The End of the 2 Week Social Media Ban
// May 28th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
Two weeks ago today I decided to quit all social media for a short time. All the controversy around Facebook got me thinking about what the value of social media was to me – if there were any at all. I wondered if I had been wasting a ton of time or if after my short time away if I would come back with a sense of real perceived value. I made some predictions and some came true, others did not – but for reasons I hadn’t expected. Here’s what I’ve learned:
Twitter: Two weeks ago I predicted that I would come back to Twitter since I had been using it a lot for a business reasons. My prediction was correct -sort of. I will for sure be active with Twitter again, but not just because I use it a little for business reasons. What I found was that my actual use of Twitter was more like a giant news aggregator that was custom designed by me – on accident. All the people and businesses I have followed over the past 3 years are always reporting things that I’m interested in. It’s like having a news site that only talks about the things you want to hear. Over three years I had followed and un-followed people, constantly creating a more customized stream of information that I could dive into at any time. During the past 2 weeks I have felt out of the loop. I felt like I was missing out on all the regular information and updates that I was so used to having at my disposal.
Additionally, news aggregator reasons aside, I also made quite a few friends and I found myself wondering what they were up to. The last week I have been counting down the days until I could get back in and catch up with everyone. So, ultimately, my return to Twitter is almost completely unrelated to the little bit I use it for work. I’m back because I enjoy the little bit of social activity from it and I have found a very real value in the information provided.
Foursquare: I predicted I would finish the 2 weeks, have no desire to use the service any more and would then delete the app from my phone. I was partially correct. Almost immediately, I lost any desire to use the Foursquare app. Going into restaurants that I had “checked-in” many times before, I had no urge to pull out the phone and announce to the world that I was there. None. That feeling never changed over the 2 weeks. The one time I thought about using the app was while I was out of town and was searching for a restaurant in the area – but there are tons of apps out there that do that besides Foursquare.
So while it would seem that I’m finished using Foursquare, I’m not going to delete it from my phone. Location based services are starting to get a lot of attention and I think something cool is going to come out of it all. I don’t know what it will be but I want to hold on to the app so that I’ll have a first-hand view of new changes. Plus, if bars and restaurants really start getting involved, it might be nice to get a free appetizer or something just for showing that you checked-in. So, I think I’ve finished being a regular user and will only be a casual observer or at best, an opportunistic user when there’s free food or drink specials involved.
Facebook: At the start of this experiment I wasn’t sure what to predict. I was mostly sure that I would end up deleting my account. I thought that there was really very little “social” to it – just a lot of one sided profile creeping. Like others, I also had concerns about all the privacy changes and where my data was being sent. To be honest, I’m still a little conflicted on what to do with Facebook. I really want to see where things go with it because it’s become such a huge part of the internet, but at the same time, I don’t want personal info shared with the whole world. I do recognize that there is a very social side with Facebook where you can catch up with friends and family, however I still think the most common purpose it serves is to fuel rumors and gossip as a product of one-sided profile creeping.
I have decided I’m going to continue forward with my Facebook account open but I’m going to lock down the permissions and remove a lot of information and pictures. Even if it’s harmless info, I’d rather share that by choice on my blog than with advertisers that don’t have to ask my permission and can do whatever they want with it. By keeping my account I’ll be able to do my own damage control (asking people to remove or untag pictures or videos that I wouldn’t want shared), I’ll be able to have an inside view of where the new “hub of the internet” is taking us all and I’ll still be able to connect with friends and family if I want to. I think I’ll be happy with this.
What I’ve learned from this 2 week break is that social media is what you make it. For some, they enjoy Facebook for few other reasons than snooping through an ex-boyfriend/girlfriend’s profile to see what they’re up to or gossiping about what a friend posted about their activities one night. If that’s you, that’s fine. I understand it’s just another form of entertainment and I have no issues with it. Others enjoy it because they’re able to connect with childhood friends, bring extended family together and keep relationships alive through simple wall to wall messages and picture sharing. Still, others are using it only for advertising purposes for their business. All of that is ok because ultimately, like I found with Twitter, and like most everything in life, all these different social applications can be enjoyable and useful, but only if you make them that way for yourself.
No one has to share any more data than they want on the internet. No one has to expand their friend network any larger than they want to. And, everyone has the ability to customize their use of the “social” side of the internet however it is most useful and/or entertaining for themselves. Here’s my favorite way to use it: http://twitter.com/matt_wilbanks.
