Social Media and Me (8 February 2010)
It is about 6:30 on a frosty February morning in Michigan, and I have just updated Facebook and Twitter pages for SCS. While in the process of updating, I read the past couple days' worth of postings and tweets from "friends" and "followers." Very few of the postings said anything significant. Most of them focused on daily trivia, and my sense was that at least some of my "friends" were posting as an avoidance strategy. Rather than working on things that they really needed to be doing, cleaning the garage, reading, meditating, writing something substantial, or otherwise engaging in thoughtful or productive activity, they were posting something fairly superficial on Facebook or tweeting something not only superficial, but also brief.
Perhaps it is just me, but I wonder what isn't being done while people are "Facebooking" and tweeting. One of the individuals on my Twitter list, for example, tweets about every 10 minutes from the time she gets up in the morning until the time she goes to bed at night. Some of her tweets are business-related, but most are simply comments on the superficial details of her daily life, such as wondering whether she's getting sufficient sleep. It may be true that the "unexamined life isn't worth living," but I'm not sure that tweeting about one's breakfast, lunch, and dinner is what Socrates had in mind for self-examination.
One of the inescapable facts about life is that it is based on choice. From the time we choose to get up in the morning to the time we choose to go to bed at night, we choose the way we spend every moment. It seems to me that the awareness of choice is more important than the actual choice. When you are fully aware that you are choosing, you are fully aware of the choices you are making. Making the conscious choice to tell your "friends" and "followers" what you had for breakfast is different from telling them without purpose. It may be that you believe that all your friends and followers are deeply interested in everything you do, just as you may be deeply interested in everything they do. It may also be, of course, that you are posting the minutia of your life without being consciously aware of differences between significant and essentially meaningless details. The question is whether you are consciously aware of what you are saying and why you are saying it.
I also wonder about the amount of time individuals spend on social media, whether posting information or reading what others have posted. An active social life—whether "in person," on the phone (voice or texting), or on social Web sites—takes time. Even under the best of circumstances, measuring the return on investment (ROI) for the time spent socializing is difficult, whether the purpose is simply the "pleasure of another's company" or the multipurpose maintenance of business connections. My sense is that it is even more difficult to gauge the value of time spent on social media. Is anybody actually reading what you are posting, or are they too busy posting their own stuff to notice? If they are reading, are they reading for the purpose of social contact, or are they reading to collect information about potential clients?
Facebook and Twitter are, of course, new technologies. I can remember the early days of e-mail (yes, I'm that old) when people were adjusting to the the differences between "reply" and "reply all" and "text only" and "formatted" messages. New technologies always—yes, always—require a learning curve. I suspect that people, at least most people will eventually develop strategies for using Facebook and Twitter in ways that serve their purposes just as they have developed strategies for using e-mail. You may have noticed, for example, that the principal online news services now feature tweets from on-the-scene reporters at major news events. If you really need to know something—or let others know—right now, tweeting is a good way to do that.
I would, however, hope that you pull off the road and park before doing so....
