Bye for Now

Image by Bill Cammack via Flickr

I’m going to go into hibernation for a bit regarding this blog, and start deleting some of my online traces where this is possible. The plan is to end up with one website dedicated to my PhD, where I will then also integrate my twitter eventually, as well as – maybe – a blog in the future. However this won’t be a daily one like I’ve attempted with this one.

The reality is that my life is pretty steady right now – I know where I’ll be living, working, and who I’ll be dating for the foreseeable future. I have no desire for change.

Hence, I will focus on the things in my offline life and enhance them, and make them better and better. There’s not much room right now for social media, or ‘web 2.0’ (apart from maybe twitter, but that’s micro and not intrusive upon my life!).

The other point is that I think the backlash against social media has begun (see for ex. Bobbie Johnson’s Why I’m finished with Social Media). Brought on partly by the credit crunch, but also the fact that companies will realise that they’re have to make money out of it somehow, then they’ll introduce some shite, and users will desert. I’m not a doom-monger, but I’ve always been kinda right in my vibe about the internet. I might just be starting a new trend here 🙂

Changing Online Presence

Over the next few days, I’ll be scaling down my online output. I’m going to put the blog on hold and, once I’ve done that, will in the coming weeks/months be updating my ‘main’ website (the one hosting my PhD) to be a static, search engine optimised, half decent representation of my online identity (all in one place. Most other stuff will be gotten rid of).

I own my main website’s domain name, but all the files are hosted on webspace the ex owns – not ideal! So either way I’ll need to host it myself. It’ll just be a process to get back to a manageable online presence that I’m comfortable with. I may even keep my twitter and integrate it, and e.g. use the wordpress platform to publish my personal website and PhD (but not as a blog, i.e. not updated).

We’ll see. It’s good to keep moving with these kinds of things, and it’s not as if I completely want to erase everything. I just want to get back to a decent static representation of myself, with no additional effort required! And forget all the stuff about personal branding and the importance of online visibility – I see myself staying in my current job for years and years to come (it’s public sector so I don’t exactly need to be worried about losing my job…).

Britney Spears’ Online Media Manager

Image via Wikipedia

This strikes me as a great idea – and no doubt other ‘celebs’ already have a ‘personal online brand manager’.

Britney Spears (well… her ‘people’)  is looking for her own Brand/Social Media Manager. Apparently this was posted on the Harvard-only private job board (according to TechCrunch, link above).

You don’t have to be posh to be geeky. I’d say rather the opposite. There again, Facebook was founded by Mr. Zuckerberg while at Harvard, I believe.

Either way, I can’t think of anything duller than having to maintain Ms Spears’ various online identities. Yawn.

I’ve Deactivated My Facebook Account :D

I’ve deactivated my Facebook just now. I’m getting a friend to see whether I have indeed ‘disappeared’ from her friends’ list.

I’m happy to downshift this year. With the ‘frugality’ also comes a quest for more simple natural pleasures I suppose. I haven’t watched regular TV (other than very selected shows on iPlayer/4oD) for the last 6 months, and thus haven’t been indoctrinated with TV and especially commercials at all. It’s made my head clearer and happier, as if I can focus much more on what I want and need.

The only way I can describe it is that I’m digging inside myself and doing stuff with what is there, rather than opening myself up to all the shit that is around and having to digest that. I’ve become much more selective, or rather: I’ve always been a selective c*nt but had become more open to let crap into my head over the last few years. Crap alongside the good stuff naturally – the good stuff has never disappeared.

The only difference now is that the void that’s being left by reducing the crap will *also* be filled with good stuff.

I.e. not just, say, 65% good and 35% crap, but 100% good 😀

(if any of the above doesn’t make sense don’t worry – it does to me 😉 )

Facebook ‘Backchat’ via Twitter

A while ago, I integrated my Twitter updates into my Facebook profile, purely so that *something* was happening on FB (as I don’t log on that much these days – maybe every other week if that). What’s started to happen now is that I get comments on my tweets via Facebook, when all I want is to broadcast stuff without getting any communication back!

I might therefore remove Twitter updates from my FB – though in the first instance, I’ve unticked ‘Friends may post to my Wall’ in my Settings.

Hopefully that will do the trick. I really don’t want to feel ‘watched’ when I twitter, if that makes any sense. Even though people might read it!