I had an interesting conversation with a friend today which has kept on coming back to mind this afternoon… In this modern day and age that we live in, is it possible to entirely remove yourself from the Internet?
I’m not just talking small scale here, I mean removing your every trace of existence online. If it is possible, how would if affect your relationships with people? Out of the hundreds of ‘silent’ friends you have on Facebook, which ones would you never hear from again? Would you be closing yourself off to opportunities? Perhaps you’d be opening yourself to new ones? Just how big an impact is our seemingly constant connectivity having on our lives?
The ever increasing number of people owning either a Smartphone or ultraportable laptop (or both) means that not only can you be instantly contactable via your phone number, but also now via your social media profiles (I am known to respond faster to a Direct Message on Twitter than I do to text message) and push email. Can you be too accessible? I had a discussion with another friend earlier about the fact that being away from her phone leaves her feeling uncomfortable and that even when no alerts have been received she finds herself needing to check, check and check again just in case she has missed something. I wondered whether she would be up for a challenge of 24 hours without her Smartphone…. I knew I’d be unlikely to agree to that myself so didn’t propose it.
A few friends have opted to remove themselves from Facebook for various reasons recently and it seems like an alien concept to me. One train of thought is that people can ‘spy’ on you too easily if you use a social media site. This view intrigues me… we all have a level of control over the level of privacy applied to our accounts but the ultimate privacy control is to only post content you are happy for the world to see. Having a Facebook account or a Twitter profile doesn’t automatically provide the people you are connected to with a window to your soul. By selecting the information, pictures and content that you share within your online networks you are portraying snapshots of your life that you wish people to share in. Memorable events, milestones and celebrations are all easily communicable in a way our parents and grandparents never knew and if handled correctly I can see this to be a positive thing for our children to embrace naturally as they grow.
So, if we wanted to backtrack; remove ourselves from this public world we have stepped into, how would we do it? Deleting a Facebook profile or website is just the tip of the iceberg. The footprint you leave behind is deeply embedded. You can hire professional companies to remove you and your ‘findability’ factor from the internet and there are endless blog posts with instructions detailing how to ‘unGoogle’ yourself but the question remains, how much would you miss it? Perhaps more interestingly – would you be missed? The internet and online social networking have become so intertwined with our lives that you could possibly be considered an extremist for taking such action but it’s certainly an interesting discussion point.
What are your views? Could you do it? I know I couldn’t 
I know I couldn’t!
Will be forwarding this to my Mum to read
I love how you point out that people can only see as much as you choose to share.
Thanks Emma
I try and separate my internet personal me from my professional work me because I’m not sure that one would reflect well on the other but it is very hard work (and very easy to unwittingly trip over hidden traps and risk showing one to the other) – it does worry me that younger people may not realise how much of a footprint they are leaving and the implications of it
Hi Hannah, I try to do the same and pitch content/tone in a different style to different audiences. I wonder if you just use it for social purposes you don’t have as much awareness of the outward message you portray?