Social Networking Burnout
Social Networking Burnout?
Social Network Burnout.
After a quick trip around the Internet I was wondering if anyone else was having social network burnout?
Belonging to so many social networks that you just feel the need to get away from it all? You feel the need to enable privacy settings on all your networks so that you will not be tracked from one location to the next? Are you starting to feel like your privacy on the Internet is no more?
I think with all the social network websites out there it can be a blessing or a curse. They can be an amazing way to meet new people, share ideas, opinions and stay connected.
The problem comes when you stop having fun and are just working to keep up with your social networking websites. Then it can become more like working than networking.
I was on another persons blog the other day, and after visiting his various links I am wondering how many people out there are having social network burnout or fatigue?
The blog that I was on had a list of social networking websites that this person belonged to. It’s not the grandest list that I have come across, but it was still a list.
His list went something like this. Follow me on Twitter.
If you are not familiar with Twitter, it’s an application that let’s you remotely type in your play by play activity.
Eg. John: I just drove into the McDonald’s. 5 minutes ago.
Kerry: I just picked the kids up from school. 8 minutes ago
George: I just left the grocery store. 10 minutes ago.
It’s your network and you keep your network updated, from any location. What some people do is make their twitter available for their blogging audience. This way you can be followed around via twitter.
You can then go to your twitter profile and see how many followers you have.
Then after twitter this blog had connect with me on Linkedin.
Linked in is a social networking website for professionals. Kind of like a Facebook but for professional connections.
You can create a profile, with your education, show off the connections that you have made, past career, and current, your industry, and any websites or blogs.
The site allows you to then connect with other professionals in the industry or industries of your choice. Since just about everything in the world works via social networking and connections, I begin to see why these websites have become so very popular in a short space of time.
The next link they had was their Facebook profile link. Find me at Facebook.
Many people have heard of Facebook, but not everyone is familiar with Facebook. It’s a social networking website that allows you to search for people. You can search by name, company, or various other methods. Since many millions of people are on Facebook it’s a way for you to connect to people that you already know, meet people that you did not know before, and see if you have people in your networks that are linked or connected.
The concept was originally designed to allow college graduates to stay in touch, but it’s branched out over the last several years and now many people are located on Facebook. It’s one of, if not the largest social networking websites on the Internet.
The next tag this person had on their blog was find my photo’s on flicker.
Flickr has become a very popular website for sharing photos. If you have some pictures that you want to upload to share with yourself or a whole Internet full of strangers Flickr is the place to do it.
You can either upload your own photos or if you feel very voyeuristic you can view the pictures that others have shared on their website.
If you have surfed the Internet then you have probably come across some extraordinary pictures from Flickr.
The next link on this persons blog was an invitation to view their videos at a site called vimeo?
I am not familiar with this website, but the description does say connecting people through video. The website says that you can upload your videos via high definition. It’s a very cute site, the few videos I did partake of had a really artsy feel to them. I really liked the video with the parrot and the cat. I don’t think that YouTube.com has met it’s match yet, but still a very cute photo sharing website.
The next link on this persons website was a link to their Digg page.
Now if you are not familiar with Digg, it’s a website that let’s you vote on the most popular stories, news articles and information. Users from other websites can submit stories to Digg to be rated. If a user likes the story they will Digg it, and if they don’t they will just bury it by clicking a button.
This website is great because users get to submit a story or something of interest and then people get to vote on the story, articles, etc and share their opinions as to why they liked it, did not like it, or some other relevant content.
The next link on this persons blog was to a site I was 100% unfamiliar with, but was glad to learn more about.
Apparently the site is there to help people with their ideas. They describe themselves as a type of venture firm that helps start up companies or individuals with ideas. They help them get from the planning stage to the implementation stage. They care about how smart people are, not how old they are.
The site sounds good in theory, however does this type of model really work and can it really help an individual or company get off the ground?
The next two links were to this bloggers personal websites. It was a very impressive list of links and it introduced me to a couple of websites that I was hither to unfamiliar with.
In the end I think getting social networking burnout comes down to the one main factor. If you are the type of person that thrives on having a network of friends, staying in touch, having people know where you are 24/7 then these sites will more than likely just continue to invigorate you.
If on the other hand you are the personality type that likes your peace and quite and are primarily on these sites to network because you feel that you have to, then you are more than likely to encounter social networking burnout or fatigue. If you are somewhere in between then you most likely will not get the long term buzz that others do from these types of sites, but then you are also less likely to experience the burnout factor.
Tags: Burnout, Digg, Facebook, Flicker, LinkedIn, Personality type, Social Networking, Twitter, Vimeo, Ycombinator, youtube
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