Fox 9 Apperance

Here it be kids:  http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/21725561/digital-diets-experts-recommend-rehab-to-reality

Or just the straight video: http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/21725561/digital-diets-experts-recommend-rehab-to-reality?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8660848

Wow!

So I know it's been ages since I've updated this thing.  I've been back in the swing of things with social media, albeit a couple of changes, like trimming the fat, reducing the amount I post, not staring at my phone while I'm attempting to have a pleasant date night with my wife, and all of these changes have been pretty damn good for me, both emotionally and socially.

Anyways, my good e-friend Kate-Madonna Hines (two separate links there) hooked me up with Rob Olson of our local Fox affiliate channel to discuss social media and internet unplugging.

Once it goes live, which should happen later today, I'll be posting it here.

I'd really like to explore more ways to get involved with this whole internet addiction thing.  If anyone has any leads, let me know. Thanks!

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

So I've been back in the Social Media fold for what... two days now?  Of course I didn't expect anything miraculous to have changed.  People are still reporting rumors as news and flamebait, people are still being dicks with disillusions of grandeur, and a new and horribly annoying internet fad is making its rounds around Facebook.

derp,derp...

 

In any case, the struggle to not scream at these acts is difficult.  I can't let myself fall back into bad habits.  The only thing I can really change is myself. I can't change how others act, no matter how void of rational thought it may be. But yeah, it's hard not to counter douchy-ness with anger...

This great purge I've been in the middle of, so far has made me feel a lot better. Sadly, some people have taken this personally. C'est la vie, I guess. It wasn't meant as a dig so much as its for my sanity. Oh wells.

Anyways, here is your Facebook study of the day: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/28/facebook-stress-friend-study_n_2204607.html

 

 

Stumped...

Despite last night's proclamation, it appears all Twitter contacts have returned. Therefore, the great Twitter purge has begun, which has seen me already remove some 200 people.  Many of them even big name game journos or celebrities I was following.  All part of the goal of making my social media experience less rage inducing.

This purge has also begun to take effect in Facebook as well. I've stopped liking a lot of feeds that just spam random dribble. I've also removed a lot of feeds from displaying on my time line. I could end up just removing some people whom were not really connecting anyways.  Not sure yet.

This bottom quote is fitting:

Hopefully, I also won't be the asshole online anymore either. :)

Back Earlier Than Expected, But Still Back and Refreshed

Hello world!

So, I returned from my social media break about 12 hours earlier than I intended to.  I realized what a busy schedule I have tomorrow, with two tests, a half day of work, and meeting a repairman to fix our month old bed frame. Therefore, decided to make my triumphant return tonight, as I have lots of time.

I had a weird feeling of dread as I was doing it, not sure why.  I also drank a Mt. Dew for the first time in a month this evening as well.  Theme of tonight: Returning to Destructive Habits?  Hopefully not...

Word of the wise by the way: You can de-activate Facebook and all of your contacts will still be there.  De-activate Twitter, and they all disappear. Not that's entirely a bad thing though. It gives me a chance to start anew and implement some of those changes I spoke about in my previous blog entry.

... and hopefully stay away from this shit...

Anyways, I'm going to do my best to adhere to my new Social Media "diet". I will curb the flamebait as much as possible, not be a hypocrite, and remove people who are ticking me off, rather than stewing on it.

Also, stuff.

But it has been a learning experience.  I never realized how addicted I was to social networking until this week.  I figured it was natural to be chained to Facebook.  After all, many in our society are.  But it really hit me once I didn't have it.

Speaking of, many people have asked me "Why delete the accounts?  Why didn't you just ignore them?" I guess the logic behind deactivating them was like how my dad would take my Nintendo controllers when I was grounded; not having access to said item made it substantially more difficult to break the banishment then to simply "ignore it". Sure, I could have tried to ignore it, but ask someone who is smoking to just "Ignore the cigarettes, you can quit that way." Knowing myself, and knowing how addicted I was to social networking sites, it was simply easier for me to remove my access to them, rather than just be like "Well... lemme peek this once and... WHAT THE FUCK INTERNET #RAGE"

Internet Rage is for over-compensating nerds what roid rage is to over-compensating millionaire air-head athletes

While I got a lot of contact from some great people during this "hunger strike" I was a little disappointed in the proportion of interactions with IRL people vs. Internet people.  I'm trying not to read into it too much, but it was something I noticed and felt worth mentioning.

