Fewer.

About as long as I have been online, I’ve followed the idea of posting to as many places as possible. Through this blog, predecessors and variants, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, ad nauseum. I kept accounts alive for no other reason than whatever audience I was looking for might be on the next site over.

It made sense. I wanted anyone to see what I’d done then I should spread it as far and wide as I could. Right? Why make people only come to one location when I could “syndicate” myself across the interwebs? Isn’t more better?

No.

I have come to the realization that I’m posting my writing or my photography because I want to. I’m not doing it so you’ll like it.

Social media gives us an endorphin rush every time we see that like, follow or share notification. Unless you’re careful soon everything optimizes for that hit. You stop writing, shooting and editing what you care about. It becomes too easy to design around a vague audience of friends who, while waiting for their bus or pretending to listen in a meeting, are scrolling through feeds simply to pass the time.

I need to edit my online life. I need to purge the backlog of photos and posts that exist without saying anything at all. I need fewer.

That will mean eliminating some accounts. I’ll be keeping fewer online identities and putting fewer apps on my phone. Then I’m going to refocus the content to mean something to me, to reflect a level effort that would make it worth sharing in the first place.

I’ll still be here. If you’ve found me here then don’t worry. I won’t be leaving. I hope that by eliminating the distraction of all those other places, this one might actually become something worth coming back for.