Walking Away - Guest Blog

I am so exited to share a fabulous guest blog from a dear friend today!! Richard has become one of my absolute closest friends, and now my new "business partner!"  His zeal, and his great sense of humor, shine throughout his blog on the regular.  
{You can check that out here: richardbrobertson.weebly.com}

I guest blogged for him a few weeks ago, and then I asked him to guest blog for me! {Win, win!} He graciously typed up one of the best blogs I've read from him and I'm so glad he's letting me share it with all of you! 
Enjoy! 

XoXo-

AK

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was pretty simple, just walk away. I had just been told that I was being let go from my job. I had seen that coming. No surprise there. However, it was the shock that the bad guys had actually won. I had done exactly as the CEO had told me to do, "work hard and you'll have no problems." Except for one major problem, the Director of Finances had it out for me. I'm not sure why but he did. So the bad guys were winning. How was I going to react? Simple, take to social media and do what I could to vent with possible destructive repercussions of the downfall of the company. How hard could that be? My followers and friends knew how I ran my social media sites. In fact I just had written a blog about it. 

There just seemed to be some distinct feeling that I had flowing out of my mind, walk away. I thought it was about my job that was about to end. Then it hit me one day when I was reading Patton Oswalt's blog, I needed to walk away from social media.

I would be sitting in my parents' house, five adults, and all of them were on their social media sites on their phones or tablets. None of us interacting, except about to discuss someone else's status. It was ridiculous. I would talk to people face to face and we would have these discussions and I would see they were confused how I knew so much about them. I would tell them it was what I saw on Facebook or Twitter, and they would laugh because they didn't realize that anyone had actually read that stuff. ("Wait, what was the point of you posting it?") 

So, I did the very thing that no one believed I could do, I walked away. I mean, I was the guy that boasted about being on Facebook back when it was www.thefacebook.com. I had been on Twitter shortly after its creation. I was even in talks about starting a social media consultation company. People were asking me daily questions about social media. How in God's name was I going to walk away? Simple, I just did! I deleted the apps off of my phone (best thing I possibly could have done), I signed out of my accounts on my computer, and I blogged about it (that kept me accountable to peeps). All of these attempts were successful! 

As I sit here, I'm just 2 days from being separated for a month. Yep, you read that properly, one month. I've only looked at social media in passing or as I set up a page for "Deep Southern Marketing" (a company that Audra and I have started as a social media consult company). 

It's been weird to say the least, but it ultimately has paid off. I have had more face-to-face interactions with people. It has forced me to text message people directly and to make an effort to reach out to those that I would have otherwise just sent a social media message. My relationships with people have gotten better. At times, I do have trouble when others are on it and I'm just sitting there like the 5th wheel on a prom date. And I wish so badly that I could tell you that I just let that stuff roll off my back, but it sucks. I still find myself going through things, watching things, thinking things, that I attempt to put into 140 characters so that I can share them with my Tweeps.

Social media is fun! It has great effects that can be reaped for years. However, it has grown into a monster that just waits to strike and destroy. (Sounds oddly like the villain in the highest selling book in history, the Bible.) Social media is not the enemy. But the people who are on there and are taking it to seriously have made it a bad place to be. Too many people are connected and are allowed to get into your dirty undies basket. 

Let me give you some advice, take a break! Walk away from social media for some time. At least give yourself a week. See what happens. I think you might like it! I know I have loved it!