Every Time I Die frontman Keith Buckley posted an in-depth blog on the negative effects of social networking sites, having recently detached himself from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. An excerpt can be read below, while the entire post can be found at his newly launched website Keith-Buckley.com.
“On January 1st I went dark. I cancelled my Instagram account and while not deleting my Facebook or Twitter entirely, (I’m not crazy, its hard to get verified) I removed the apps from my phone insuring that I wouldn’t be tempted to race to them when inspiration or boredom or apathy struck. I intended to give myself one week. Seven days to wrangle myself from the meretricious carnival that social networking had become, at least amongst those who I volunteered to network with. I wont name specific names, though I have no doubt that anyone reading this will find the description applicable to a number of acquaintances, and if so, I only hope that you too can muster the strength to put your desire to be happy before your fear of offending and cut them off like the unnecessary appendage that they actually have become. For most, this is overkill. The majority of those on Twitter or Facebook are probably only giving a cursory glance to a post about someone’s child or a scan of a Polaroid on Flashback Fridays or a tweet to a mutual friend of an inside joke before dismissing them as boring or funny or whatever and then returning to their own lives as it exists in the current moment. If you’re one of those people, know that I’m jealous of your imperviousness to strangers and have gone to great lengths to find myself in the moment, centered in the present rather than scanning the room like the Terminator to assess the vibe before deciding on the optimal action or planning an escape before I’ve even arrived. But if you’re not in that majority, then maybe you can agree with me when I say that the perverse psychology behind WHY certain people post what they do becomes ubiquitous once noticed until it threatens to become an obsession, and they a case study in dysfunction and narcissism. So, while ‘appendage’ might sound a little drastic, what else could I call something that is inextricable from the way I appear to myself? And simultaneously, in doing this little experiment, what else could I cut off just to spite my face?”