1. I am no longer looking to subscribe to individual blogs via RSS.If I admire a blogger, such as Mike Fruchter, I look whether he has a Google Shared Items page to which he bookmarks his top posts by other bloggers. I then subscribe to his Google Shared Items RSS feed, relying on his editing to have done the work of screening for me.
2. I am no longer ignoring people after accepting them as “friends” on Facebook.
As soon as I accept a “friend request”, I write a comment on their wall. Why did I imagine that accepting a “friend request”, and not saying hello, was anything but rude?
3. I am no longer forgetting to tag my pictures on Flickr.
Flickr’s Creative Commons allows you to search a word and provides several tagged pictures for reproduction in your blog. The web is all about reciprocity – the more you tag, the more choices you will get back in the future.
4. I am no longer using del.icio.us for bookmarking.
My own Google Shared Items has replaced del.icio.us. Some bloggers are beginning to use Google Shared Items for their reading and del.icio.us as a bookmark for coverage of themselves.
5. I am no longer failing to monitor my name on Twitter Search.
How can you tell whether you are are really involved in the conversation unless you monitor your Tweets. Use Twitter Search to assess your interactivity – see @paulbradshaw‘s feed for example.
6. I am no longer sending pictures from my phone using Twitpic unless absolutely necessary.
It is difficult to gauge 140 characters when you send a picture on Twitpic. If you can wait, return to your computer, upload>post only>share this photo>Twitter update bar. You can write your Twitter in relative comfort.
7. I am no longer making recommendations on LinkedIn.
One person for whom I wrote a recommendation did not use it. I had got in to the habit of responding to any “LinkedIn request” with a recommendation. Bad etiquette. I am still so embarrassed. New rule, only recommend when asked.
8. I am no longer writing this blog all by myself.
Ask other people to guest post. I’ve had Julius Solaris, Endaf Kerfoot and Ruth Galpine – different voices. And remember reciprocity. You will only be invited to guest post or feature on another blog if you do the same, as George Hopkin has done with me.
9. I am no longer running my FriendFeed as my status through my Facebook profile.
My community on Facebook are family and friends who are certainly not interested in my Tweets or pictures about social media (doh!). Remember different content for different communities.
10. I am no longer going to ignore my FriendFeed.
But I am going to give up on any further pretence that I have a life offline.
Do you have any social media habits that you are giving up?
If you think your followers/community on Twitter would be interested in this post, show them your value by reTweeting it to them!
Picture credit: walknboston
John Welsh's Blog 
Re #1: does that mean you plan to remove the 100 x 100 RSS icon that appears at the top of the page? And the 100 x 100 subscribe-by-mail one?
Gosh, I can see where you are coming from, but I can see so many problems with your approach to many of the above points. It would not work for me.
1. I am a blogger and I use Google Reader. However, I never put my own items in ‘shared items’ in Google Reader. I use it to highlight other people’s items that I think are interesting. (If I did put my own posts in ‘shared items’, I would put all them there but then there’s no point as it’s just replicating my RSS feed. Re screening – I only write blog posts I think are worth sharing in the first place, and I’m not super-prolific. Also different posts are of interest to different people).
4. How can ‘shared items’ in Google Reader work as a comprehensive bookmarking system? Doesn’t it only work if you already have the blog post in Reader, either because you subscribe to it yourself or have come across it via a friend’s shared items? Or am I missing a trick? For everything I come across by other means, I use Delicious or Firefox bookmarks.
7. I would never dream of asking someone to write me a LinkedIn recommendation – I tend to write them for other people and hope they will reciprocate without being asked. Hmm, I will have to think about this one.
9. I totally agree – I had my Twitter feed showing on Facebook for a while and it was far too much. I was hogging the news feed for all my friends.
I like your list!! What would be your 10 things you do and will stick to in your consumption/use of social media??
Good stuff, I like this post!
I am no longer going to subscribe to celebrity twitterers. And I have unsubscribed from some of the more overtly self-promoting ‘social media gurus’
Thanks everyone for your comments and sorry it has taken me so long to respond. Been at work.
@Dave My reader editors will still be subscribing to individual blogs.
@Caitlin
1 He places his favourite posts by other bloggers in the Google Reader.
4 Google Reader does not allow you to organise like del.icio.us but I am not sure I can organise everything and have a life!
7 I have never asked anyone to write me a recommendation, My embarrassment was caused by writing one when not invited.
@Guillaume Of course, I could have written this post the other way round. But users seem to like things back to front!
@James Don’t overlook their Google Shared Items ….but I think I have said enough on that already.
Pingback: Footprints (16.02.09) | Chris Deary
How do you check if they have a Google Shared items feed.
@Dan Try looking for their lists of social media icons on either their blog or Friendfeed. You will often see two squares laid upon another. That’s the Google Shared Reader.
Thanks for the reality check.
Your post has made me commit to focusing my activities.
Great job.
Steve
I couldn’t agree more, especially in regards to accepting friends on facebook and then ignoring them. You wouldn’t introduce yourself to somebody and then turn your back so why do it on facebook? I’ll certainly be changing my ways after reading this
Great post!
Despite being a lesser ‘social media’ enthusiast than your horde of disciples, i cannot help but feel, irregardless of lifestyle, that such an article is utterly self indulgent and ultimately irrelevant. you either maintain your various multimedia commitments or you dont. I worry that such self-service is actually inspiring people.
Pingback: OMG. OMG. OMFG.
Pingback: Are Social Media Users Schizophrenic? « Thoughtpick Blog
Pingback: Social Media Policies and Good Media Habits « Julianankiah's Blog
Pingback: The Bad Facebook Friend: Meaningful Connections, Weak Ties and Parasocial Relationships | AV Flox