Why I’m quitting social media and what’s next

On February 10th, 2021 I’ll be deleting all my social media accounts and I'll continue sharing my adventures and experiences through my website: davidliano.com. I understand that canceling my accounts is irreversible and, once I close them, they can’t be recovered. This is not an impulsive decision, so I would like to share with you the reasons behind this choice.

An upgraded version of my original PDA-Satellite phone setup. This PDA had a built-in keyboard

When I started going on interesting mountaineering expeditions that lasted multiple weeks, I would come back home and share my stories and experiences with many friends and family members. I would repeat to each of them the same anecdotes over and over again. For my 2008 Lhotse and Everest expedition, I decided to do something different and bring with me a Hewlett Packard PDA (personal digital assistant) and a satellite phone. With them, I would spend hours in the cold mountains using a tiny stylus to type on the PDA’s digital keyboard, wait several minutes for a satellite signal, and hopefully post daily expedition reports on a blog. That is the origin of the blog you are reading today. When I went back home after that expedition, instead of having to tell the stories to friends and family, I had very interesting talks with them about specific moments of the expedition. In a way, they had been living the climb through my words as if they had been part of the experience. We had lived the adventure together.

I've always thought that mountaineering, paragliding and single-handed sailing can be very self-centered endeavors if they are not shared and if they don't serve a higher purpose. My purpose for sharing was to inspire others to live an exciting and meaningful life through my experiences. It was never to showcase myself through my achievements. So I kept sharing on my blog as much as I could.

In just a few years, with the expansion of social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram became the tools to reach a broader international audience. Tens of thousands of people would see everything I posted. I always tried to reply (or at least acknowledge) every comment on a post. And I've always made an effort to respond to the vast number of direct messages I receive. They are messages from people that want to do the things I do but don’t know where to start, or people asking for specific technical advice. After my association with The Live Love Laugh Foundation, I continuously received messages from people going through depression or asking for help for a loved one.

At the summit of Everest in 2016, supporting The Live Love Laugh Foundation

For me, the word "follower" has a negative undertone. It implies there is a leader and someone, not equal, trailing behind. Instead of thinking of them as "followers", I’ve always seen the people that read my posts as supporters who are interested in doing something unique and exciting with their lives. The benefit I get from using social media is staying in touch with, and encouraging my supporters. Whenever I plan a new adventure, during a paragliding competition, or with my work in finance, I'm constantly making a risk/reward or cost/benefit analysis. So, if that is the benefit to me of using social media, what is the cost?

During the last week of December I take time to meditate about the year that's coming to an end. I think about what I could have done differently and what areas of my life I should focus on during the next year. 2020 was an unusual year in so many ways and there was so much to think about. But there is one particular issue I had been pondering for months, if not years: the serious privacy concerns that arise from using social media.

Along with everyone else, I don't like that what I share on social networks is controlled by algorythms that display to followers what they must be shown to keep them engaged for longer. But I'm even okay with that. And I'm not concerned about the images, videos and stories I voluntarily post on my public accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. I am responsible for what I willingly post. My concern is the indiscriminate and voracious amount of information that social media platforms collect while I use them. But, most importantly how they track and collect information when I use the rest of the internet, outside their platforms. They continue their frantic tracking. They collect information about me, my networks, the places I visit, the companies and people I interact with, the things I search for, the ads I click on, what I buy, how I book my travels, the devices I use, when and how I use my phone, the news articles I read, the food I order. Even if I use tracker blockers and ad blockers as I do, and I have good habits when it comes to cookies, the amount of information that is collected by social media platforms is ridiculous and it makes me very uncomfortable.

I'm not comfortable with social media companies exploiting my information and selling it to third parties and advertisers. I'm not comfortable not having control or ownership of that information. As Tim Cook, Apple's CEO recently said: when it comes to privacy, social media seems to give you "choices that are not choices at all". I don't have any hope that there will be serious regulation regarding user’s privacy and how that information us collected and used. So, to address those concerns, I've decided to close my social media accounts.

An upside to social media was using it to raise awareness about the problem with garbage high up on Everest. This was Camp 4 in 2018.

I’ve had multiple conversations with close friends and family members about this topic. They tell me they don’t mind having social media tracking them all over the internet and collecting information indiscriminately if the result is that they are shown “more relevant” ads. They believe it’s harmless. They tell me they have “nothing to hide” so they don’t mind being tracked. But their answer is very different when I ask them how they would feel if they had someone physically inside their home, following them around their bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, dining room, taking notes of what they do, what they eat, what they wear, the time they do every single thing in their lives, recording what they watch, who they talk to, who they are in contact with, what their personal habits are, following them to the office, social gatherings, etc. keeping track of everything.

When I make this comparison, not a single person says they would feel comfortable with that. They say it would be extremely creepy. They say their privacy would be violated. And that’s exactly what we are voluntarily giving up by allowing social media to track us. Whether it's a public or a private account, we are being continuously tracked. We are giving up our privacy and it's just as creepy. But most people are not aware of this happening. Thankfully, I am. To me, the costs of using social media now outweight the perceived benefit. That’s the reason I'll be deleting all my social media accounts on February 10th, 2021.

Perhaps my decision would be different if I didn't have an alternate method of reaching the people that support me. But I have my personal webpage. I have this blog (which I call my Adventure Journal) and a newly expanded gallery with every image I’ve ever shared on Instagram. I will continue to expand it to include videos of past and current adventures. To remain in touch with whoever wants to reach out to me I've set up a new contact page . I've decided to post more regularly (mainly short form posts with lots of images) on the Adventure Journal and to keep inspiring others through my own experiences. I want my adventures to continue being useful to others and I don’t want my personal achievements to be completely self-centered. So I will keep sharing through my website, just as I did at the beginning. At a time before social media.

I don't expect most people will understand or agree with my decision. Nobody in my immediate circle approves of this. But I haven’t lived this extraordinary life by doing what most other people do" I’ve typically been an outlier. I know that it's very likely that I’ll lose touch with most of the tens of thousands of supporters I have on social media. But I'm sure that those who subscribe to receive updates by email and those who come to the blog regularly to read new posts are the true supporters. I hope they are the ones on whose life I've made a positive impact.

If this is the last you hear from me, you have my sincere gratitude for the amazing support. Your likes, comments and messages make you an important part of any success I've had. If you decide to stick around for the rest of the journey, outside of social media, then lets get ready. 2021 will be an amazing year. The adventure continues.