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!

Social Media Burnout: Are Some People Cloning Themselves?

I am exhausted.

I don't mean physically, though let's face it, I could definitely use more sleep (which could easily be solved if I stopped reading in bed). No, I am exhausted with trying to keep up with my social media outlets.  Don't get me wrong - I love tweeting, blogging, discussion forums, Linked in groups, and Facebooking (though admittedly, as my friends can attest, I am definitely NOT a great Facebook participant). But, I think the daily expectation of being social is getting to me...it's a combination of guilt that I am not posting enough, pressure to find relevant things to blog about or tweet about, and that pesky little problem of actually having a full-time job that requires some of my attention.

Those of you who tweet know how easy it is to get side-tracked reading tweets, clicking links that lead to the reading of articles and blogs. Which takes you down the path of responding to a discussion forum or a blog post. Next thing you know, two hours has passed! I am always struggling with trying to find a balance and still feel completely inept, especially as I look at some of the folks I follow and how often they tweet or blog. How do they do it?!

I know I am still a complete novice at all things social media, so perhaps I just need to find my groove or better resources to organize myself.  Thanks to my weekly participation in the #edchat live chats on Tuesday's at 11 pm CDT, I have had many in my PLN give me some great organizational suggestions (i.e. Tweetchat, Tweetdeck for example). But, I still find it overwhelming sometimes the amount of time and effort and thought that goes into staying social in a professional way. Am I just not as organized and diligent as I think or have some of these folks out there who seem to be constantly tweeting, blogging and participating in discussion forums cloned themselves?  Is there a resource that will do that?!


I write two blogs, this one, which is more personal, and then I contribute to my company blog, blog.keypress.com as well. I have two tweet accounts - again, one more personal (@vpigreenie) and then my company one as well (@keypress). I spend my early mornings basically reading through tweets and links to blogs, articles, and email briefs to get relevant news to post, deciding which ones are more appropriate for the company and which ones more appropriate and relevant to my personal, as they are different.  Related often, but different perspective. During the day I have both twitter feeds going and will read them periodically and retweet or post relevant things that come up. (As I said before, sometimes I definitely get sidetracked!) I also try to keep up with live chats such as the weekly #edchat on Tuesday's. I try to post on my personal blog 2-3 times a week, more if possible.  The company blog I post 2-3 times a month on the whole, though sometimes more. And finally, I try to contribute to 3-4 discussion forums, such as group discussions in Linked In.  If we were to take a very rough estimate of the daily time spent being 'social', I would say 2-3 hours a day, most of the bulk on my own personal time.  Add that to the 8-9 hours I devote to work, that's basically 10-12 hours a day at the computer - lordy, no wonder I am exhausted!  And somehow, on top of all this I am suppose to be writing my dissertation proposal (ha...don't even talk to me about procrastination!)

The Cloning of Karen

I would say I am a very low to moderate contributor to the social media arena. But...here's the rub. Some of the folks I follow are constantly tweeting or blogging or putting out a daily Tweet report or leading a live tweet discussion or doing a webinar or commenting on a discussion forum. I mean all day long!   Most of these very active social media folks have full time jobs, such as teaching or school administrators....how is it possible? I work from home when not traveling (which I do often) so in theory, I should have more time than they do to maintain my social presence and yet, they put me to shame. What's the trick?  Did they in fact clone themselves?  Are there resources out there that let you somehow be in four or five places on the web at once?! Do they have little elves that actually do the work for them?

All I know is I could use some help. Or sleep. (Another me may not be the best idea...trust me).  But - if anyone does have some suggestions on how to make being social easier, I am all ears! Obviously, I could stop - but that is not an option, since, despite my apparent whining and obvious burn out, I have learned more professionally in the last few months through social media than I have in a long time.  I have connected with amazing people all over the world. Not participating is NOT an option.  I just want to participate better.  Suggestions appreciated!

(Whew! One goal met ....posted at least 2 times in personal blog!)