Social Media Musing

Answering the existentially frightening question of “what are you doing?” is requirement for someone making consistent facebook or twitter updates.

Often these questions are easily answered: “Buying plane tickets” “Writing a paper” “or even “Making a sandwich” Trivial, maybe, but hey, it seems like other people are interested.

One cue to look at how social media will develop is see where I get benefits from it. Social media is a tool after all. It helps me stay in touch with friends, colleagues, professional contacts, even family on occasion, who otherwise wouldn’t know what I’m up to and vise-versa. The concern comes in where you decide to draw the boundary between your physical interactions (phone/skype calls would be a hybrid here) and through the net.

To use myself as an example, my boundaries are set in making email replies within 24 hours. This is occasionally subject to change, in the case I’m traveling/without access to a computer where I could set up an auto-reply or something similar. I also don't add people as facebook friends that I haven't met before in person, or know someone I trust can vouch for them in some way.

The key is setting expectations for the people you are constantly in touch with. At some point, everyone I know, knows that it's easier to get a hold of me through email than facebook. Being open about this can also be another way to set the expectation immediately.

In Clive Thompson’s I’m So Digitally Close to You he makes the remark that:

"growth of ambient intimacy can seem like modern narcissism taken to a new, supermetabolic extreme — the ultimate expression of a generation of celebrity-addled youths who believe their every utterance is fascinating and ought to be shared with the world”

Once the hype of expressing yourself to everyone you knows settles down however, what is left is the actual value the service can provide. The people who don’t realize the benefit I just don’t get.