Can you dump social media if you work in digital marketing? Well, I did.

It used to be so simple. For those of us familiar with Blogger, MSN and MySpace in the early 2000s, Facebook and LinkedIn just made sense. Then Twitter and Instagram came along and suddenly we were chatting with strangers and creating something called 'content'. The future looked bright. Anything was possible. So what changed?

When it came to drinking the social media Kool Aid, no-one was happier to chug down that deliciously addictive (and deceptively dangerous) happy juice quicker than me. I'd spent a lot of time on MySpace and Facebook, but when Twitter came along, that's when everything really changed. Not only did I find a circle of friends with the same deep love of movies as me, I found a community I could use to discuss and promote my blogs, podcasts, the film festivals I was part of and so much more.

Young and innocent days: My first Tweet from 2008

Twitter was huge for me. I joined in November 2008 and quickly started to use it to build an audience for my various creative endeavours. As mentioned, this started with my writing and podcasting, but soon became running online marketing for Grimm Up North Festival in my spare time and, eventually, building enough of an audience to publish my first book. I started turning up on sites like Klout based on the number of followers I'd built up, and was even listed as one of the 'most influential Twitter users in the North West' on some social media directory site. It was absolute nonsense, but it felt nice.

My extra-curricular interest in social media, coupled with my rapidly growing skills in design, podcasting, video, animation and other 'content', made me someone people wanted around in meetings. I was 'just' a copywriter at the time, but I understood social media and what audiences were responding to, so always had plenty of ideas to bring to the party for those who at the time were just getting to grip with this new world. I stayed on top of new platforms, original approaches to content, and different ways in which platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and more could be used by clients. Sounds ridiculous now, but there was a time this was considered a fresh and dangerous idea.

Social media wasn't just allowing me to pursue my own creative goals, it was shaping my career. I developed campaigns for massive global brands while working for a large agency, then did it for smaller clients at the next. Each had very different challenges, but I learned a lot about what was possible when a team has an understanding of brand, objectives, audience and budget, as well as an actual strategy. This all came in pretty handy when I left the agency world and arrived 'client side', where I found myself responsible for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and briefly (thank God) Snapchat. As well as content development, I was introducing social media guidelines and policies, linking campaign activity, creating platform-specific content and reporting on our successes and failures.?

But as my professional involvement in social media grew, I started to notice my personal one in decline as the platforms themselves started to change. In its race to be all things to all people, Facebook turned into a mess of unrelenting dross. If it wasn't ads and Candy Crush updates, it was dreadful videos, questionable 'news' articles and friend requests from people I hadn't seen in 20 years who were now just... awful. Instagram, by this point, had become almost a parody of itself - an endless stream of carefully curated moments built on fabricated lifestyles and an aspiration to 'influence'. I wasn't immune to it either. I knew the thrill of posting something you thought people would?love, just as well as I knew how it felt to discover they didn't even like it.

Facebook was easy to let go. We parted ways a few years back when I relinquished responsibility for the corporate accounts. Instagram took a couple of attempts, but the final nail in the coffin came a year ago after watching Netflix's The Social Dilemma, which shone a light on how platforms like Instagram track and manipulate users, and are the source of massive mental health issues for many. But the hardest platform to let go was also the one that had changed the most. In 2008, Twitter was a place to converse, meet likeminded individuals and share ideas. In 2021, it was a place to scream opinion at one another with no room for debate. The language of Twitter was no longer #FollowFriday and #yolo, it was #cancelled and 'don't @ me'. And as much as Twitter had done for me, I just couldn't take the noise anymore. I tried blocking people, I tried using it a different way. But no matter what I did, the doom scroll would always pull me back in. I could feel Twitter making me more anxious and physically tense. More likely to get annoyed by the smallest things. And that's when I decided...

Now of course, I'm not completely free. The laser sharp among you will have noticed that I'm here, on LinkedIn, writing about 'living without social media'. I should also say I have an emotional support crutch in WhatsApp, with a couple of chat groups made up of those old Twitter (now real life) friends. I also watch a lot of YouTube. Do I comment or get into conversations? No way. Have you seen the people who comment on YouTube videos? Nah. I'm good. So is it social media if I'm not socialising? You decide. The point is, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok... all gone. And you know what? I feel great.

But what does that say about me as a digital marketer? Someone who works in 'content' and prides themselves on telling compelling stories that are used on those platforms? Well, I'll let you into a secret. That thing we tell ourselves about how we 'need to stay on Facebook' or would love to quit Twitter but can't? How we need them to keep on top of the latest trends? It's bullshit. Sure, if you handle the corporate accounts, maybe you need a login, but do you need to lie in bed for two hours simmering over something idiotic someone posted or obsessing over a stranger's new bathroom? I still read the same websites, I still experience new marketing campaigns, I'm still inspired by all the content I consume. I just do it on my own terms. And without all the yelling.

I'd love to tell you giving up social media was easy. It wasn't. I'd love to tell you it's given me more free time. It hasn't. What I can tell you is, three years on from Facebook, one year on from Instagram and six months on from Twitter, I don't feel like I'm missing anything. I can sit and listen to music, watch a movie, read a book and just give it all my attention. It’s given me more focus. I’m less likely to be distracted or pick up my phone just to kill some time. I feel lighter, calmer, less pessimistic and even less irritable. And for the life of me, I can't see how this would make me a lesser employee - in any industry.