Friday, March 16, 2012

To tweet or not, that is the question

I remarked a while back to a work colleague/girlfriend/Texas co-hort (you know who you are) that I was a moderate user of social media. She laughed at me.  When I thought about it, I suppose daily postings to facebook, 2 blogs, linked in and work social media sites would indicate I am more than a moderate user. 

As I reflected on this, I thought "When is enough social media...enough?" (OK, that sounded seriously like something Carrie Bradshaw would pen).   Interesting question, though...

True, it is a great way to catch up with friends and family (whether separated by distance, timezone, or simply years).  It can be used for good in social change or to drive businesses forward.  It serves a myriad of communication purposes, too.  I could go on and on.

However, there are times when I wonder if I really need to know what is on someone's grocery list, or about someone's bad hair day. There is also an element of narcissism that springs to mind.  I am probably guilty of this offense at some point in time as well. Still, when I think about whether I need to actually jump on the "tweet" bandwagon, it is not for these reasons I delay.

Harking back to my MBA and citing the technology adoption lifecycle, I am not sure if I would typically be termed as an early adopter or late adopter...I am certainly no innovator or laggard (even that term sounds awful).  I'd probably settle on "early majority" accepter (more conservative but open to new ideas, active in community and influences others).  Still, tweeting has been around for a while and in the mainstream, so I would normally have taken tweeting on board by now....No, I don't think I can cite this as the reason for not tweeting either.

Truthfully...it just feels like one "more" thing to keep up with.  When coupled with work and personal email, multiple mobile phones, etc., can we possibly be "too plugged in"?  Did I just age myself with that question?

So far, I have resisted the need to tweet, how about you?

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