A social media meltdown

LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, Friend Feed, YouTube, I could go on and on and it would take an hour or so before I ever got around to naming every social media platform that exists. There are literally hundreds of them.

I just want to know when I can get off this never ending carousel. It just keeps spinning us around in circles. Maybe I am just too old and set in my ways, but I simply cannot keep up with this rat race called social media.  Frankly, I do not want to.

Having a choice is a great thing, however, it can be overwhelming at times.  This is why your brand is extremely important. There are so many choices available to people at a moment’s notice, it is often inconceivable to think how your company can stand out?  What makes it so special in the grand scheme of things?

I watch my teenagers texting, surfing, chatting, doing homework, watching videos and listening to music all at the very same time. I am thinking to myself, how do you do that? I would go completely insane.

When I write, I need calm and quiet. Serenity is part of what inspires me.  I cannot write when the television is loud or there is music in the background.  When it is too noisy I cannot focus.  I am not sure if it is age or attitude. Perhaps, a little bit of both.

Where do we go from here?

How far can social media go?  We can upload pictures and videos, chat with one another, create brands and marketing packages and we can even have everything RSS feed into each other creating a complete linking wheel, what more could we possibly need?

I found out today that my friend is getting married because he pasted it on Facebook. Really? Is this the way he decided was appropriate to tell everyone?

Do we not deserve better? A phone call, a coffee meet? Have we forgotten that we can actually meet for a nice coffee for five minutes?

Social media is beginning to make us antisocial.  We post things on Facebook that we are simply too lazy to pick up the phone and tell someone.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to hear about sad or traumatic events in my personal life on Facebook.  What’s next, death announcements?

Perhaps while we are finding new ways to improve social media we may also wish to start thinking about adopting a code of ethics for actually using social media.

I have decided that the only way that I can live with social media in my life is to take it one step at a time.  I no longer worry if  I don’t read every message or see every picture, it will show up again, if it is popular enough.  I just read what I think is interesting and ignore the rest.  After all,  social media is  about the choice! Now if I can just figure out how to …oh, never mind.