A Life Less Virtual

For the past two days I’ve been offline. It was time for the biannual trip to York, PA with my Dad, and keeping up with social media just wasn’t an option. So what’s been happening over the past two days?

It’s easy to buy into the notion that in the world of social media you have to publish or perish. That turned out not to be true. Here's what I discovered after doing nothing online for two days:

Facebook: No one seemed to notice I was gone (at least from the comments). What did I miss? Several posted slogans, a few video links, and some detailed reporting on the minutiae of my friends lives. I didn’t lose any followers, nor gained any. So no change.

Twitter: It looks like I missed some interesting discussions, but that’s OK. I actually picked up five new followers while I wasn’t tweeting. Maybe I should have more no-tweet days to boost my numbers! Also, Klout reported that – during my absence – I’m now influential in a new category. Not sure how that works…

LinkedIn: Some people looked at my profile, and I received two connection requests. So business as usual with no input from me.

Google+: No one added me to their circles, but no one kicked me out of any I was in. So no change.

Podcasting: I wasn’t able to publish any new podcasts this week. Although I missed my deadlines, the number of downloads for both the DCD Classical Cast and Garage/Soul ’66 increased. Less is more? Or are people just getting caught up?

Bottom line: the past few days simply confirmed something I already suspected. I can step away from the Internet whenever I want to without doing any real harm to my online brand equity (such as it is). And that’s good to know.

Because sometimes it’s good to get away.