Are you an intelligent social media addict?

Are you one of these people who spends lots of time on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? Do you find it hard to go more than a few hours without checking who has been in touch? Do you often get told that you spend too much time online? Being a social media addict is actually ok as long as you are feed your addiction intelligently.

Some people chose to communicate by spending hours on the phone each evening. Some people are unable to drag themselves away from their emails. Some people send thousand of texts each month. Some people talk so much they give themselves, and everyone around them, headaches. They are all communicating in the way they choose. Social media is just another form of communication that you have chosen.

As long as you don’t allow it to detract from the value of other forms of communication then it shouldn’t be a problem. If you find yourself taking three days to reply to an email from a work colleague or a text from your Mum then it may be time to take a step back and think about what you are doing. If relationships are being weakened rather than strengthened then then same applies. More often than not though a balanced approach works best and being able to communicate effectively in lots of different ways is surely a good thing.

The real addiction that most of us have is wanting to talk to people. That’s not a bad thing. It’s better than being hooked on watching Star Trek re-runs alone most evenings.

What do you think? Are you an intelligent addict?

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  • annholman
    Great post Robert. A strike of common sense to the old brain. Love your comment "The real addiction that most of us have is wanting to talk to people. That’s not a bad thing." Absolutely, it is not, no matter in what format we do it!
  • infomonkey
    Hi Rob,

    Good post. Considered and well written. And yes; 'intelligent' is the key word here. Social media does have much to offer but it's usually the non-intelligent stuff that makes the headlines e.g. Stephen Fry's tweets while stuck in a lift. Very facinating for his fans and admirers I'm sure but give me some Star Trek re-runs any night;-)
  • Thanks for the comment Dale. I think you are right. An awful lot of Twitter users that have plenty of followers or that make the mainstream news headlines do so because of their name or celebrity status. That's the beauty of social media though - you can use it intelligently to filter out noise you don't want to hear and receive the type of information and content that you want.
  • Good blog post Robert.

    You have raised a really good point and it links in with the point I often make to people who don't understand Twitter. Most people that have never tried Twitter think it is just a "playground" for following self-obsessed, narcistic people and celebrities. Of course it is for those people who aren't "feeding their addiction intelligently". However, Twitter is much more than that and if used intelligently allows people to take control of their own informal learning in a variety of ways and in a way never experienced before. It allows people to learn in real time, from other people's experiences and to form relationships with people who share the same quest for knowledge and learning.
  • Thanks Jed. I really like the fact that social media allows users to control their own real-time learning. It is a big reason why so many people use it, both professionally and personally. Maybe in the future I can post about different techniques that people use to intelligently control their learning online.
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