I've been reading a lot this week about the effects of social networking on the human psyche and mind.  There's a lot out there about the effects on self-esteem, narcissistic behaviors, depression, addiction, seclusion, loneliness  bullying, etc.  I feel awful thinking something I may have posted at some point adversely affected someone mentally.  I also realized a lot of what these studies and research were saying were BIG reasons I wanted to take this break.  As I had said before, I've been wanting to do this for a while, I even mentioned it to my wife and my therapist.  The actions of a couple of trolls online is what pushed me over the edge.  I'm very glad I did.

Anyways, I feel a lot more refreshed now, taking this week long vacation from internet crap. I'm sure this time Friday someone will have set me off.  But the new rule is to simply walk away, or hit the unfollow/defriend/block/ GO THE FUCK AWAY button.It's a lot better for my blood pressure to try that approach.

Oh, and Twitter wiped out all of my contacts.  So if you were following me on there, you'd have to re-follow me if you want to be connected on there.  Twitter handle is @This_Is_Mike_D

I'm giving you all permission to call me out should I sway back into old habits, I just ask you don't be a douche cannon about it though. :) I'm doing what I can to adhere to my goal for 2013, which is to make myself a better person and by proxy, make my life and surroundings better.  Life is too short to feed the trolls, get into pissing matches about whose bigger in the pants, or petty crap that isn't a big issue anyways.  I'm not going to change the world from a keyboard and I'm certainly doing no one any favors by "actin' a fool"

Cool story, bro.

I've also decided this will be an annual thing for me.  I also encourage all of you to just take a damn break from social networking for a week and see how you feel afterwards.  Seriously, I wasn't holding onto stuff as much, wasn't exploding into anger, and didn't have as strong of an urge to acquire nuclear warheads.  Even tonight, I write this a little hesitant to even be on Facebook or Twitter at the moment. I almost considered going another week.  Alas, I have too many awesome people I actually want to keep in touch with that I'm not going to let a bunch of dweebs ruin.  No, "I ain't got time for that shit!"

Working out, my new-found love of The Sims 3, writing for GameWoof, school, my lovely wife, have all been taking up most of my time, I haven't truly missed being on social media to be completely honest.  I will miss making memes however, as apparently only I found them funny.

Do not be fooled. Behind this relaxed kitten is a deranged feline mass murderer who hates America and sells Oregano to 8th graders on the playground. 

Finally, thanks to a couple people who've been uber supportive in this whole little break, including my amazing and wonderful wife Laurel.  I also need to thank Martha Southerland, Evan Passero, Phil Bruton, Chris Nitz, Keri Honea, and anyone else I might be forgetting.  Seriously, talking to all of you about this really helped me see the problems and make me truly believe I was doing this for the better. I know it sounds silly to be making a fuss about a week break from social networking. But trust me, I check my phone a good 25-40 times a day easily.  I do not kid about this.  Since I've reactivated tonight, I've maybe checked it once or twice.  In the future, I'm not going to make a habit of being on social networking every moment of my time either, especially when with people or out in public, OR ESPECIALLY ON DATE NIGHTS WITH MY WIFE. (She has threatened dismemberment many of times...)

I guess I don't have much else to say.  Hopefully everyone else understands what's up with all of this; I just needed to take a step back from myself and from a network of negativity and people constantly bringing me down in some shape or form.  Pretend I'm a hot blonde when you read this, but "It wasn't you, it was me".  Now envision me riding away on an Eagle, draped in an American flag, because why the hell not?

P.S. Go see The Book of Mormon. It's great, like really great

. 

P.P.S I seriously miss Doritos...

Words of the Wise

You should also read my good internet friend, Neff's thoughts on Social Media as well:

http://journal.evanpassero.com/why-bother-with-social-media/

We've been both discussing the bad taste it leaves in our mouths and frankly, he's been instrumental in me seeing some of the bad practices I have with social networking as well.

Also, I'd probably hit it.

20, 20, 24 hours to go...

... and Ill be submerged back into Social Media. 

I'm not going to lie, I'm torn between whether I'll be glad to return to some level of normalcy, or if I'm glad to be free of the crap social media brings us.

