked mixed reactions from friends and acquaintances.

The first person to mention it was Russell at a business networking meeting. He had obviously heard me talk about it on air and was highly amused. Then I had a text from my mate Terry to say that he and his other half had decided they were going to do it too. He is a mature student studying psychology and thinks it will be interesting to see how life changes for him as a light user and me as a heavier one.

There are also those who are quite happy to ridicule. Apparently my friend Michelle has written a post on my wall so funny that it made my boss laugh out loud on a packed train. I ended up asking him to go into my settings and make changes to prevent future abuse. I can't wait to admire her work in 40 days though - I know it will be hilarious.
And then there are a few who clearly couldn't give up social media if their lives depended on it, and view my motives with suspicion. "I'm happy and I've great friends - why would I give them up" came one response in an email conversation about this. Nobody is asking you to.

I'm happy and I've still got great friends too. I'm just not spending as much time with them and I think this might make me appreciate my time with some of them a bit more. I spoke to my friend Andy for the first time in years today. We had drifted apart since I moved South and he had heard about my abstinence and wondered if I wanted to discuss it on a talk show he was producing.  I sent him Vicky’s way and we caught up on the changes to his life over the last 8 years. Chatting to him was the best 10 minutes of my day - and we would never have bothered if I hadn’t stopped using Facebook.

Another potential benefit I can see that I will be spending less time thinking about work in the coming 40 days.  Or at least, I will be restricting work to specified hours of the day. 

I tend to fit "work" in here and there. If I found myself with 60 seconds to kill I would have a quick look at my timeline and take a screenshot of stuff I might like to use for content at some point. No apps on my phone equals no temptation to "graze" for information. So I will need to set aside time to concentrate on it.

What else have I learnt on the first day?

I obviously didn’t things through properly.

With friends like mine, I should have thought about locking my wall before I logged off!

The world still appears to be turning. Or at least I think it is.

If it isn’t I will just have to find out about it via the TV news or the internet.

How very 20th century!

Find out how we got on at the end of Week 1 here.

The Social Media Lent Experiment OF DOOM!

Early Monday morning, I received a text from a friend: "I'm giving up Twitter and Facebook for Lent. I think you should too..."

I thought he was joking, but he has this really irritating way of persuading me of things. By lunch time, we had agreed to both give up social media for Lent, and to blog jointly about our experiences.

My Facebook profile picture

I run several pages on Facebook - for my business, this blog, and for other businesses. I also promote my

blog through Twitter.  For that reason I can't really give up social media completely. So the rule is this: I will continue to update my clients' pages as normal, and will update my own pages with blog links and suchlike. My Twitter feed will continue to post links to the blog and periodic reminders that I have given up Twitter for Lent. I am not allowed to interact on my own pages or on Twitter though.

I've been on Facebook since 2007, when my joining the site caused a massive argument with my then boyfriend. At first I thought it might be fun to try out this new site and maybe catch up with some old friends, and I have been lucky enough to reconnect with so many wonderful people I'd lost touch with over the years... 800+ "friends" later, it struck me last week that perhaps Facebook was taking over my life a little. I began deleting the "friends" I didn't actually know, and even closing down the Facebook tab on my browser when I was trying to work. I know, right? Shock! 

I joined Twitter in 2008, and followed the obligatory random celebrities. I didn't really get it though, and stopped using it until I set up this blog in 2012. Since then, I've sent around 25,000 tweets and made several friends in the process. I think I'm probably more worried about not being able to tweet than giving up Facebook. It's my go-to place when I need advice, information, anything. It's 100 times better than Google in that respect.

To be honest, I'm not sure I'll last 40 days and 40 nights without social media. It's become my go-to place when I have questions about... well, anything! If S is poorly and I'm not sure if I should call a doctor, if I'm not sure which shoes to buy, if I'm not sure what hours my local Tesco is open on Sundays. Being a single parent can be pretty lonely, and Facebook and Twitter have been my lifelines on many an evening - not just with advice or information, but with company. I will miss the company, but I suppose if people really want to get in contact with me they will email me. I'm looking forward to all the extra free time I'll have now I'm not reading about people's dramas and watching funny videos of cats for hours at a time.

The friend in question was Simon Clarke. He does afternoons on the radio and spends a lot of time on social media. This is what he has to say about his ridiculous idea:

“You’ll never manage it” came the reply from a colleague at work when I announced in the office that I was giving up social media for lent.

“And since when were you religious anyway?”

They might have me on the second point, but I am determined to prove to them and to anyone else who cares that social media is a choice and not a necessity in today’s world.

I was a late starter with Facebook and declined the many email requests from friends until late 2011 when a good (albeit distant) friend of mine became a parent and I decided that it would be a good way to keep up to date with their daughter’s growth.

So I asked someone a work to create the account for me and set the security to maximum so that I wouldn’t show up in any searches.

“Facebook for friends, Twitter for work” was my plan and I was determined to limit my number of friends to “just really good ones I don’t see on a regular basis”.

Simon's profile picture

By the end of the first day I had already sailed past the self imposed marker of 50 thanks to the incestuous nature of the media industry and Facebook’s way of suggesting other people you might know.

Most of the people who found me were mutual acquaintances of the few people I actively sought out and although many fell into the “worked with for a few months a few years ago” category I didn’t want to seem rude by ignoring them.

I am now somewhere north of the 300 mark but I only receive notifications of posts from about 6 of them.  

So why do I keep so many friends and acquaintances?  

Well the honest answer is that they make my job easier.

As a broadcaster I am supposed to reflect the lives of the people to whom I broadcast, and what better way to get inspiration than to see what other people are thinking and doing.

There is also a big element of enjoying sharing other peoples good news.

I have an altruistic streak that feeds off other peoples positivity and Facebook provides that.

Twitter is different and very much “work”.

I use it to communicate with the audience and it’s a great way to establish your personality as a radio presenter without constantly going about your private life or personal views.

It’s great for picking up general opinions of things you know nothing about yet have to reflect because your listeners do care about them.

Will I cope for 40 days without social media?

I think so although it may mean I have to work a bit harder.

In the meantime if you happen to see any funny Lolcat pictures please send them my way via text or email please. Thanks!

You can find Simon's Twitter page here - though obviously there's no point reading it until after Easter!

Today is our last day using Facebook or Twitter. If you want to stay in contact with either of us, but don't have the means to do so outside of social media... well, there may well be a reason for that!

My email address is on the About page of my blog here; do feel free to get in contact if you'd like to. If you'd like to stay in contact with Simon, you can hear his unending chirpiness on the radio, or his website is here.


Find out how we got on with Day 1 here!