You really don’t have to be to technical to understand that if you spend most of your day at a computer and you’re being distracted by stuff, you’re not getting as much work done!
Social Media Is A Distraction
There is no doubt social media is hotter than hot right now.
Everybody wants to be on Digg’s home page.
Many respectable individuals, like literary agent Terry Whalin, talk about the advantages of social media for building traffic to their website and enhancing their branding.
Users like social media because it makes them feel connected to communities of like-minded individual where they can bond, share common stories, and make friends.
Advertisers like it because social media is easy to hype as there is a lot of traffic on social media sites.
But all of this is a red herring. Social media does generate traffic, but unless you are selling CPM-based advertising, the traffic does not result in tangible revenue. Social media is not efficient and is a waste of resources from a business perspective.
Individually, like me on MySpace and Mel’s huge network, social networking doesn’t’ translate into real friends, real relationship, or real community. It is just a distraction.
My Solution
Life is about balance. You can’t eat enjoyably or healthy by ingesting only fat, carbs, or protein. You need to have all three. It is the proportion of the three that gets us in trouble.
In the same way, I am not advocating never using social media. There is balance involved. For me that means five social media sites. No more ever. If I want to add a new one, then I need to delete an old one!
My five are:
- LinkedIn. I like LinkedIn because it is a great business tool and I use it for keeping track of people who I don’t stay in touch with very often but want to be able to keep their contact info handy. (Like people did in the old days when they hung onto business cards).
- FriendFeed. I like FriendFeed a lot because it amalgamates a bunch of my other sites into one place without trying, I just do what I normally do on the web and it shows up on FriendFeed. If you want to know what I am up to, go to Friend Feed and it will tell you. A good post entitled “Why I Life FriendFeed” can be found here.
- Google Reader. I like Google Reader because it allows me to quickly share items that I find interesting and add quick commentary if I desire. (Plus it makes an easy way to read RSS feeds).
- My blog. ToddAlbertson dot com it is the primary place on the web that I express my thoughts and opinions, provide information, and direct people to my books.
- Twitter. To be honest, I am not a fan of Twitter. I think it is tired, slow, and overrated. I have a Twitter acccount because my web software (WordPress) posts new blog entries there automatically. I wrote a blog post a few months back called “To Tweat Or Not To Tweat; That Is The Question (Or 12 Things I Learned About Twitter“ where I explored using Twitter. I think for me the answer is more and more becoming “not.” My concerns about Twitter are two-fold: First there is something narcissistic about telling the world what you’re doing at the moment in fewer than 140 characters. One guy I know wrote that “I would like to have 1000 followers by 12/31/2008. Why? I don’t know. This is probably one of those ‘extra’ goals my wife wants me to cut.” He currently has 48 and doesn’t have anything unique to say. Why would 1000 sane individuals want to follow him?Second there is something voyeuristic about wanting to know what people like this guy are doing and saying about themselves. FriendFeed by comparison gets beyond the “it is all about me” mentality and really lets me see what a person is up to and is thinking about. It is much similar to interacting with a real person rather than their 140 character press release.
Your Solution
Are these the perfect five for you? Obviously not. Just like everybody needs different percentages of carbs, protein, and fat in their diet, we all have different social networking needs.
My advice to you is two-fold: (1) keep your social networking sites to under five. Anymore than that and you really are getting distracted; and (2) Realize that the Internet isn’t life. Go out and hang out with real people in real places from time to time. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed!
Got to go now as I have to see what my friends are all tweating about…
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Why only 5?
Great post. I am thinking that social networking is way over-rated. There are a few celebrity types of there (Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin) that make this work. But for the most part it just people wanting to get attention. I bet Warren Buffet isn’t spending his day blogging and sending tweats!