Are You Becoming Anti-Social?

By:  Joseph Kiefer

Social media continues to dominate the discussion in almost all forms of media, from old school newspapers to blogs.  It is everywhere!  There is no doubt about it, social media is here to stay.  With that being said, I don't think we have a great grasp on how large of a role we are going to let social media play in our lives.

I would consider myself to be somewhere around the middle of the social media adoption curve.  I have had a Facebook page for over 4 years, same with Linked In and more recently I have added multiple Twitter accounts and joined other social networking communities.  About 6 months ago I started getting a little burnt out by social media overload.  I noticed that I would be on social networking sites for work reasons during the day and then I would routinely check Facebook during my down time at night.

Without even thinking about it I had started spending a couple of hours a day on social network sites.  I don't believe I fell out of the norm on this.  I also noticed that I had added Facebook as a daily routine that I almost felt compelled to check.  Why did I feel compelled to check it?  I believe it gives people what feels like social interaction on a daily basis without actually socially interacting.

I made a conscious decision at that point to no longer frequent Facebook on a regular basis.  I did not close my account because I still did want to be able to go out there to view photo albums or catch up with old classmates, but I didn't want to spend my nights focusing on the mundane details of other peoples lives.  Since I have made this decision I have noticed a growing number of other individuals who have shared related stories.  Many found they were far lesss productive at home because they were spending so much time on their favorite social media site.  For those wondering, playing Farmville on Facebook does not count as productive no matter how big your farm gets.  Planting an actual garden on the other hand qualifiies as productive and is hopefully more rewarding as well.

The point of the story is that I, like many others, are starting to make decisions on how much of a role we want social media to play in our lives.  Some people have cut it out all together or never joined the trend in the first place.  Some people are content with using social media on a limited basis, but not letting it control their daily activities.  Are you ever at the beach and feel like you have to post that on Facebook?  And there is and probably always will be the group that thrives on these sites and find that there isn't enough time in a day to spend on them. 

It is a slightly scary thought that there are more and more people joining the last group.  I believe there are a lot of great uses for social media, but it should not be a replacement for real world interactions.  Instead of checking out what other people are doing tonight you can go out and do something yourself... and you don't need to tell the world about it.

So where do you fit?  Are you willing to go anti-social?  I haven't gone all the way, but I think I will drop one of my Twitter accounts today!