8.20.2009

Social Networking Burnout

I'm experiencing something that I'll just call social networking burnout. I currently have my blog, a Facebook account, and a Twitter account. I love them all!

I've been blogging for about 4 years now and I find the writing fun and sometimes therapeutic.

I've been on Facebook for almost a year and I love how Facebook keeps me connected with people that I would otherwise lose touch with. It's been great reuniting with people from high school, college, the Army, and the different churches we've served in. Also, making those Facebook connections proved to be invaluable when it came to raising support for our upcoming mission trip to India. Probably the majority of our support came from Facebook friends. However, it has the potential to be a big time-waster.

I've been on Twitter for about 6 months or so and I really love it. If I'm honest, I probably enjoy Twittering more than Facebooking. I like giving and receiving the 140-character updates without all the hassle of the Facebook quizes, games, poking, pillow fights, food fights, and other such nonsense that I always ignore.

However, I've noticed that since I started Twittering, I haven't been updating my blog as much. Things I normally would have blogged a few paragraphs about, I can now reduce to 140 characters or less and keep it concise. But I start feeling guilty when I go several days without blogging (like now). I've thought about getting off of Facebook, but I'd feel guilty disconnecting from so many old friends. I've thought about getting off of Twitter, but I really like it and sometimes it proves to be useful and informative. I've thought about not blogging anymore, but that just makes me sad and I think the longer writing form is good for me.

So the last few days as I've been pondering all this, I hit burn-out and didn't post much to any of the 3 mediums. I think something, or a few somethings, needs to go. I can't make up my mind which, though. I'll probably come to a decision within the next several days.

5 comments:

Jimmy said...

I vote blogg

Jeff Myers said...

Jimmy, keep blog or let it go?

Jacob said...

Get rid of the blog because you can write a "note" on Facebook that serves the same function.

Don't get rid of facebook because that's how most of the world communicates. If you just use twitter, then you'll lose over half of your audience. Although twitter is big for 35-45 year olds, it hasn't set well yet with twentysomethings.

Anonymous said...

keep the blog

Jason

Anonymous said...

Ditch Twitter.

- Josh