I’ve deleted my Twitter and Plaxo accounts. If you used to follow me on those sites, you’ll just need to rely on my blog for updates instead. After trying them out for several months, I found that those services were a colossal waste of time.
Interestingly, I also tried to delete my Identi.ca account. Identi.ca is the main open-source alternative to Twitter, and it prides itself on being “free as in freedom.” Apparently, however, I’m not free to leave – there’s no way to delete an account through the regular user interface. Instead, I stripped all of the posts and profile information, and left the hollow account sitting there. I won’t be updating it.
If you’re part of the 0.01% of the population that hasn’t jumped onto the “social networking” bandwagon yet, my recommendation is: don’t bother. If you want social networking, put the computer to sleep, get off your butt, and go out somewhere to meet real people.
Thank you for these wise words in these hyper-social internetworking ages. I wonder how much more could this world achieve if people would use even a fraction ot the time they spend on these social networks on reading about important things around them, or maybe even studying and bettering themselves.
One can hope, but it doesn’t look good…