89.3 FM, the Current (Who is going through their member drive right now, and if you LOVE public radio you should support them!) talked about yet another Facebook study, this one coming from our Packer and Cheese loving brethren to the East of us. It talks about how looking at one's Facebook wall can help self-confidence, while looking at other's posts tend to do the opposite.  I wonder if this has anything to do with that whole "I'm way more awesome on the internet" syndrome many of us are guilty of.

I've also been mulling around some of the changes I'll be implementing in my Social Media practices once I come back on.  They probably won't all be instant, as I do have a life, work, school, my severe Sims 3 addiction and my wife who are all more important than me broadcasting my random thoughts each day to the world. But a couple of them:

• No more friending/following people because I feel I need to: A) I have no illusions anymore that I'm ever going to be Game Informer's next big thing B) Enough of the Game Journo industry is too busy sniffing their own farts to realize their readership are even people anymore C) Most of them, frankly, piss me off to no end.  Oh, there are still a couple I adore (Ben Kuchera, Phillip Kollar, to name a few) but there are also a couple of almost Rush Limbaugh level video game "pundits" that I just don't need in my life anymore.
• Must refrain from controversial posts: I like politics, I cannot lie. You other brothers can deny...  But seriously, when has any statement, or subsequent 55+ comment thread ever changed anyone's mind?  I believe the number lies somewhere between never and zero percent.  All it end's up doing is making my blood boil and for me to hold ill tidings towards friends or people I know.
• Block Button/ Unfollow Button/ Hide Feed/ Zip Posts, are my friend: We can be friends, but I don't want to see your 14th meme post about Jesus by 11am, nor do I want to see a whole bunch of flamebait.  It's just not healthy for me.
• Likewise, I have to not set rules for others and break them myself: If I hate people being dicks online, I must also not be a douche cannon, nor should I post 57 times a day, nor should I also blast word pollution.

I'm totally open to criticism; this experiment has been as much about me needing to think about the practices I do online just as much as it's been me avoiding others.  I'm truly sorry for these practices and will do my best to work on preventing them in the future.

Oh, In Case Anyone Wondered...

From: Urban Dictionary

1.	nerdtastrophe
	any sort of minor event which causes a nerd to flip out, freak out, or generally over-react. the rest of the non-nerd population usually remains quite calm and unaffected by a nerdtastrophe the sys admin was having a nerdtastrophe over the server shut-down. buy nerdtastrophe mugs & shirts nerd nerdie nerpocalypse apocalype catastrophe by raqi syed Jun 12, 2007 share this add a video
2.	Nerdtastrophe
	Something that is tragic to a nerd, but doesn't matter at all to a regular person. Dan- Why is that nerd flipping out? Ben- It's a nerdtastrophe. He got an A instead of an A+ on his quiz. buy nerdtastrophe mugs & shirts catastrophe nerdtastic tradegedy nerdloss nerdy by rewards19999 May 9, 2010 share this add a video

Re-affirming my Dislike for Social Media and Changes in Behaivor

So this essentially has been what my phone has been telling me a couple times a day since last Wednesday, the day I began my little strike against Facebook/ Twitter.  The urge to check my phone every 10 mns has subsided. I even avoided the temptation to end the ban early on Friday, as I was home sick from work; I decided to play Sims 3 most of the day instead.

I've come across two different things this week that kind of re-affirm why I am doing this:

Former Packers Cheerleader Fights Cyber-bullying: http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20130211/GPG0101/302110398/Former-Packers-cheerleader-Wonderful-support-anti-bullying-video

Why Facebook Makes You Feel Bad About Yourself: http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/24/why-facebook-makes-you-feel-bad-about-yourself/ 

UPDATE: The 2nd one is from Neff. I didn't give him credit. Those responsible have been sacked.

It's been humorous to think of how difficult this has been. I can't log into certain sites right now, as they're linked to my Facebook (Pinterest, for example), 4square has not been happy with me, and various other apps/ sites have become a nuisance without Twitter or Facebook.  They truly are rooted deep into everything we do, whether we like to admit it or not. I've kept in touch with a couple people via Google + and LinkedIn, but those two sites aren't a scratch compared to Twitter and Facebook.

