Life After Digital Suicide?

So,

With the 3-week mark behind me my perspective on life after digital suicide is becoming more and more clear to me. And it's no walk in the park. The realisation has sunk in that digital suicide basically means doing ALL of your social interaction the hard, direct way. Also, it was just one of the circumstances reinforcing my social isolation. I'm still struggling to 'get real' and reach out to people in order to get more out of my social life. No one action is decisive in this process. It's a long, slow march to social enlightenment and no single step is more significant than the other.

Dealing with people solely on a face-to-face or via 'direct media' (eq. phone, e-mail) means you don't talk to people unless you have something to say specifically to them. Facebook and Twitter might give a lot of people a window to spill nonsense into the digital realm, for a lot of others (myself included) it meant sharing what is on one's mind in a quick and easy matter. And while I certainly don't want to be engulfed within this realm the way I was before, in my absence the merits of social media have also become more clear to me.

On another note, I may have underestimated the actual connection these social media have to real life. While I may have opted out of using social media, most musicians are forced to work with it because it is the only way to reach out to their audience across the globe. Being forced to reconsider what seemed like a done deal just a few weeks ago because of my work is very frustrating. If I'm to involve myself in this industry beyond this point, I will have to either draw the line (and probably get less jobs) or meet the terms of my employers when it comes to social media. The fact that it took less than a month for an employer to request my presence in the social media sphere as it was deemed 'essential to my assignment', is proof that I'm not overstating the issue here.

But shouldn't we have a choice? Isn't the decision to pursue a presence in social media a personal one? I feel very strongly that I don't want it to be something that is dictated to me in my life. It almost seems as if we are, unwittingly, conforming to a system that discriminates those who choose not to be part of it. Are we aware that behind this harmless blue-and-white logo there is something very totalitarian at play here? One that leeches on people's ego, ambition and greed?

On the other hand, it's kind of nice that after years of building up my social network I'm finally able to harvest some income from my hard labour. In the current economy one can't really be idealist about the way one makes his money. The point is that to my mind, I'm a better employee without the social media thing. That counts for something, right?

So what am I to do? Forced into reconsidering my priorities while still being hell-bent on completing this little suicide mission is giving me a headache. Meanwhile, there are so many things in life that are more important, more worthy of my time and headspace.

If only there was  a way of controlling social media without them controlling you... I've spoken to more than a few people about the possibilities of this, and everybody agrees there must be a way... they just don't know what it is. My own insights tell me that if you are able to maintain a strong frame in which to fit your own social media activities, with very clear goals you want to achieve and a very clear perspective on what is 'out of bounds', one's presence could be streamlined into something beneficial. It' very much like giving a rusty needle to a recovering heroin addict to play around with though...

My head hurts.