Time to Become a Little More Antisocial

Antisocial:1

1: averse to the society of others : unsociable

2: hostile or harmful to organized society; especially : being or marked by behavior deviating sharply from the social norm

Ok, so maybe I don’t fit the Webster’s Dictionary of antisocial.  I’m certainly not hostile toward organized society nor am I averse to the society of others. I do have friends. I do go out (sometimes). But, I certainly do feel the need to clean up my social networking pages.

I currently follow 159 people or services on Twitter and have 182 friends on Facebook (not counting Subscriptions and Likes). I came across an article on LifeHacker a few months ago called “Clean Up Your Mess of Social Networks This Weekend”2. The article references browser plug ins and tools, but the gist of the whole thing is that most folks’ social networking pages are cluttered with items they don’t really care about and “friends” they aren’t really friends with.

So, that’s my plan. Beginning today and probably continuing over the next few days, I will be going through Facebook, Twitter and probably even LinkedIn to trim some things. Some will be subscribed/liked pages, like, for example, The Kidd Chris Show which has moved to Cincinnati with the shutting down of Project 9-6-1 here in Atlanta. But there will undoubtedly be people that get at least un-subscribed to if not unfriended.

For a while now I’ve put off doing this to avoid hurt feelings. But the truth is, some of the folks I’m friends with on Facebook are from too far in my past and our points of view have become different enough that I find their posts anywhere from annoying to infuriating at times, as I’m sure they find mine.

Perhaps I should have started this process before even writing this blog and subsequently posting a link to it on Facebook and Twitter so that those I will be unfriending would not have even noticed. But, it’s a bit late for that now, isn’t it? So, if you find yourself suddenly unable to view my Facebook page, I’m sorry; I promise you, it’s not personal.

~ JC

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1. Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Online  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antisocial - accessed 15 September 2012

2. Whitson, Gordon, “Clean Up Your Mess of Social Networks This Weekend”,  30 March 2012, Online http://lifehacker.com/5897950/clean-up-your-mess-of-social-networks-this-weekend?tag=weekendhacker - last accessed 15 September 2012