Funny, right? (Check out more on Jim Benton’s website)
This is how I feel about leaving any social media, but alas, I’ve recently considered leaving Facebook. I think about the effects and about those times when someone in a group confessed they were not on Facebook and see the shock and horror of all those who are active on Facebook.
I don’t want to be that person, do I?
Have you considered leaving Facebook? Or any other social media worlds?
John Saddington recently left Facebook and took Tentblogger with him.
Who can blame him?
Facebook’s tactics are getting old and we’re all growing a bit tired of which messages are and which are not private–from four years ago!
</rant>
This is what I am really wondering:
Is social media burnout just around the corner?
At what point do we tire of the updates and the follows and the fans and the favorites?
Sure, it’s all fun and games, now, but it’s still new. What will social media look like in three, five and ten years from now?
[Image via Jim Benton]
April says
I think it very well could be. I’m burned out on social media but I have several websites and a business that I have to promote all the time, so I’m stuck on it.
Eric Dye says
I know that feel.
jason says
Seems to be a weekly cycle with me for some reason. I burn out on all social media but especially Twitter Sunday through Tuesday. Then Wedneday and Thursday I’m more active before tapering off again over the weekend. Facebook doesn’t bother me quite as much but only because I choose to have a small number of friends on it.
Eric Dye says
Sounds like a ‘yes’ 🙂
Josh Wagner says
I think I’m heading there, but not yet. I think it has a lot to do with money. Twitter and Facebook are done with trying to please just users, they now are trying to make money. Those two don’t always mix. So, FB tries to make you pay to push all of your posts, Twitter shuts off it’s API to the masses to “protect its brand”. Sorry kids, if you don’t have users you have no money.
Eric Dye says
True story.
Ken Rosentrater says
A lot depends on how you use them. Self discipline is always a challenge, no matter what aspect of life of which you are thinking. The “new” wears off on anything. Some people trade their cars every three years for that reason, instead of sticking with the same vehicle for ten years.
Of course there are inanities and frivolities in social media. Those are not a reflection of the medium but of the culture, as well as the very heart of man. There are the same frivolities and inanities in radio, television, movies, and in the aisle at WalMart. And in presidential campaigns, may I add.
I am very grateful that Facebook has given me a means of reconnecting with friends from college and high school years, and with members of the youth groups I shepherded in 3 different churches. Whereas before I had lost track of addresses and phone numbers, and certainly of how they were living and how they looked, other than the annual Christmas letter from some (and there is another “media” with which many have become disillusioned), now the warmth of many of those relationships is at a higher level that it was for years.
I see FB partly as a group – sure, a very large group – sitting in a living room, having a visit. In the real living room setting, there will be a range of conversation including triviality and richness. That’s life.
I have always much enjoyed receiving photos from friends in the mail. Now, I can just check in once in awhile to see how so and so is doing. If you master yourself and your media tools, and not let them master you, then I see little problem. I do not claim that I have that entirely accomplished.
I actively seek out face to face personal interaction on a regular basis. That’s the best way. I cannot do that with family and friends that live hundreds of miles away. FB is not a substitute for the face to face, but it’s better than the occasional jotted off letter every several months and the infrequent phone call.
I suggest fasting from media once in awhile to keep perspective aright. The old baby with the bath water aphorism applies here.
Ken Rosentrater says
On the privacy of posts issue, a good friend told me years ago, “never put anything in an email that you don’t want the whole world to see.” In other words, assume the whole world will see. That applies to FB and Twitter too. It’s good advice. If you follow that, then the concern about what the media deems private or not private becomes moot,
Eric Dye says
Good stuff, Ken. Thanks for sharing!
Mark Robinson says
I’ve been thinking hard about this recently too even to the point of having my mouse hovering over the delete account button in facebook!
Too much of my time is being wasted on Facebook but that’s not the main reason I’m considering leaving. It’s the stress it causes me and the social responsibility it imposes on me to be friends with people I’m not really interested in but I’m doing so for work.
Generally speaking I feel tired everytime i think about using facebook.
Eric Dye says
Yikes! That doesn’t sound good at all.
James White says
I have had a Twitter account since early 2007 and a Facebook account since late 2007, and having had both accounts for almost 5 years, I can certainly see the burnout starting to appear.
I have evaluated how I use each of them many times, and how frequently I both visit and post to both of them. I have pretty much come to the decision to keep my Facebook profile limited to friends only, and even then I limit my interaction to at most twice a week. Twitter on the other hand has somewhat become my news feed and so I check in twice daily to catch up on the latest happenings online.
Eric Dye says
This has become a popular and well thought out plan I’ve seen others do. It’s great to hear feedback on how it’s working for people. Thanks for sharing James!
Jonathan Assink says
I’ll spare you a long rant and just say that as a millennial, no, I’m not burned out on social media. It’s where my generation lives, and it’s not going anywhere.
Eric Dye says
Why spare the long rant?
Ken says
You like rants? 🙂 I have some, but this probably isn’t the place. 😀
Eric Dye says
Wah-wah … 😉
Jonathan says
Missed this originally, but since it just got retweeted as a “from the archive” post I’ll still respond.
Today’s kerfuffle over Instagram proves it’s not going away. For all the uproar, I didn’t hear a single person say, “I’m quitting and never posting photos online again!” No, people are mad because they have built communities around these technologies and don’t want to lose them. Further, it’s why the people who are going to post elsewhere are still doing it attached to some form of social network (Twitter, FB [which is the definition of irony], and most notably, Flickr).
Were people burned out on social media, the response would have been a shrug and walking away. Instead, everyone got on their privacy soap box and shouted about it on Twitter all day.
So, there’s a slice of my long rant. =)
Eric Dye says
Good point. After ranting, we’ll all go back to using it, too.
Allan Buckingham says
I do think social media burnout is a constant worry for people. As has been mentioned elsewhere in the comments, figuring out how best to use social media to meet your needs can go a long way to reduce that burnout. I’m sure I would have given up on Facebook years ago if I hadn’t been introduced to the lists feature.
Eric Dye says
True. Organization is key.