Can we survive without social media?
I’ve just returned from a seven-week sabbatical. If you work in the Bite UK office you’re probably already sick and tired of hearing that, but there you go. I had a sabbatical (Bite is very good to its people like that!), it was totally ace and full of amazing ‘life experiences’ and now I am back boring everyone with them.
Anyway, I was asked whether I wanted to write a post about it upon my return. You know, just if I had noticed anything about communications on my travels, picked up any nuggets to share with the world, that sort of thing.
What it actually got me thinking was: What is the point of all this social media malarkey? While I was away, Mrs Currie ensured as little communication and interaction with the internet as was humanly possible, knowing full well that I would use the opportunity to check email and/or go on Twitter. And do you know what? After the initial cold turkey (week one), I didn’t miss it one little bit and, upon my return, I didn’t feel I had actually missed anything monumental or, indeed, *that* important…
But then I started to think about it a bit more. I’m one of those people who uses the tools of social media primarily for work purposes. I read blogs about work things. I follow Twitter to find out the latest breaking news around the technology industry and to find out what journalists are thinking and writing about.
I don’t actively participate in personal (i.e. non-work related) social media sites like Facebook unless someone else is driving me there (to accept an invitation or look at photos, usually). And I was going away for seven weeks specifically to escape work and all its trappings, to spend time on beaches, in rainforests and looking at the world around me, not the one on my laptop. So in that context, I’m not going to miss them, am I? And it’s all relative of course – when you are surrounded by amazing sights and sounds and your days and nights are packed with discovering and experiencing new things, reading or writing a blog is hardly going to compete or appeal.
Now I’m back and I am, slowly but surely, reading blogs again, following Twitter again and generally spending far too much time staring at a computer screen. Is that a bad thing? Well, I have concluded that no, it isn’t. I came back with the attitude that it was all nonsense and I had survived for seven weeks without it, blah blah bah humbug. But that misses the point. I wasn’t working during that time, so I didn’t need all these tools and interaction points. My life consisted of trekking through jungles, playing with monkeys and staying away from dangerous wildlife. Now, that may be a very good metaphor for the working world, but it doesn’t require the same tools to negotiate…
And actually, the more I remember about my trip past the amazing things I did, I do remember checking bbc.co.uk every time there was WiFi… And using a mapping application to find a couple of places… And mobile IM-ing my mates during the World Cup games I was missing… And sending a couple of e-mails… Oh yeah, and I think I *might* have posted a couple of Twitpics here and there…