The value of balance

Not being drawn to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram while I ponder my day over my first morning coffee leaves me with LinkedIn and email. 

LinkedIn notifications presented me with 12 things I learnt taking 12 months off the ‘gram by James Whatley 

I’m not alone in removing so called social apps from handheld devises even among those who social media is part of their professional sector.

James came on my radar when he did a session at MediaCampBucks back in 2007 introducing me to SpinVox a service that turned voicemail into text messages. Another lost platform. James has has a vibrant and aspirational career path I have followed though out my digital leaning phase of my own career. 

The desktop and mobile devises, access through browser or app are physiologically separate. It’s important. I was loosing quality in my present. Loosing depth perception from my physical experience. I made this decision to step back not because I couldn’t but because I didn’t like the feeling that I could but didn’t. Compulsory and Compulsion, that it was compulsive with no positive response. Anything else that would make me feel this way I would stop. It had to stop!

Instagram specifically was a recent bug bear as it became more and more dominated by advertising and sales. 
I don’t like, don’t agree with what the algorithm thinks I like. I don’t know what that says about me but I just find in irrelevant and creepy.

I have alway been very selective in who I accept friend requests from or chose to follow. I’m not particularly bothered that I have people and accounts I follow on Twitter that don’t follow back.
For me it has always been out the content and insight, conversation and wider context. Trusted sources are no less trusted despite not having reciprocal recognition.

But my ‘news’ feeds are limited and interest me less and less. They trigger disillusionment and annoyance more and more.

Surprisingly it has left me with LinkedIn and a renewed desire to blog. For James that was posting his Medium post using status updates embedded from Instagram and Twitter into LinkedIn.

I looked at my LinkedIn notification and immediately found an item by someone I wanted to hear from with a topic that interested. I read it and it has informed the direction of my post today.

I was reflecting on content fed to me by the algorithms after watching The Social Dilemma on Netflix which confirmed everything I already knew and iterated the problems of subliminal influence and control exhibited as a means to an end in making users (a term used for its customers only by the drugs trade and tech industries) spend precious attention with a single objective of selling that attention even the potential of your attention to the cause wanting to influence your perspective.

It’s not just about selling. There is crass transparency in selling. Thrusting a product using presumptive data increasing the chance of a transaction for monetary gain by the advertisers.

It’s the perception influence that disturbs me. Changing what people think. That is what is ‘paid’ for. 

Data data data - that too

The value of balance? Mindfulness is on one side of my scales. What will 2021 comprise of to create my balance.  weigh? I have to know the gravitas of my control mass, the capacity and requisite quality of my Mindfulness.

What is the quality capacity of your mindfulness. How do you balance? 
I may have identified my tipping point where to not address this value balance is harmful to my sense of self.