10 days ago I deactivated my Twitter account. Three years ago I deactivated my Facebook account. I don’t use Instagram or Snapchat, don’t have a YouTube channel. This means, aside from a LinkedIn account I pay no attention to, I have quit social media.
Some may say this is career suicide. I say they’re wrong.
Think of all the time we waste scrolling through photos and updates from people we barely even know. Now think of all the things you could be doing with that time to enhance your real life. For me, those things include reacquainting myself with actual books, learning how to write compelling stories, rediscovering my love of martial arts, and building a fitness business that changes people’s lives in a meaningful way.
Or, you know, I could sit around at stare at my phone desperately waiting for some sort of validation from digital entities that have no impact on my being.
Now this is not to say there is no value to social media. If you’re living a full and productive life you’ll have stories to share; that’s when social media shines. It really only matters when you’re offering quality content. The writers, trainers, artists, reporters, activists, and entrepreneurs I admire most all have deep wells of content to dip into; their tweets and posts have roots, everything links back to their website/home base. I can’t say the same. My social media game is weak, mostly because lately there’s no purpose to anything I post.
I’ll be back on Twitter before the month-long grace period is up and my account is deleted for good. As much as I’ve appreciated being kept out of the loop while people freak out over Ted Bundy’s victory lap and Liam Neeson’s unfortunate candour, Twitter is where writers live and I want to be a writer on Twitter. (Update: the grace period passed, my Twitter account is kaput. I’ve officially quit social media).
Just not right now. Gotta work on this whole “being a writer” thing first.
In the meantime, for those who follow me on Twitter and those who read my work with the Globe & Mail, if you’re jonesin’ for some insight you can get your fix right here. I plan on posting twice a week, every week, even if those posts don’t always shake the foundations of the fitness industry. Hell, who says these posts have to be about fitness anyway? It’s my damn site. Sometimes you just want to share a video of Robert Quine destroying a guitar, you know?
Anyway, the point of all this is: all that time and energy I would normally spend mindlessly scrolling through Twitter is now going to be spent thinking and writing and studying and writing with the intent of becoming a seriously kick-ass trainer who knows what’s up and doesn’t boast bullshit for likes and shares. This is my new business model. Let’s see where it leads.