Social network overload
What social networks do I belong to? Let me see…
MySpace. Ning Classroom 2.0. Facebook. Ning EdubloggerWorld. LinkedIn. Ning Stop Cyberbullying. The blogosphere. The Did You Know? 2.0 wiki community. And my burgeoning list of Twitter friends. And the folks in my Skype and other instant messaging networks. And also my only-sometimes-electronic personal and professional networks: other professors, principals, superintendents, technology coordinators, assessment coordinators, former students, friends, family. And so on… (do listservs count? Second Life? my classes in WebCT?)
A few things are becoming clear to me about all of this social networking that is occurring:
- I don’t have time to do much of it. I see the active Twittering that’s going on, the vibrant dialogues occurring in Ning, the questions that others are asking and answering in Facebook. I’m already exhausted trying to balance everything. I can’t keep up with the reading, not to mention the posting and participating. I’ve essentially chosen e-mail, the blogosphere, and live people over more formalized social networking and instant messaging tools. Maybe I’m starting to become one of those antiquated old fogies that the young whippersnappers complain about… (Q: if I have a bunch of social networking “friends” but never participate, does that make me “antisocial?”)
- I spend more time in the networks that push notifications out to me via e-mail or my RSS aggregator. I’d likely be more active in Facebook, for example, if I could subscribe to all of its functionality rather than having to remember to go visit.
- I agree with Wired.
- We need to be sure that one of the 21st century skills students learn is “navigating and managing multiple, potentially overlapping, worldwide social networks” (or something like that).
- As some of us encourage educators to dive into social networking, it behooves us to explicitly acknowledge the challenges of time management, multiple network management, etc. It’s not all glam and glitz.
- There are a lot of social networks out there. Some of them are a little lame (wait a minute! I belong to one of these!).
- Right now RSS is the key. Services like Feedburner’s subscribe via e-mail are stopgaps to bridge old technologies with the new.
- Maybe I need a dedicated widescreen social networking monitor, one that I just load up with open social networking, IM, RSS, Twitter, and e-mail windows. That way I’ll never miss a beat (and also never get anything else done).
I need to get over my worry that I’m going to miss something. I’m saying no to the next social network invitation I get. I don’t care if it’s the “People who want to give Scott McLeod a million dollars” network. Sorry. My brain is full.
P.S. #4 is really important.
Comments
Social networks are designed to become "community" for those who participate.
The question you have to ask yourself is how many communities can I be a part and still experience value? Value to the community because of my participation and value to myself because of what I am taking away from the experience.
Your post Scott has caused me to reflect upon the quality of the experience, rather than the quantity. Thanks!
Posted by: Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach | September 1, 2007 12:25 PM
I enjoyed what you had to day and have captured the RSS feed so I don't miss any updates. If you know of any blogsites looking at the Social Networking aspect of engaging with Education, I would be grateful if you could point me in their direction
Posted by: Tom Jackson | September 4, 2007 3:19 PM
Hear, hear! I continually struggle just to read my email and keep up with online journals, much less blog or wiki. of course, even though I know how to do these, I'm of an older generation and have slowed down... sorry gotta go- I just received 3 new IM's ttfn
Posted by: paul murgatroyd | September 5, 2007 3:13 AM
Hi Scott,
I am glad other people feel like I do! I call it sinking beneath the tide of web 2.0 communications. I am a member of most of the services you mentioned and I am constantly feeling guilt that I am not contributing to all of them. As an ICT facilitator, I have more time than most teachers to do this and I still don't really seem to manage :-)
Posted by: Suzie Vesper | September 7, 2007 1:29 PM
you should all use 8hands, the profile aggregator- that way you won't miss any update, since it notifies upon any event on your pages.
Plus, it's all RSS based, so it's up to date in tech terms, but pretty advanced in its social opportunities.
it available on http://www.8hands.com
Posted by: Kirk | September 16, 2007 1:22 PM