Does Social Media Waste Time?

Written By Don Shetterly

I'm considering dropping off of social media altogether.  In my mind, I'm asking the question, does social media waste time?

If you drop off of social media, does that mean you still exist?  I wonder some days because it seems like all that matters.

On Facebook, people post "simple things" that would have been emailed forwarded at one time.  These things barely say anything, but everyone does it.  Then people react.  When I see that "someone has reacted," I'm thinking ok - is that a good thing?  It just seems so superficial to me.  It doesn't feel real or authentic on Facebook.  If it does to you, then by all means continue.  I've just seen people that once emailed me with "substance" now click like or react to something I've put on Facebook.

On Twitter, people retweet and do all kinds of gimmicks that just get annoying.  They are superficial responses in my mind.  After seeing a thousand of these come through at a time, it gets mind-boggling.  

On Instagram, people love to share pictures of their food or other things that you can barely tell what they are.  I guess if you're there, the image means something but to most people, it doesn't give a clear picture.  Of course, there are the likes on that as well which are supposed to mean something in our day.

Let's not even worry about all the other social media sites.  There are too many to name.

We have so much superficial communication going on that no wonder it seems like we're all so disconnected.  We have so many ways to connect with one another, and yet we're like superficial wanderers passing one another in the dark.

People rant and rave all day thinking they are doing something good, but in my view, it is just passing the stuff on, not helping in the least.  If you elevate that which you don't like, you're suppressing the good stuff in my view.

People exclaim how bad some people are, yet they go off and do the same thing.  Am I doing the same thing here?  I hope not.  They elevate the bullies by giving them a voice when if most bullies had no audience, they probably would not do half of what they do.  Maybe I just live in a pie-in-the-sky world with how I view things, but I'm really tired of all of this on social media.

I think we are either part of the solution or part of the problem.  The answer is not always out-screaming the other person proving that you're right and they are wrong.

Social media feels like a waste of time to me. 
I'm not sure if I will continue it or severely limit how
much time I spend on it (more than I do now). 

I honestly think we need to learn how to be human again in our communication.  Likes, retweets, shares, and screaming isn't doing it.  We're becoming less than human in my view.  It is not how you build a society or find ways to work together.  Well, at least in its current form, this is not working.

Surely we can find better ways to make use of social media then letting our own egos take control of the keyboard.  No, it isn't everyone else out there doing this.  We're all at fault.  We just don't see the log in our own eye.

What do you think?  How do you see Social Media?

By the way, read an earlier blog post about "Your Personal Power Of Communication."  It speaks more to this issue.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 1/1/18 by Don Shetterly

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Top 10 Social Media Annoyances

Some days I scratch my head at what humans do.  Of all the brain cells that could function and make different choices, it seems that those brain cells must have fallen asleep.  These poor choices create annoyances on the internet.

I have compiled my top 10 online social media annoyances that I have found on both Twitter and Facebook.  In fact, I stopped using Facebook some time ago and it is like a breath of fresh air.  Twitter is almost as bad with these annoyances.

I really wish it was different where people could use social media for a balanced approach of good information, rather than seeing how much they can scam and spam everyone.  I know, there are some good people out there, but the bad ones far outweigh the good.

Top 10 Social Media Annoyances.

#1 Naked Pictures Doing Sex Acts

Don't call me a prude here!  That's not what this is about at all.  Its about having some of the most graphic sexual pictures show up on my news feed.  These aren't small pictures either so when they show up, you can't miss them.  If I am in a public place, it is very inappropriate and it more than crosses the boundaries.  Even if I am not in a public place, I really don't want to see this all day long in my feed.  Most of these people do get reported and blocked, but it makes me wonder why people think that everyone wants to see this.  It usually isn't a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence either as they plaster the news feed with them all day and all night.  Enough!  If that's all you are adding to civilization, you may want to rethink your role in humanity.

#2 Like My Other Social Media

I gave up on Facebook.  I got tired of so much fakeness on there and too much junk that was posted every minute.  Most of what is shared on Facebook isn't worth two seconds of our time.  Even the marketing people who value your time are the biggest time wasters on Facebook and Twitter.  They really don't offer much value, but they sure waste your time.  I don't do LinkedIn anymore either because I find the site ridiculous and hard to navigate.  When I add someone on Twitter and the only thing that they think is important is for me to add all their other social media sites, I have to wonder about them.  Why would I go to multiple social media sites to follow you.  Do you not think I have anything better to do with my day than that?  Again, I think it is a big time waster.  It is not good online marketing in my view, because when I see it happen, the individual is knocked down in my value list.

