My day just got brighter: Marilyn (aka Skippy from Emerdale) has just brightened my screen on "Home and Away". Glad I took a half day today.

There is a man I have huge respect and admiration for. Not sure why because I know very little about him, other than what is published on his own blog site. Then something happened, and I felt betrayed and abandoned. He unfollowed me on twitter. Ouch.


Why did it hurt so much? Simple really: in the past nine months have I have become self-absorbed in a world of social media and deranged sense of ambitious self-discovery thinking that social media would save my self-purpose and self-esteem. It had become important to follow people, be a member of this group, a fan of that person. And I wanted to be followed.

To be rejected by a simple unfollow, is tantamount to being dumped by text message. As I dug deeper and reflected on this I realised the opposite (I was sent this link by the same guy http://www.bluegrassromance.com/twitter-reset/ which did help explain things). This unhealthy obsession to be popular with infinite strangers is a peculiar function of the Web 2.0 world that now reverberates around our lives. I needed to be set free of this. Being unfollowed has liberated me.

Focus on the things that will make a difference. I am no Lance Armstrong – his use of twitter could change the world. I blog badly, tweet inconsistently, and suck at Facebook. So they mustn’t be my core competencies, I guess. As a consequence this may be my last blog, ever. Or this may be where my blogs just get better. But I’m not going to obsess over who’s following me, or who wants to be my friend, or who I need to follow to build up my numbers. And I’m certainly not going back to online gambling (another function of being made redundant last July [Harvey Smith wave to SSE plc]).

This big guy better move on. I’m middle-aged for fuck’s sake. I’d better start doing what counts. Nurture the relationships I have and cherish.

Thank you for liberating me.