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Posted September 30, 2021

Sean Ring

By Sean Ring

I Miss the Memes… and That’s About It.

Happy Friday!

I’m not sure if I feel more lightheaded from fasting or abandoning social media.

But I’m plain giddy at the moment.  Friday is “Pizza Day” in the Ring Household, and I plan to take full advantage of it.

I’ll fast for a load after that, but I need to have some carb fun this week!

Let me tell you about getting rid of Facebook.  It’s as liberating as skinny dipping without worrying about the shrinkage.

Off With Its Head!

Well, I finally did it.

I got off of my Facebook account two weeks ago.

I didn't just deactivate the account. I deleted it, which means I got rid of Messenger as well.

I also deleted my Twitter accounts.

Honestly, if I didn't think I needed it at the moment, I would get rid of my LinkedIn account too.

If you think Twitter is a dumpster fire full of purple-haired losers with zero income and $250,000 in student debt, just wait until you see what the Purple-Haired Employed have to say on LinkedIn.

I can't stand the place anymore. It’s just a place to keep my live CV, as far as I'm concerned.

I don't post daily like I used to. I think that the content is utter crap.

It's funny because companies are so proud about not pursuing profit anymore but pursuing social responsibility.

It's the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard.

The old saying is true: the profits of capitalism pay for the follies of socialism.

Anyway, I thought I'd pass this on since we've been talking about health a lot this week.

Here are the benefits I immediately noticed since giving up Facebook:

More Time With the Family

I have so much more time with my family. I'm present.

I used to sit there all night with them, but I would just get on Facebook, and I would ignore Pam and Micah, and Pam would get very pissed off over it, and Micah would be fighting for my attention.

Of course, I’d eventually put the phone down.

I wasn't all that bad all the time. But if somebody had said something that - gulp - triggered me, my fat little thumbs typing as fast as they can to put that person in his place.

No more.

Stress?  What’s That?

I’m so much more relaxed.  My blood pressure is down.

It's nice to walk around, relax, and not check my phone every second.

Incidentally, on my Google Chrome, every time I type in "www.", it comes up on Facebook still, and I can't wait until that's over.

For the first five days, at least, I went to tap the Facebook app on my phone.

Luckily, I deleted it already.

Equally, my friends have switched from Messenger to get in touch in other ways, such as Signal and Telegram.

The Business of Sean is Business

I have time for the business. Not just to execute, but to think about business.

Even in this clamor for mindfulness, I don’t think we take enough time to think about what we’re trying to accomplish.  If you’re doing something, you’re not thinking.  And vice versa.

I told you a couple of weeks ago; I’m concentrating on building my business out.

That seems to be working well.

I’m Not Talking to Myself Anymore

Another thing I like is that I’m not talking to myself nearly as much anymore.

Now, I am of the Gary North school, which says the best way to learn something is to teach it.

That's part of the reason why I'm a teacher. I love relearning stuff.

I like rote learning, understanding, explaining, and then understanding deeper.

You can almost feel the connections between your neurons going.  The synapses fire up and dig in deep into your brain.

Einstein didn't have a bigger brain than everybody, but his connections - the synapses - between the neurons in his brains were amazing.

Making those connections that's what I try to do.

You can read more of the sound science behind our brains and Einstein’s here.

But with Facebook, I found that if I got pissed off at a comment, I would mouth my reply before typing it.

It was like practicing for nobody in the room to reply to social media posts, which is just plain dumb. I'm pleased I stopped doing that.

When I’m allowed out of the house here in the Philippines, which Bloomberg just named the worst place in the world to be during a lockdown, I listen to books on Audible or to music.

That way, I don’t get annoyed.

Please, Forget About Me

One of the other main benefits I’m happy about is that once I return to the EU next year, there's no social media presence that they could lock onto.

I think that's going to be important in the coming years.

They are clamping down massively all over the world on free speech.

People will be doxxed, and people will be prosecuted.

Many people have already been prosecuted for hate crimes concerning social media posts in Europe.

Have a quick look at the proposed legislation here.

As in WarGames, the only winning move is not to play.

Luckily, I've got a career that doesn't require me to be in offices all day long.

I work for some somewhat irreverent people, Paradigm Press being one of them, but it is just nice to know that potential clients won't have much to look up very soon.

Europe, in its defense, has the right to be forgotten as well. Google has to scrub you from their searches if you request it.

If you are a Rude reader in Europe, I'd start thinking about exercising that right, getting everything erased from the internet unless you're trying to build a business, of course. Then it helps to have your presence there.

Wrap Up

But all in all, leaving social media behind has been a massively positive experience.

It's something that has been 15 years in the making.

I think I got my Facebook account in 2006, right after I jumped from MySpace with everybody else.

It was a long, strange trip.

I'm glad I got in touch with some of my friends from high school, although New Jersey is so full of Democrats.

I think I pissed more people off with my presence than made them happy.

One of my Democrat friends blocked me in the high school reunion Messenger group, which I thought was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen.

Oh, well. These things happen.

But it's time to move forward, and move forward, I will.

Think about it, yourself.  It may be just what the head doctor ordered.

Until next week...

Have a fantabulous weekend!

All the best,

Sean

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