Social Media – To Connect or Not to Connect

Social media is huge today and is increasingly playing a crucial part in our daily lives. I struggle to remember life without emails, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs… what did that look like? Oh dear!

OK, I remember the early days of email revolution in the late 90s. I would queue at a computer centre with my written message on hand and in turn hand my piece of paper to the grinning but dodgy-looking IT Support dude to type and send the email for me, after payment of course (I spent a fortune doing that every two days). And of course, there was the infamous reminder on the screen after 30 minutes of Internet browsing: “Your time is up!”

Comparing that to today, that was just a ‘crazy’ thing to do!

Today, we have moved on. Mobile devices mean we don’t need to be that crude anymore. We do everything on the move, in the convenience of our homes, offices, you name it.

Social media is now at the centre of that shift. Now, we are inundated with friend requests, alerts, tweets (even as I write), comments, messages, retweets, following notifications, blog posts (sorry!)… the list is truly endless. We call it social networking. Some say it’s social freedom. Welcome to the revolution (I know you’re already with us!)

I recognise that social media is an integral part of what I do as an author, leader, blogger and professional, but I often ask myself:

“At what cost are we engaging with and through social media?”

“Is social media having more of a negative than positive impact on us, especially on the younger generation?”

Our social life is now built on one key element: TRUST. We are convinced, “I think I can trust this connection, so I will accept his friend request on Facebook, I will follow her on Twitter…and so on.”

And of course, there is the classic, which causes many to stay away from social media completely: we tend to share anything and everything about our lives and others’ on social media. Some do, literally.

So I invite you to share your thoughts on the following questions:
While social media has its huge benefits (and it does!),

• Has it brought us more harm than good?
• How is it impacting on the younger generation?
• Have you personally experienced social media’s negative impact? How?
• What good thing (just one) has social media done for you personally or your brand in the last 6 months?

I look forward to reading from and reasoning with you.