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07.30.07
Tech Heavyweights On Social Networking
 By Dan Morrill
In a backlash against the monster's they have created, consumed, used, and built in some respects the tech heavyweights like Jason Calacanis, Robert Scoble, and others are all debating the relative merits of the Web 2.0 creation that they have either created, use, or comment on.
What is up with this latest round of technology rejection? The idea that it takes time, time that could be spent doing other things, time away from friends and family, workouts and health clubs, vacations and holidays. Then these are also the folks that are popular, have things that they want to do, and have helped create the novel time wasters that we all enjoy and curse at the same time.
The idea of pulling back is nothing new; the declaration of e-mail bankruptcy is not a new thing. Many people have pulled away from e-mail while others consider it unavoidable. This is how the word communicates now; the problem is that we are building up to over communication where the process takes more time than a person can reasonably spare.
We all know managers who do nothing but e-mail for 8 hours a day. We also know managers who spend days in meetings, days off site, and are otherwise so engaged in their own communications Hades that they are unable to do anything else. They are on the treadmill of communication via computer, and have no time to communicate in any other way.
As people reject systems like pwnce, Jaiku, twitter, MySpace, Facebook, bebo, and others because they take time that also means a loss of page views.
What we are seeing then is the technologically highly literate reject social networking because of the time constraints that they have on their lives.
This is no different than the mass of people, but to be socially aware, and to be socially connected means that there is going to be a certain amount of time spent answering e-mails, jaikus, twitters, friend connection requests, and dealing with comments on blogging systems. It is how it works, this is what social networking is all about, this is where the rubber meets the road. The problem is all about time, availability, desire, and otherwise interacting with a very large audience of people who all think that they have something to contribute.
And that is where the rub comes in about social networks, we created something, something that allowed many people to get in touch with many other people. Declaring bankruptcy is one way to deal with the problem, but then there are many other ways of dealing with the problem, backing away from all the different ways we have to communicate is more of a Luddite response. We overload on all the fancy new technology rather than focus on the one or two that are really useful.
Adoption of technology has its risks, the key is to boil it down to a manageable amount of time, and focus on the technologies that really matter. Going after all the bright shiny new stuff all the time and suffering from overload is probably not the best way to manage technology.
Comments
About the Author:
Dan Morrill has been in the information security field for 18 years, both
civilian and military, and is currently working on his Doctor of Management.
Dan shares his insights on the important security issues of today through
his blog, Managing
Intellectual Property & IT Security, and is an active participant in the
ITtoolbox blogging community.
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