Social networking psychosis
March 1, 2010
It had to happen, and this week it did. I finally experienced ‘Facebook Fatigue‘.
Social networking might have become the biggest single activity on the internet, but I’m definitely starting to feel overwhelmed by the mass of social networking sites I’m encouraged to join on almost a daily basis.
Hardly a day passes without being invited to ‘Join me on … ‘ (insert whichever social networking site comes to mind). The problem is, for an increasing number of these sites, I can’t get a feel for how they actually work without signing up for an account. ‘Create your profile’ they say, without showing me anything except a sign-up or log-in page.
It’s not just public sites either. Significant numbers of businesses and face-to-faced networks have created online networking portals. All of which add to my ‘Facebook fatigue’.
Whether it’s a public site or private network, if I sign-up and become a member the pressure’s really on.
Navigating my way around the site and sorting out all the privacy and other settings that need switching on or off requires a level of intuition and understanding I don’t seem to possess.
Just trying to remember my user-name and password can be challenging. Still, they say brain-teasers and mental agility exercises are good for keeping dementia at bay so maybe I should be grateful for this!
I reckon I’ll only be using about 25% of a site’s functionality – if that – because I haven’t had the time, energy or inclination to work out what else it can do and why I should use it.
Someone, somewhere, is probably developing a site or piece of software that integrates every social networking site you’re a member of so you have one simply log-in and can see exactly who you’re connected with within each platform.
Maybe it’s been invented already. If it has, please let me know! I could do with finding out who I’m Linked-Twittered-AboutFaced-Naymed-Ecademied-and-YourSpaced-in with!
Or, better still, phone me – and let’s connect without having to use a password or virtual identity.