Noise reduction

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about noise and what to do with it. It’s not the sound I’m talking about, more of the things you’re surrounded by. For instance there is a lot of noise on the web.

As you may well know social media is a pretty big thing, so it has been for a good couple of years. I think social media in general is a good thing. As long as it brings value back to you. Lately, there has been especially one social network that I’ve found myself thinking doubtfully about. One that I’ve been on for a very long time and spent countless of hours on. You probably know it, it’s Facebook.

The timesucking machine

Let’s face it. Facebook is a huge timesucker. All the time that you spend/invest in Facebook. Do you get it back in some way? Do you benefit from it? This was the questions that I started asking myself a couple of weeks ago and I quickly realized that the answer was ‘No’. I found myself starting to imagine how my life would be without it. I was playing with the feeling for a while and very soon I realized that I would have so much more freedom, so much time over to do the things that I really like.

I said no, I don’t want to be in this thing anymore. I want out.

So I started to delete some data from my profile. I untagged myself from photos I didn’t like, erased some statuses and removed likes I’d made. And it felt good. So I continued. All of a sudden I had removed everything I’d ever recorded on Facebook. I felt like a complete new man. Now I don’t have to spend hours trying to polish my profile to perfection, I don’t need to read about people bragging about their latest bravades, I don’t need to get dragged in to this timesucking machine anymore.

All this noise that didn’t add value to my life is gone.

Instead I can spend this time on things that really matters to me. I can read a book, I can write, I can create something. I can invest my time in something that I feel is more valuable.