One of the reasons Nelson defeated the French at the Battle of Trafalgar was the British ships had copper bottomed hulls. The reason? Copper is toxic and no living thing can grow on it, so all the barnacles and limpets and seaweed couldn’t grow on the hull and slow it down. Thus the British ships were faster than the French, who were weighed down by all sort of little creatures hanging on to them.
What the hell has this to do with anything? Well, it was something I thought about as I had a big clear out of “friends” from my social media accounts. I decided that not all “friends” within my social media accounts were worth the trouble and were causing my own social media activities to slow down.
No more.
I had a big cull and got rid of a lot of barnacles from my hull. And it is very refreshing.
Humans are complex things, but to reduce the presence of another human being to an avatar allows a more mechanical reaction. I look at any of the avatars classed as a friend on digg and a process occurs. “Does this friend ever vote on my stories?”, if the answer is no put him on the delete pile. “Does this friend submit cool stuff and link to me regularly on his blog?”, remove him from the delete pile and put onto the daily digg file. “Does this other friend not vote for me and has not even friend-ed me back?” Yes, delete the bugger right now and stop him (or her) slowing down my ship.
As Michael Corleone says, “It’s not personal, it’s business.” Although I do take wry satisfaction deleting a friendship which was leeching thought cycles from my brain.
I’ve spent nearly a year in intensive social media exploitation mode, or SMEM (lol) and when I see certain avatars around the space I groan and think, “oh not that guy again.” I am sure if you have spent any time in the space you have your own collection of people that induce a feeling of derision and revulsion. I am sure my own avatar induces the same feeling on a lot of people.
But lets not go there, lest the misanthropy take hold deeper within my soul.
So to save any more of your time, and mine – it’s New Years Eve in the Antcliff household and holiday spirit is cracking through my early morning fug – get rid of any friends on your social media account you have deemed to be a barnacle. Including mine.
So if you are no longer on my digg list, you know why. Stumbleupon also for that matter.