The rise of social media has been increasing at outrageous numbers over the last several years. There are times when I feel all I do is check my Gmail account (email), Facebook, LinkedIn, update my Twitter status, bookmark my favorite content and vote for others, and watch web video! I have to admit I rarely use MySpace and Friendfeed. I am also signed up for Squidoo and Noovo, which I have yet to find use for.
However, sometimes I check-in to most of these networks all in one day and maybe that is a bit obsessive but when and where should I draw the line on how many times a day I should “check-in?” Speaking of where to draw the line, as I write this post (which I have not done in a while) I can’t help but research hard facts about social media use and consumption–and that has become quite an obsession in the last few weeks. With all these questions, I ask myself “Is social media becoming a burden?” Yes!!!
According to my own business definition, social media is a way to connect with existing and potential customers online to promote and share content and hopefully they share content among their own individual networks. Thus, companies have tools to listen, monitor and respond to how the market reacts to their brands in the marketplace and online. Hopefully the feedback that is received is then used to improve products and/or services, and can even provide ideas for new products and services.
The personal definition of social media is for individuals to connect with their friends, family, colleagues and others to share content, keep in touch and aggregate the amount of information they take in daily. People use social media for different reasons. For example, musicians use MySpace to share their music and get discovered by record labels; filmmakers use YouTube, MySpace and similar sites to showcase their past and upcoming projects; Comedians use all social media sites to show the world how funny they are and to get others to viralize their hilariously entertaining videos; Hobbyist use social media to instruct other individuals on how to learn necessary skills to master a certain craft.
All the uses for social media are great but there is so much to see, do, watch, listen to and read about that social media has become an addiction. What are the symptoms for social media addicts? In my opinion, social media addicts check their blackberry every 25-30 minutes to read the latest email, update their twitter or Facebook status or forwarding content onto others. Other symptoms are stiff neck, blindness (from the computer screen), slight deafness, blisters from sitting in one spot for so long, etc.
What is the cure for social media addiction? Dare I say one whole day without checking-in but that just sounds crazy. What is the percentage of people that relapse? Probably everyone who is reading this blog post and forwarding it on to their friends! Just kidding but it’s extremely hard to be weened off of checking-in because it is the way of life and we may have to just accept that. How would we have known about the earthquake in Haiti, or the Christmas Day Underwear Bomber and any other the important breaking news. We would be at a lost for information because newspaper readership is down and I am sure most people don’t watch the news all day long.
What do you think about social media addiction? Share this post with your friends, family, colleagues and others and see what they have to say. Start a mini debate.
Although it seems that there are many definitions for Social Media (depending of your usability) , one could say it is about USER GENERATED CONTENT. Basically , it is about communication grouping.
Regarding social media addiction, I would say if someone is addicted if he or she uses Tweets every minute.
Leon.F
http://www.MLFSolutions.com
It’s so true. There was a definitely a point when I was logging into Facebook with no specific agenda and would stay on for hours sometimes aimlessly wandering from page to page. That was definitely an addiction. I love how you made the distinction between the different uses. When I realized how senseless my addiction seemed, I considered getting rid of FB altogether, but when I remembered how useful of a tool it can be, when used correctly, I reconsidered. I’m still guilty of checking everything atleast once, or twice, okay maybe three times (or more) a day, but it’s usually with specific intent and I’ve gotten better at time limits.
It is a bit unsettling to think of the entire world addicted to these social medias but they do have some positives. I think they’re worth defending.
And maybe more awareness about “responsible consumption” would help. I’ve been seeing a few commercials on networks that cater to a young audience (i.e. Nickelodeon and Disney Channel and The n) about using social media sites and the internet responsibly. The one I remember was discouraging users from posting things that could hurt someone’s feelings because on the internet you can’t control who sees it and sometimes you can’t take it back. It was interesting.