Dumping My Social Media For Steemit - Will Friends Follow?

Hi Steemheads, Friends and Explorers!

I am Hive account@tacostate , This is kind of a reintroduction and I just wanted to thank all those who have followed this newbie and to share something I'm doing with all of my social media accounts. I don't know if it's all the negative press, the data sharing, the idea of becoming a product to a tech company or just an intuitive feeling that sharing all of that info on various platforms is just never going to benefit me in any way.

I am a creative person who over the years has jumped into different avenues of creativity from photography, event planning, visual art direction, graphic design, art curation and writing. I couldn't be more grateful for having been able to work at jobs that had meaning to me and that I truly enjoyed, but the older I get, the more control I want over my contributions and content I am providing and this is where I hope Steemit will come into play and allow me to be the creative person I am and to contribute something meaningful.

First I deleted my LinkedIn account which I felt was way too much information for any company to have about me. This weekend, after giving notice to my friends and family, I will be deleting my Facebook account and you can probably understand why. I am not a commodity and I can't support a company who cares only about growing their platform and not the people who use it.

I do still use Instagram, which unfortunately is owned by Facebook, but it has not become unbearably invasive and I'm a photo guy, so I like it for that reason. And finally, last night I decided I was done providing content to Flickr, downloaded much of my old photos and deleted that long dormant account.

Included in this post are pictures I took several years ago that were sitting quietly on Flickr and now I am reclaiming them for myself again and to share on Steemit. I think they both express how happy I am about this decision and my current state of mind. Life is good!

On a final note, I mentioned that I am new and I am still struggling with finding my place and understanding the ins and outs, so any comments of encouragement, tips or Steemit secrets are greatly appreciated. And as they say, Upvotes are also appreciated.

Your new steemy friend! Jim/tacostate

ALL ORIGINAL CONTENT AND PHOTOS.