It’s the Information age. The days of Web 2.0. User generated content. Social networking. Et cetera, et cetera. There are several huge social networking sites these days, along with hundreds of other smaller ones. Though the actual definition of a social networking site is very vague, they all want you to join and contribute.
I say stop it now.
By the time you sign up for Facebook, Twitter, Myspace (do people still use Myspace?), LinkedIn, Stumbleupon, etc, and actually start using them, your brain is sure to implode. Especially if you don’t use these sites properly – the number of alerts and notifications that you’ll get will simply boggle your mind. I’m reminded of this fantastic video by Scott Stratten of Un-Marketing:
While targeted toward Facebook, the concept applies to all social networking sites. If you didn’t like these people in high school / college, why in the blue fuck would you want to talk to them now? Getting wall posts, alerts, and notifications about people you don’t care about is a waste of your time and attention.
Pick a maximum of two social networking sites to use, no more.
There’s no reason to befriend the same people on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. You’ll see the same crap over and over again. Your communication channels will also suffer, as you’ll have wall posts, Facebook mail, LinkedIn mail, twitter replies, twitter direct messages, and tons more. We want simpler methods of communicating, not more complicated methods. There’s no reason to make things harder than they need to be.
So pick your primary social networking site, and if you must, pick one more. For me, I use Twitter and Facebook. Really I use Twitter 95% of the time, as I love it’s simplicity and forced brevity. I do have a Facebook account, but only count family members and close “real life” friends as friends. No friending people that I distantly knew years ago. My friends brothers cousin’s mechanic? Not a friend. You get the idea.
Social networking sites are great tools – whether to keep in touch with family & friends, business use, or just general enjoyment. But keep in mind the goal should always be simplicity. If you’re overwhelmed, you’re doing to much. Close some profiles, quit some sites, and drop some friends. Someone might get his feelings hurt, but life will go on. And your life will be simpler because of it.