#3 Spamming The News Feed

Yes, I understand that you want to reach as many people as you can and not everyone is online at the same time.  However, when I see 5, 10, 20 posts one after another, I tend to completely ignore you and scroll past what it is that you are tweeting.  I'm sure we all have done this in a minor way, but I'm talking about the ones that must have drank 5 tall cups of coffee before coming on Facebook or Twitter.  There is more in a day to do than sit there and see this type of behavior.  If you have that big of an ego, then I'll do like I have always done and either "mute" you or "unfollow" you.  You're abusing the relationship I have with you online and that doesn't sit well in my book.

#4 TrueTwit Verification Nonsense

From what I can tell, using the TrueTwit verification service does very little.  Yet, I see it time and time again.  Maybe the people using this nonsense don't understand what the recipient gets, but let me tell you, it is an annoyance.  It is a nuisance.  I just ignore it now because if I followed you, then I want to read your posts.  I don't wish to jump through hoops to prove to you that I am a valid person.  Sorry, you are asking far too much from me and abusing the trust I have put in you to be on my news feed.

#5 The Fake Link

I get so annoyed by the fake link.  You've probably seen it also.  It is the link that you think will take you to something you might be interested to read.  The link that looks safe, but yet it is not.  It is the links that take you to some site that gets you to sign up for whatever it is that they are pushing.  Most of the time it has nothing to do with what they put in the post, but you don't know that until after you clicked on the link.  It makes me so leery to click on any links these days because I just got hit badly with malware.

#6 Overly Large Pictures

If I am reading my social media accounts on my desktop, the overly large pictures aren't such a problem.  If I am on my smart phone, then it becomes a bigger issue and annoyance.  I now have to scroll down past these.  Most of the time, the ones that post overly large pictures must think that one is not enough and so they post multiple pictures.  The pictures are posted one after another.  The larger the picture, the more difficult it is for me to read the other tweets in between because they almost get swallowed up by them.  Do everyone a favor and find some moderation.

#7 How Many Clicks Does It Take

I think back to the commercials of the lollipop and how many licks does it take to get to the center.  Recently, I had one that when I clicked on the link, it took me to a page without the information.  There was another link to the information that you had to click on.  When I clicked on that, it then took me to another twitter page with the same information as was in the original post.  I still don't know where the information was and I suspect it didn't exist.  It was just meant to get me to click.  What an annoyance!  I believe I rewarded that individual with an "unfollow" and that probably wasn't the result they were hoping for.

#8 Unsolicited Advice

I marvel at this one in real life and its also annoying online.  It happens so much.  The person that comes by and doesn't even read what you posted or an article you linked to or checked out your website, but boy do they have advice for you.  They are quick to tell you what you should do or should not do.  It doesn't matter if it applies or not, they will tell you anyway.  There are far too many noisy people who think they have all the answers.  If that were true, we would have no problems in this entire world!  Let your ego know that not everyone loves your unsolicited advice.  It turns people off and they most likely do like I do, click that unfollow button.

#9 Content Waste

Oh, those auto-generated articles on the internet that are such an annoyance.  If I wanted to read regurgitated content created by a program, I would read source code from a website.  It is such a waste of my time, but people who aren't creative, think that this is good marketing.  I'm sorry, but if you don't have something good to say, just sit in the corner and be quiet until you do.  I have no forgiveness for people who do this, because you are wasting my time and filling the internet up with trash.  Those that do this type of thing obviously do not value the people they are trying to sell to or get as a client.

#10 Pesky Questions And Requests

I am amazed at how many people send automated responses out and ask questions in them.  The thing is, if you respond, they never respond back.  I have gotten to the point where I am ignoring most of these things now which sucks if you're one of the good guys that doesn't do this.  If I just followed you, I'm not going to spend hours reviewing and critiquing your website for you to most likely disregard it anyway.  While you may think it is cute and intriguing to ask me some irrelevant question, I've found that you could care less if I am happy or what happened in my day or what topics I want to see you post about on your news feed.  Again, all these things are time wasters and they are not authentic.  They don't make me want to trust you.  In fact, they make me want to unfollow.

Final Thoughts

We are becoming a spam and scam society and with the internet, it makes our reach much more broad.  However, if you cannot be trusted and people see this in what you post, then you are not adding value to the internet.  You're not adding value to social media.  You are an annoyance.

Marketing is about offering something of value, not trying to get one over on the other person and make them click or cringe.  Marketing is about building relationships and showing the other person that you care enough to not waste their time.  Unfortunately very few online really understand marketing.

Try to offer value and information that others will be better for if they click and read what it is you share.  Make a difference by being authentic, not by being a scammer and spammer.  Its not hard to spot the ones that give little value to everyone who follows or subscribes to them.  Be human by being real.  The internet community will thank you!

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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