A couple of people I know from the internet have been "keeping me up to date" with the happenings online.  I can't say, based on their reports, that I'm terribly eager to re-emerge on Wednesday.  I frankly don't miss the constant bickering on Twitter, or the 30 million pictures of whatever meme the masses are obsessed with or of your "adorable little offspring".  I don't long for the humble-brags, the "Why I'm better than you" posts, or the "woe is me, #firstworldproblems" updates.  I will fully admit to being guilty of some of these, but this time off has made me more aware of them. I also don't want to be a lazy friend, whom only knows whats up with you because of your Facebook status update about your mom being in town, or how that crazy girl you were dating finally stole your TV and left the tape of her screwing your roommate. I hope I continue to remember this lesson 6 months from now. :)

But, it's been amazing not having that leash.  I've also decided this will become an annual thing for me.  Obviously, I can't quit social media altogether; they're too valuable for sharing my writings and despite all the asshats out there, I've met some incredible people through Facebook and Twitter.  I'm looking forward to re-connecting with them. 

In conclusion...

Harder Then I Thought

I found out within the first couple hours why this break from Social Media is a good thing.

When I decided to do this purge, the big thing I had to do was remove access to Facebook and Twitter. That included deactivating both accounts, removing the apps from my phone, and removing my social networking widget.

Then I found myself grabbing for the phone. It was a routine ritual; I'd have a 3 mn break in the action at work, grab my phone, and see the same stuff over and over again. Amongst people taking things way to seriously, acting self important, or posting their 37th picture of their child that day, it never changed, yet I found myself addicted to it.  It's like a crack addict who knows his habit is bad, but is completely powerless to stop it.

I even started having feelings of guilt. "Maybe I'm overreacting" "Maybe I should just ..." Quickly, I had to give myself a mental slap on the wrist. I was trying to rationalize to myself why I needed to log onto Facebook. Or why I needed to be on Twitter. Like somehow, I wronged everyone for doing what I needed to do.

Let's hope I get better at this.

This, only Facebook instead of a billion cigarettes. Glad I can't get cancer from social network addiction...

I read two things today that are appropriate to this experiment:

A health aficionado explaining her "detox" from Social Networking sites: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-7413/why-im-ditching-social-media.html

One of various research posts I found about the brain being hardwired to search for the negative: http://www.centreforconfidence.co.uk/pp/overview.php?p=c2lkPTEmdGlkPTAmaWQ9NDU=

My Social (Networking) Experiment

Today on local radio station 89.3 FM The Current, they talked about a news story today where 61% of Facebook users have taken a "vacation" from the site.  Amongst many of the reasons cited for it were people being too busy, or trying to get a break from drama.  Now, if you know me, you know I'm an incredibly busy person, trying to constantly juggle 36 hours into a 24 hour day.  I also hate drama and over all douche baggery a lot.  I'm sure I've committed online dickery in the past, but I generally try to avoid it (Doesn't make much sense in me getting mad at others for something I'm knowingly and actively doing)

Well, today on Twitter, a speculatory news story broke out. Without boring you with details, it lead to some heated debate.  That and some other discussions on Facebook generally irked me; not so much the disagreement as the attitude in which said discussion were conducted in.

So after proclaiming my abandonment of the internet for the day, I got to thinking about that story the Current's morning show had been discussing. I have talked with both my wife and my therapist about taking a break from social media, primarily due to the white rage it generally causes me, for a variety of reasons.

This is me after a day of Social Media viewing

Therefore, I decided today is the day; I'm officially going on a week long hiatus from both Twitter and Facebook. Yeah, I use these services a lot! Whether I'm promoting articles I've composed, spouting off political dribble, or nerding out this or that, I probably post more than I should.  I apologize if that's ever made anyone upset.

One thing that has always bothered me about social media, is, since its conception, I feel that interpersonal communications have broke down.  No one ever calls or attempts to chat to see whats up, they simply wait for you to announce whatever news of the day on your Facebook wall.  For an outlet that should bring people closer together, in my experience, its done more to drive people apart.  I love going on GChat; it allows me to actually talk with people rather than getting into Wall post convos or trolling their wal's to find out what's up.  

That being said, I've decided to engage on this social experiment to see how this affects me personally, my contact with others, my relationship with my wife (I have a sincere problem of always checking my phone), and just any other affects it has over the course of the next week.

If you need to get a hold of me, my email is citizen.d.rude@gmail.com.  Those who I want to have my phone number have it.  Try not to miss me too bad. :)