Social Media's Impact on Personal Life - Personal Reflections

The question - does social media impact personal life? The answer - yes.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing? The answer - it depends.

I have been on vacation the past week or so and am currently on personal leave to finish writing my dissertation proposal (which, as you can see, I am procrastinating!) During my vacation, I swore I would take a break from blogging, Twitter, email, and all things electronic.

I lied.

I admit - I did honestly make the attempt and in fact, did not turn on my computer one time.  However, the iPad is a constant companion, especially since the books I am reading (currently, the Game of Thrones series) are on there, so I had the iPad with me a lot - even on the beach.  It was very easy to check if I had emails, to check out my Facebook or to send a Twitter or two.  Long story short, I failed miserably at the disconnecting aspect.

View from chair and under canopy!

Which brings me back to the question of does social media impact personal life? The obvious answer in my case is a resounding yes. Is this impact good or bad? The answer to that: it depends. On vacation, while at the beach, sitting in my beach chair under the canopy, I took pictures with my iPad and posted them to Facebook.  This was a good benefit to my personal life, as it kept a record of the vacation, captured moments that were happening right then and there, let friends and family see what was going on, and allowed all the friends we were vacationing with to have pictures they could tag and keep as memories.

However, while in same beach chair under same canopy, I also checked my email because, gosh darnit, I just can't help myself!  This was a BAD impact on my personal life because clearly, I was NOT escaping my work and truly enjoying the vacation. Granted, I did mostly just read or delete the emails versus responding, but the fact that I was constantly connected to work is an aspect of social media that interferes with personal life.  Obviously, I could turn off the email, but I don't, and I would imagine there are many others like me who can't turn off as well.

I also tweeted while on vacation.  Not on a daily basis, but I definitely did tweet.  I found this the second most difficult thing to avoid on vacation besides email. Those of you who tweet know that a daily presence is important, and so I felt as if I was missing out on things, which means this social media tool has a bad impact on my personal life - feeling guilty that I am not posting because a) I am missing information posted by those I follow and/or b) I might lose followers due to long-term silence in the twittersphere. I couldn't help myself - I did participate in the weekly #edchat on Tuesday.  At the beach again, in my chair....but there it is - I was giving an entire hour of my vacation and time with friends to connect with my PLN.  Bad impact or good impact on my personal life? A little of both I would think.  Bad because I took that time away from the family and friends I was currently with, but good because I was connecting with people I 'know' virtually and sharing and getting ideas. (And - let's admit it - pretty cool that I could do it on the beach!!)

Canopy Life at the beach w/iPad

I did not blog - the one thing I managed to control.  However - I felt extreme guilt that I was not blogging, since it's now been well over a week with no post. So - this is a bad impact of social media on personal life - the guilt.  I don't know about those of you who blog or tweet or Facebook, but I personally feel a constant sense of guilt if I am NOT posting regularly.  And the funny thing is, I don't really know that anyone besides me cares that I don't post - heck, I don't even know if there are people out there reading what I write or are interested in what I have to say, but I feel a sense of responsibility to post, and when I don't, I feel guilty.  The fact that every day I think about what I could post to Twitter or Linked In, and that I am constantly, in every aspect of what I do, thinking about whether it would make an interesting blog post or tweet, means that social media is impacting my personal life on a daily basis.

My conclusion - social media definitely impacts personal life.  How much is up to the individual person. And whether it's a good impact or bad impact depends on the situation, the time, and the reason.  Social media and the folks you connect with via social media channels do become part of your personal life, so it's a matter of balancing the live experiences with the virtual experiences and knowing when to disconnect.  Balance is the key and clearly I need to work on my balancing act!

ISTE 2012 - Conference Kudos

I am going to the ISTE 2012 Conference in San Diego this coming weekend/week. That in itself is pretty exciting.  It's my first time at ISTE, not for lack of wanting, more for lack of timing and cost.  I am very excited knowing I am going to be immersed in technology, meeting other ed-tech enthusiasts, and just learning more about what's out there that can help me personally and professionally.  Another reason I am excited is that I will experience a conference that has some very different options from the math conferences I usually attend.

I am not knocking math conferences. Rather, what I am pointing out are the many ways in which the ISTE conference differs in what it provides in the way of collaboration, networking and technology that is unfortunately, not often a part of math conferences.  This may be true of other content specific conferences, but since I am most familiar with math conferences, that is my point of reference. I am sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that edtech enthusiasts tend to be more connected because of  technology, so it's really great to see that the conference itself supports that in so many ways.

One thing that stands out in particular are ISTE's Networking Lounges.  These are places for like-minded attendees to meet and greet and connect with others. Places to hang out, recharge devices - what a great idea!  Instead of what I am use to, where you see folks wandering conference halls aimlessly looking for an outlet or a place to rest. These lounges are specifically themed so you can head to the lounge of most interest to you where you can connect with others, perhaps even those you have only met via Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook. I myself am thinking the Bloggers Cafe or the Newbie Lounge or the Social Butterfly Lounge all sound like fun places to stop in and see what's going on.  This type of free, available space where you can arrange to meet with others or just run in and meet the folks who are hanging out allows for some powerful networking.

