This year I decided to do some digital Spring cleaning as well, not just go through unused clothes and old things. It was a surprisingly rejuvenating process. In retrospect, or mainly for the purpose of writing this blog post, I think the process involved 3 main categories where we can have “digital clutter”: social networks, newsletters / inbox and bookmarks. Then there’s the whole computer itself, the hard drive, all the files we store and forget, but I think this will be for an “advanced digital declutter” session.
1. Social Networks
Last month I deleted my Facebook account. Not deactivated, but deleted. Mr Zuckerberg’s little slaves might still be storing on their servers the little information I had shared, but I am not on Facebook anymore. I saved all my friends email addresses or checked I had their last email address, and then… poof… gone. Voilà!
Think about it: before it was created, I don’t recall hearing anyone wishing to have something like Facebook in their lives. Is it really needed? The debate is very open. In fact, Facebook can have advantages, I suppose. Some friends I have in Africa prefer Facebook to emails to keep in touch. Facebook is faster than emails. You can post a message and many people will see it. While emails, well… you’d have to write to each of your friends or send the same message to everyone. Moreover, Facebook is used by a lot of NGOs, community groups and so on, to inform about their work and events. Very true. But if you are looking for information, Facebook is not the only place where you can find it. It just tricks you into thinking it is.
This of course, is my personal opinion.
Out of curiosity, I breifly had a look at Pinterest, but soon it was clear to me that I didn’t really fit within their target audience or typical users. For those of you who have never heard of Pinterest before, it is a sort of virtual pin board where you can bookmark photos of things you like. These can be household items, houses, gardens, DIY ideas, crafts, decorations, food, recipes, places around the world, clothes and so on. While it can be a very quick source of ideas for DIY and crafts or how to recycle this or that item, it can also be very addictive, distracting and manipulative. In fact, you keep seeing people’s “pins” on a sort of visual timeline and most of them are photos of items other users would like to buy or food you are not supposed to eat if you want to lose weight (or at least not gain any extra). Then in the end Pinterest is a great advertising tool… if you have something to sell. If you are the consumer, then it’s a great way to be showered with more or less hidden ads. I would say that maybe 1% of the photos you will find on Pinterest have been taken by the users, which leads to my next point.
There are some legal concerns over Pinterest Terms & Conditions and I’m not sure I want to be involved in that. Here you can find a summary and some more links to further information on the issue.
So… Again, if you look at DIY & crafts, for instance -what I’d be mostly interested in- then I think you can follow a dedicated blog or website instead. You won’t be too distracted, you won’t infringe any copyright law and you’ll probably find what you are looking for.
Twitter. I have already mentioned on this blog some pro&cons of Twitter. You can read my review here. I think you can be pretty selective in what you follow on Twitter and reduce clutter and distraction. In essence, it is a great tool to spread/receive news and also to text message with friends abroad. As for many things in life, it is good if used in moderation.
When you think that social networks are free, but then the companies that run them become worth millions or billions within just a few years, then you might wonder how they do it. Certainly not using paid subscriptions. It’s the advertising, tracking your internet surfing habits to show targeted ads, bombarding you with ads on what you don’t need but you absolutely have to have, making you click, click, click… waste your time and money, while their bank accounts grow. Am I cynical? Maybe. Should we stop using the internet altogether? No. The internet as a fast way to communicate long distance, is very useful. Commercial exploitation is not. We just have to be a bit more careful and maybe remember that “no one gives you anything for free”.
We are in a time of great confusion. Half the world’s population still lives below the poverty line, whilst we are tricked into thinking the recession is over and we can go back to spending. Our bank accounts are shrinking by the hour, whilst the people who have caused the world economic crisis don’t seem to have stopped their misconducts, so-to-say. I think the label “free”, whether used on a sales item or an open social network, is now a marketing tool more than it’s ever been before. The only thing we can do is read the Terms & Conditions, even if they are boring.
2. Newsletters and inbox clutter
This is an old topic. We all eventually end up with our inbox full of emails we don’t have time to read. Little by little, just unsubscribe and delete all newsletters you don’t read. Sometimes you might think you are really interested in a particular topic. But if you haven’t read any of the past 10 newsletters, chances are you won’t start now. We might have limited time to read everything we would like to read or get information on. You will find so many blogs listing practical advises on how to deal with information overload. I think sometimes we have to be more selective and don’t feel like we are missing out on something.
3. Bookmarks
This is related to newsletters and such. I used to bookmark so many websites and pages and articles… pretty much anything. At the beginning my bookmarks would have folders and I would file links under this or that topic. But then the whole system imploded and bookmarks soon became so cluttered that instead of retrieving a link, I would just run a quick Google search on the topic. Effectively, the bookmark was useless. Then I decided to delete most of them. I only left the links to websites I check for work.
Finally…
This digital decluttering showed that while we might think we are being productive and efficient, in fact we are wasting a lot of time on things we don’t need. Maybe we should have a sort of minimalist approach to digital life. We would then have more “non-digital time” (this should make you happy, unless you love staring at a screen for most of your day) and enjoy what we have. The more we have, the less time we can dedicate to each thing. Now, don’t take it to the extreme and become ascetic or something. I just believe that the impact of internet, its advantages and limitations and our relationship with the digital medium are fascinating topics. Our lives have changed so much in just over a decade and I am thankful that I can communicate with my family very easily even though we live in different countries, often quite a few times zones away. Then, I think the main downside is that we have to try not to let the internet (and marketing) rule our lives 
