Without Dash

I often sit behind the computer thinking: “What should I blog about today?” or “Is there anything at all that I can Tweet about that might be interesting to a stranger?” I do not even want to discuss FaceBook, because I only signed up in the hope it would help my blog, but actually never used it for anything. The only communication that works fine for me so far is my email. And as most of my friends can tell you, even then chances are high that it takes me anywhere from two weeks to six months before they receive a reply from me.

Social Networking. It is really not my thing. Not offline, but definitely not online. So, I was really glad to read the post from Wendy Piersall at Sparkplugging that she had no idea how much time she was wasting on something she thought was important to her business, but in the end did not pay her bills. Wendy found that backing away from social media promotion increased her earnings. Good news for me, because I’m really not that into trying to understand how all these media work.

Some people, though, seem to be addicted to the social media, spending hours on Twitter, FaceBook, or just Stumbling around the Internet. And is seems that all these networks are only used because they are available for use, and not to satisfy any need. Spend a few minutes on Twitter and see for yourself how much useless information is passed on. And of course no one has anything interesting to say on these networks, because how interesting can your life be if you spend your days behind the computer sending messages to so-called friends.

Millions of people are using the social media and I ask myself: Don’t they have anything better to do? I can come up with a hundred things I’d better spend my time on, and if it includes reading, I prefer a good book over tons of useless and poorly written messages of strangers. “Social Notworking” is the term we are looking for here. According to the Urban Dictionary it means “The practice of spending time unproductively on social-networking websites, especially when one should be working.”
The next negative point of all this communication is described very well by Erin and Al Rosas. Spelling and grammar are non-existent in the age in which everyone seems to have so much to say. Easy access to information is not making our work more productive and streamlined; instead it makes us illiterate and unproductive.

Steven Strofatz, PhD. at Cornell University adds to this that all these social network sites makes it harder for us to make distinction between our weak ties (acquaintances) and strong ties (real friends). People are spending time to maintain relationships that they actually do not care about. And this is the point! This is the whole reason why I cannot get myself interested in these social media. If my friends already have to wait up to six months before receiving a reply to their email, why should I try to add more ‘friends’ to my network?

Tags: Psychology, Relationships