Participating remotely I know has become a feature of many conferences, and even the math conferences have some events (usually just the main Keynotes and awards presentations) available virtually, but ISTE has some actual workshops as well as Keynote sessions available remotely.  This is a great option for folks unable to attend live. Using ISTE's Remote Program you could spend a virtual day at the conference - pretty awesome.

What kid doesn't love a playground, and apparently adults are the same! ISTE provides Focus Playgrounds, where you can attend a single or all-day event and play around with interactive technologies. One of my tweeps pointed this out to me the other day (@gridjumper), specifically the SIGVE Playground, so definitely going to play there. There are several others that look interesting to me, such as the STEM & Computer Science Playground, or the Mobile Learning Playground. I guess this is like recess!

There are some Social Events as well, where you can meet with folks you connect with virtually (the Tweetup Meetup) or Global Happy Hour to again, meet up with folks.  And, you can also see all the sponsor events in one location through the Sponsor Activities, which is terrific, especially if you are interested in those specific companies and their products. Makes life easy.

I am still discovering more as I explore the ISTE Conference site. There's the Blog Roll where you can follow others blogging about ISTE or the ISTE Communities, that allow you to follow conference news and updates and connect with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn.  This is definitely a networking, collaboration conference! It was suggested to me from one of my tweeps (@erinKohl) to use the conference planner and focus myself, so I plan on doing that. Though I just found there is a mobile app for the conference guide as well, so might have to do that on the iPad!  And - WiFi is available throughout the conference hall and meeting rooms, though not in the exhibit halls. Gotta love a tech conference!  Feeling like a kid in a candy store.

Really looking forward to the whole experience and hopefully it will be the first of many ISTE conferences. Hoping to meet many of my virtual colleagues and friends (#edchat meetup and live #edchat in particular) while there.  If you are going, maybe I will run into you on the playground!

Online Learning Networks/Communities - How do you build them?

I just had a very surreal moment - searching for articles/information on online learning and communication and the ONE article I have written came up in my search. Pretty funny, as I had forgotten about it...it was a while ago....2007. It was done for one of my doctoral classes and we were encouraged to submit for publishing, and it was published in Learning & Leading with Technology (August, 2007) - Turning Lurkers into Learners Anyway, just a funny weird experience....and a reminder I need to be trying to publish more, as that is what people with doctorates are suppose to do, right? Yikes! Better get writing.

Enough of the shameless self-promotion. The reason WHY I was doing this search actually was because I was trying to gather information on how to increase my online learning community participation and exposure. I write this blog, contribute to my company's blog,post to Twitter (@vpigreenie), post on my company's and my own Facebook (though not too frequently, as my family and friends will attest) and yet I have very few followers in all locations. (Remember my Emily Dickinson posting "This is my letter to the world that never wrote to me...") So, I am really curious about what it is that gets someone noticed in the social media world where you truly do develop a following and interactive communication. What am I not doing that I should be doing?

What have I found in my search that has made a difference? Not much so far, but I have only recently begun investigating this as I have grown tired of writing to myself... Clearly, it could be that what I have to say is not interesting, but I am not willing to entertain THAT theory yet!!! It has only been a couple of months. Anyway, here are a few things I have found and have tried and the results:

1) Twitter - definitely need to do more than just post links to articles or retweet. You need to RESPOND to others tweets, make comments, retweet with a twist (meaning retweet but add your own commentary to it...RT)/. I just recently starting doing this and have increased my following by a few folks already and more importantly, have been retweeted by others and have had some comments back. Lesson here: a community of one is NOT a community. Nobody wants to 'listen' to you if you don't want to listen to them.
2) Shamelessly promote yourself where you can. So, link to your blog on Twitter, reference your Twitter on Facebook and your blogs, push your blog on your other blog. It's all about getting your name out there and links so that people at least have the urge to check it out. Hopefully they will read and stay and become a follower.
3) Shamelessly promote others and let them know that you are pushing them on your blog, Twitter, Facebook...wherever. They will come check it out and then push others to your blog and your Twitter as a way of shamelessly promoting themselves. It's that old exponential growth thing - if you tell two people, they'll tell two people, and they'll tell two people and so on and so on.
4) Start participating in online discussion forums - it gets your name out there, shows you have some insights (well...we hope), and more importantly, it's another venue where you can shamelessly promote yourself!

There are other hints and tips....I found a great article/blog the other day that someone posted but forgot to mark the link, so I will hunt it down and share next posting. But...if anyone is actually out there reading this and has some other suggestions for me, I would appreciate it. Write a comment - it would be lovely to know I am not alone! My goal is to become viral...which, if you think about it, is kind of a weird goal, who wants to be a virus? But the truly well-known bloggers and Tweeters are that - viral - everywhere and resistant!

Shout out to Emily Dickinson

I have had Emily's Dickinson's poem in my head for a couple weeks now - ever since starting this blog.  It's a lonely venture at this point.... Since I am writing to myself mostly, it just kept running through my head, so I wanted to get it out there. Has nothing to do with math - just my shout out to Emily...seems aprapos at the moment.

This is my letter to the world by Emily Dickinson
This is my letter to the world,
That never wrote to me,--
The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty.
Her message is committed
To hands I cannot see;
For love of her, sweet countrymen,
Judge tenderly of me!