Managing Our Social Media Obsession

Fresh off of the news that we’ve added a host of new options for connecting to BenchFly, we’re reminded of the extent to which the social media beast affects our lives these days.

Of course, it’s not new- the trend toward increased connectivity, be it cell phones, text messaging or “social media” sites, has been underway for well over a decade.

Most of us struggle daily to manage cell phones, email, Facebook, Twitter, (BenchFly…) and that one other thing…a full-time job.  As every aspect of our lives becomes capable of immediate broadcast, we can’t help but wonder whether we’ll ever hit a point where things are officially deemed out of control.

To suggest we return to the days of the Pony Express and carrier pigeons would be ridiculous- we’re clearly never going back.  But learning to manage, not reverse, the connectivity onslaught in our lives is a skill we could probably all benefit from to some extent.

Some companies hire full-time positions to manage a Twitter account- and it’s truly a full-time position.  Like science, social media never sleeps.  The rate-limiting step is us.  It doesn’t matter if the post office is closed, or the supplier doesn’t ship on weekends.  It’s always there.  Always on.

A recent study by Crowd Science showed the degree to which the social media addictions have spread.  They asked people whether they had specifically accessed social media sites from a host of various locations (See Figure).  The results were then categorized by whether an individual was a Twitter user or not.

It’s clear from their data that Twitter users are more active in general, but more interesting is the large percentage of people that are accessing social media in relatively inappropriate situations.
We’re all busy, but I can’t believe we’re so busy that we can’t even “rest” in the restroom anymore!  I don’t want to get a Tweet from someone “Chillin in stall #4- cool shoes next to me”.  What kind of smiley follows that?

We’ve discussed systems for organizing our life and specifically our email, but will these rules apply to social media as well?  As with email, it seems that scheduling specific times during the day to access them briefly would be a good solution.  But like a Lay’s potato chip, when’s the last time you read “just one Tweet…”

Programs, such as Tweetdeck and HootSuite, allows users to access both their Twitter and Facebook updates on a single interface.  If it stays open on the desktop, it’s virtually guaranteed that nothing will get accomplished at work that day…

But we’d like to know how you deal with a life of social media.

.

Are there effective systems out there for managing the socially-connected lives we all now lead?  How do you juggle the demands of staying connected?

.

.