I once posted that I officially love WordPress. I also like blogs and blogging and while discussion forums are usually only an entertaining way to burn some time, even forums can sometimes be useful and a source of information that is hard to find elsewhere.
But there are a couple of things on the “social” Internet that I officially hate: Twitter and Facebook and everything else that can be described as a “Social Network”.
I already thought that SMS is an unworthy form of human communication, so ever using Twitter was entirely out of the question for me.
But several years ago, I was somehow talked into opening a LinkedIn account and since LinkedIn aims a “professional” audience, I gave it a shot and fed the LinkedIn servers with my data and “connected” with other people that I knew through my various jobs.
Yet, over all those years, I wondered what this thing actually did for me. The answer was simple: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I’m pretty sure that LinkedIn gained some useful information from my data and the data of the people that I connected with and could create valuable profiles that they could sell to advertisers or use otherwise. After all, that is what Facebook does for a living – and most Facebook users don’t realize at all that they are the product that Facebook sells to its real customers, which are advertisers.
All other social networks pretty much have the same business model as Facebook. The thing for me is that I hate ads and being treated like consumer cattle. So, a few days ago, I finally closed the only social network account that I ever owned.
I don’t mind when people want to use stuff like Facebook, Google+, WKW (a German Facebook-ripoff), Twitter, LinkedIn, Xing or the like. I mean, it’s the year 2012 and billions of people are still watching TV, too. So how could actively using “social networks” on the Internet be any worse than being passively brainwashed by mass media?
Me, I’ve just read too much “Fahrenheit 451” and other dystopian literature and don’t like the idea of being somebody’s product. So please don’t expect me to accept an invitation to join such a network. I’ve already left enough traces of me on the web that are there for all to see, and that ought to be enough.