Original Image from Lars K. Jensen
Over the last few weeks I’ve been evaluating my digital presence and deciding what services I still find useful, and what services I no longer have any interest in continuing with. This week I’ve begun taking some action with those that were no longer useful to me, and as I wrote in my last post, Facebook was the first account I deleted.
It’s not only services I no longer intend on using that have been under review. In doing this review I realised I had various email, and twitter accounts for projects I’d considered but then for whatever reason hadn’t actually began, and so they were deleted too. I had an email account that was setup for receiving emails from a few subscription lists that I no longer read, and so I unsubscribed from those lists and closed those accounts down too.
There seemed to be a remarkable number of accounts for various services that I created, but never actually used beyond the intial setup, or services I used once or twice, and then never used again. A very small handful of them haven’t been deleted yet as I’m still considering whether or not I’ll ever actually use them again. My plan for them is that in the next week, if I don’t have a clear picture of how I can use them going forward they’ll be deleted.
It’s a really invigorating feeling going through all of this stuff and being so brutal with my decision to keep them or not. It’s a very similar feeling to the one I get when I move house, and end up throwing out, or giving away, bags of items I’d completely forgotten I’d accumulated, and no longer used. This is the only good thing about moving house in my opinion. Removing all of this digital baggage makes me feel more organised and focused, and allows me to make greater use of the services I am keeping.
Services That Made the Cut
Though my focus to this point has been on the services that I’ve been removing, there were a handful that I still find extremely useful, and that I’ll continue to actively use. I also realised that because I had signed up for so many services that a few of the more useful ones had fallen through the cracks, and I hadn’t been using them to their full potential. There are now a very small number services that I’m going to focus my attention on and use them to a far greater degree than I previously had. They are:
I never really made any conscious effort to use my twitter account in a consistent manner. I go through spells of using it constantly, which is then followed by large spells of inactivity. My aim with my account there is to use it not only more frequently, but to make better use of it than I have been. This will involve me going through the list of people I follow and organising it to a greater degree, unfollowing a few people, and adding a few new people. It also means I’m going to have to look at the way I access Twitter and see if I can make that process more efficient and much easier to extract useful information from others.
My usage of LinkedIn until now was never really thought out in any constructive way. I essentially created my account on the advice of a colleague a few years ago, and then after the initial setup I hadn’t really updated my profile in any meaningful way. I would on occasion add a new professional connection to my network, but it was a sporadic thing. LinkedIn took a backseat for me because everyone seemed to be using Facebook, and that became an easier place to make these connections. Of course Facebook became a site I despised visiting, and I came to realise that LinkedIn was exactly what I was looking for from Facebook. I’ve only recently started using the site again, and so my profile is still something of a work in progress. I can already see many potential uses for the service that I hope to take advantage of in the coming weeks.
Delicious
I’ve used my Delicious account for a few years now and always found it extremely useful. However, as I’ve recently stopped using my own personal laptop as a work machine I’ve found it’s usefulness to me increase dramatically. When I used my laptop for work I never really had to concern myself with saving bookmarks to a central location. I would just bookmark them in Firefox and know that I would always have them there if I needed them. This left my delicious account as a resource to share links I found interesting, and that I thought contacts on my delicious network might find useful. While I still do this, my usage for delicious has now become much more important to my day to day workflow. No matter which machine I end up using I can still access those bookmarks quickly and effortlessly.
Flickr
My Flickr account is one I am not 100% sure I’m going to keep. I really like the service, and I think it’s a fantastic resource for finding and sharing photography. The only reason I may end up closing this account is that I wouldn’t mind hosting my photography here on the site. As that’s a decision I change my mind on every other day, I’m going to keep my account there at least until my Pro status expires. At that point I will make a final decision and either move all of my photography into a gallery here, or renew my Pro Account for another year.
AIM/Skype
I find myself using AIM (via iChat), or Skype more and more these days. I use both services during the day at work, and I’m beginning to use them for other projects I’ve began working on, and speaking to various friends. I had accounts on a whole bunch of other IM services, but now these are the only two you will ever find me using. I’m not going to post a link to my accounts with them here, but if anyone wants to connect up over either service drop me an email.
Going Forward
With my digital footprint completely pared down to a much more useful and manageable degree, I need to make sure that I take full advantage of these remaining services and avoid adding anything new unless it fills a specific need for me. I can’t fall into the trap of creating accounts because I think I may, in the future, possibly use them. This has been a very useful process for me, and I would highly recommend everyone take a look at their digital lives and seriously consider a ruthless uncluttering session to remove all of those old accounts you know you’re never going to use again. It’s definitely worth it.
