Social Media
I spent the first half of 2022 without using any form of social media. I deleted all of my accounts, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
I think the time away from social media platforms was an amazing way for me to control my input and optimize for learning without distraction.
Below is an in-depth description of the separation I experienced from each platform; starting with the platforms I’m opting to remain away from and moving to the ones I am returning to. These experiences are personal to me and I encourage you to remain using services you feel are serving you and away from those you feel do not.
I deleted over a decade of data and digital friendships when I stepped away from Facebook at the end 2021. After hitting the delete button, I instantly felt weight shed from me.
There has not been one day since that I have felt like I missed out on anything. I’ve been able to maintain friendships that are important to me and walking away from Facebook has helped me walk away from relationships that were no longer serving me. Some people are meant to be in our lives temporarily. That doesn’t make their appearance any less meaningful but social media extends the lifetime of a connection beyond its expiration date and blocks new individuals from coming into our lives that are there to help us evolve when we are ready.
I walked away from LinkedIn in the fall of 2021 and have never looked back. Personally, the solicitation I was receiving from robots and the advertising I was being served was far outweighing any positive benefit from the platform for me.
As a venture capitalist, the platform can be extremely distracting. Reading about fundraising rounds and superficial blog posts from businesses to attract customers/employees/investors was the majority of my experience. Every fifth post felt as if it were carefully crafted by some Linkedin expert trying to gain influence that didn’t serve me in any way.
Since I have been away from LinkedIn, my ability to serve our portfolio companies has increased exponentially. My intuitive sense of when to reach out to a company has been substantially easier to listen to. In the past year, I’ve served entrepreneurs better than I ever have and I strongly believe my removal from LinkedIn played a large role in that. In my interactions, I’m able to listen to the entrepreneurs' problems and provide input without any comparison to other businesses that are flashing across my screen on social media.
Many founders expressed that they appreciated how much less I reacted to the market changes this past year than other investors. These changes were not being reinforced to me on LinkedIn on a daily basis which made it substantially less a part of my reality. Contrary to the narrative that was being told, Gurtin Ventures companies had tremendous success in raising new rounds of funding this year and continuing to progress their businesses!
Mid-year I returned to Instagram and have enjoyed it more than ever since. One of the best parts is that interactions with family and friends were previously split between Facebook and Instagram where I’d often consume the same content twice. It is really wonderful to have consolidated these interactions to one platform. I find myself having deeper communication with those close to me than I ever had in the past.
One beautiful aspect I did not expect was that releasing certain people from seeing my content made space for me to better serve others that resonate with my content. I often forget how beneficial walking away can be for both parties involved. Now that I interact with less people on social media, it is easier to be conscious when someone unfollows me or chooses not to follow me back. In the past, I would be offended by these actions but now I view them as a wonderful signal from the universe that it’s time for me to walk away from an individual and serve others.
You can interact with me on Instagram @GrantGurtin!
My time away has allowed me to start reading news in longer form articles to be more rewarding than scanning Twitter for real-time news. I find that It’s more efficient than constantly refreshing a search with incomplete information. Upon my return, I’ll more often use sources like The Athletic and New York Times to consume news and use Twitter to connect with new people.
With that being said, I am just now re-launching my Twitter @GrantGurtin! I’m excited to interact with you there. Agree with everything I have to say on social media? Hate everything I’ve written here? Twitter is a wonderful place to reach out and let me know!