Social Media Junkiehow much is too much?

Host:

Delta Sigma ThetaPi Lambda chapter

Moderator:

Eric HamiltonAuthor of Social Media Branding in the Age of Obama

Video

Quiz

• 1. You check your Facebook account before you check your email in the morning.

• 2. You are constantly updated with your distant friends’ lives in Canada, South Africa, and France but you don’t even know your neighbors.

• 3. You agree that people with no Twitter accounts are like, seriously, not people.

• 4. On the other hand, you wholeheartedly believe people who have not even heard of Twitter should probably kill themselves. Now.

• 5. You make plans with your friends on Facebook. In other words, your social media sites are basically your phone.

Quiz• 6. You met your boyfriend/husband/best friend through

your blog/Facebook/etc. (I met mine through my blog!)• 7. If you had to choose between World War Three or a

bug that will wipe out the Internet, you’d choose the former without hesitation (don’t feel too bad about that).

• 8. You know what the hell I’m talking about when I say: “Where the Hell is Matt?”

• 9. Sometimes, it’s sad but true, you only go out to certain events because they’re something to blog about.

• 10. Half of your friends know you only by your username.

Quiz

• 11. Trending Topics and Facebook status updates are your only source for news.

• 12. You endlessly stalk your ex-lovers through their social media profiles. Heck, five years ago, you would have been totally over them.

• 13. You’ve been to a meet-up, a tweet-up, or any other [insert-social-media-site-here]-up.

• 14. You’re friends are always warning you to not publish those pictures on Facebook, not blog about this incident, and not tweet about their idiocy. Did I just blog about that?

• 15. You agree that the Fail-Whale is one of the cutest things ever.

Quiz

• 16. You tweet when you’re stuck in traffic, waiting in line, or stuck at a really boring meeting.

• 17. You bought a phone with Wi-fi because it’s a great “social phone” (AKA it makes it easier to check Facebook, Twitter, and new comments on your blog).

• 18. Admit it, you have tried to guess your neighbor’s password when your connection is down to “borrow” the internet.

• 19. A bookmark is something on Delicious, Digg, or Reddit.

• 20. You are well-versed when it comes to speaking in under 140-characters.

Quiz Results

1 – 6 – Under-Addicted to social media. GET AN ACCOUNT ON TWITTER. Now! 7 – 13 – Wow, you’re BALANCED, with just the right amount of addiction and real-life. It must feel nice.

14 – 20 – Social Media Junkie We hate to break this to you, but your condition is bad. YOU ARE READY FOR A SOCIAL MEDIA DETOX!

Statistics

Statistics

Statistics

Social Media Detox

• 1. Avoid Denial: Do you spend over 5-6 hours surfing and clicking around different social media channels, or maybe even just one? Do you ignore doing other tasks or spending time with others? Is the first thing you do when you wake up is tweet and do you tweet right before you close your eyes? Yes? Then admit it: You are addicted! Accepting this will be your first step towards finding a cure!

Social Media Detox

• 2. Educate Yourself: Do you think social media is just like a green meadow filled with beautiful roses and butterflies? Do you really know everything you need to know about the negatives brought about by social media? The second step towards getting rid of your social media addiction is reading more in order to be well educated about the different privacy concerns and security harms associated with the utilization of social media channels.

Social Media Detox

• 3. Schedule Your Time: If you haphazardly spend hours using your preferred social media channels, you should definitely change this approach! Schedule certain hours, every day or once every two days, and commit to them!

Social Media Detox

• 4. Honor Your Plans: Sometimes, we choose to ignore some plans we have with friends in order to spend more time tweeting. Social media should never interfere, replace or substitute your plans at any time!

Social Media Detox

• 5. Don’t Mix Work with Pleasure: When your work involves social media utilization, try, whenever possible, to stay away from social media after your working hours are over! You can be watching a movie and yes, it will be more rewarding than you might think!

Social Media Detox

• 6. Listen to Advice: If your friends tell you that you are shying away from their company and becoming isolated due to social media, they are most probably right – unless if you are hiding something! :) Listen to them, take a step back and reevaluate your social media habits.

Social Media Detox

• 7. Pick Up a New Hobby: If you find yourself spending too much time using social media channels, think about picking up and adopting a new hobby, preferably one which you can practice outdoors and away from your computer!

Social Media Detox

• 8. Avoid Too Much Trust: Just as the case is in face-to-face relationships, the same applies to virtual relationships as well. Once you trust someone too much, you want to be around him/her all the time because you put your guard down and allow yourself to feel weak or fragile. Never do that when using social media and caution will eventually steer you away from your addiction!

Social Media Detox

• 9. Keep it Clean: Especially in the case of teens, the more the doors to adult related material social media opens, the more their use and abuse will be.

Social Media Detox

• 10. Don’t Compensate: Whether you are trying to get over a bad break up, avoiding something or running away from a family situation, do not compensate by using social media!

Conclusion/Final Thoughts

• There is a cure for almost any addiction. Do you think recovery from social media addiction is possible? And do you have any other tips and advice which you can share with your fellow social media users to help them recover from their addiction?

References

Thought Pick BlogHow Addicted Are You to Social Media?http://blog.thoughtpick.com/2010/01/how-addicted-are-you-to-social-media.html

Top 10 Tips to Get Rid of Your Social Media Addiction!http://blog.thoughtpick.com/2009/10/top-10-tips-to-get-rid-of-your-social-media-addiction.html

CNET NewsIs Social Media Better Than Sex?http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-10469162-247.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0