Rethinking How We Use Social Media

I’ve seen in my own life many times that social media, something that should serve as a communication tool, can actually become a destination. For many it has become an end rather than a means.

Facebook has done a great job at making this possible for us. Zuckerburg has created a destination for all us to go online. Everything is embedded into Facebook and Facebook seems to be embedded everywhere else you go online. But what is the point of all this? Maybe the real question we should all be asking is this:

What should the point to all of this be?

Take a minute to look at how much time is wasted on social media sites (I use Facebook as my main example since it’s currently the largest). Notice I said wasted, not just spent.

Seriously, think about it for a second.

I feel like it’s pretty easy to measure time wasted as opposed to time well spent. Are we accomplishing something of value? Are we nurturing and building an authentic relationship? I honestly think that social media can truly help us do these things. The problem is that most of what we (myself included) do on social networking sites doesn’t accomplish these things. At least not from what I’ve experienced.

I feel like social media should be a means rather than an end. It should be a vehicle rather than a destination. This is why I appreciate the nature of Twitter more than the nature of Facebook. Twitter is quick and doesn’t provide in-depth profiles that you can spend an extended amount of time on. I think that is one of Twitter’s greatest strengths.

Has social media made us more vain?

On Facebook, most of us seem to share information about ourselves, photos of ourselves and rants about badly we have been treated and wronged. I don’t have official stats on that, this is just what I’ve seen, experienced and even done myself. I’ve realized this more and more over the last few months, which is why my Facebook activity has dropped so dramatically.

What I’m submitting is not a complete exodus from social networking sites, although I would love to see a Facebook exodus. I’m suggesting that we begin to examine how we use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and all the others that are fighting for our time and attention. Our time is precious and so are all of the authentic relationships we have with friends and family.

Let’s begin to be more intentional about things we post and share online. Let’s start to be more intentional about people we’re friends with on Facebook. For example, you don’t need to connect with everyone you knew back in high school. Some people aren’t supposed to be a part of our lives forever. And that’s ok.

I love what Diablo Cody said about some of our social networking issues. I think her statement is dead on:

I feel like I’m part of a generation of people who are stuck in the past and are really self-absorbed. I mean, we’re actually taking pictures of ourselves and posting them on Facebook, and keeping in touch with people that should have been out of our lives 15 years ago. Obsessing over who’s getting married, who’s having kids, who’s more successful. It’s like we’re recreating high school every single day using social media. And it’s weird.

I couldn’t agree with her more.

I know that this post seems to be more of a vision rather than something to instantly put into practice. But I think that’s a good thing. We have to step back and examine an issue before we can fix it. So let’s do just that. I’ll be posting some more on this topic as I’m attempting to do just what I’m suggesting here.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you.

Do you see any or even all of these issues that I mentioned above in your social networking usage?

What are some practical measures that we can take to do social networking in a way that doesn’t distract us from real life and in a way that nurtures and focuses on real relationships?

Let me know in the comments below.