Seems that I’m not the only one feeling social media fatigue. Although hesitant to admit it, C.G. Lynch blogged a few days ago on CIO.com about his own overuse of social networking tools.
Before the holidays, I was writing a long feature piece . . . I like to do my writing in the morning while I’m fresh (with coffee). I opened up the document at 10 a.m., but figured I’d first quickly answer some tweets, IM some colleagues about ongoing projects and confirm some new friends on Facebook. Did I say quickly? Well, the next time I looked at the clock it was noon and I hadn’t written more than a paragraph.
I immediately shut off my Twitter updates, Facebook e-mail notifications (“Jane wants to be your friend on Facebook”) and (of course) my instant messenger. In a mere half-hour, I finally had the first page of my story done, but I did have to work late that night to compensate.
Any of this sound familiar?
I’m not a Twitter user myself and I know that’s an unpopular position. Colleagues and many others are always telling me I should be there, but so far I’ve resisted. As I commented on the CIO.com post,
I’m so afraid of the addictive pull of another social network (I stay fairly busy on LinkedIn), that I haven’t set foot on Twitter. That’s not entirely true. I did sign on, but went no further.
On the other hand, I do blog about the value of Twitter on a regular basis, because I know the benefits to my c-level clients are many. I’m sure the benefits to me would be many too.
My business is writing, and I do my best work in the morning. When I have let myself get distracted by emails and invitations, too much of the juice I need to work dribbles away. I just know that if I went near Twitter, I’d get sucked into the action and really be in trouble.
Jeremiah Owyang at Web Strategy wrote about his recent 20-day break from a heavy-duty Twitter routine, in favor of more blogging, a community project, and time spent unplugged.
I encourage you to back off from the social tools (life goes on) and information got to me anyways, that I realized that we’re not as dependent on these tools as you may think. I can’t step away from Twitter forever, as my clients are there, and this is a tool that I cover as an analyst, but I encourage you to try stepping away, refresh your mind, and come back more focused, I sure did.
That being said, Paul Dunay at Buzz Marketing for Technology posted a monster confirmed list of top CEOs, CMOs, CIOs, who use Twitter, with their Twitter URLs. A slew of comments follow the list with even more names and URLs. Many of you may find this information extremely useful.
On the other hand, if you’re feeling beckoned in too many directions online and need to step back, know that you’re not alone. It may be a good idea to take a break from the screen and get involved in some real-life, people-to-people activities.
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