Social Networking Overload

Facebook and Twitter and WordPress, oh my!

Between Facebook, Twitter, flickr, digg, YouTube, blogger, WordPress, Linkedin, vimeo, google-everything, reddit, Ning, StumbleUpon, MySpace, delicious, Tagged, tweetmeme, Classmastes, mixx, hi5, FARK, bebo, Slashdot, friendfeed, friendster, clipmarks, diigo and orkut (to name just a few) I often don’t know if I’m coming or going… but apparently if I post my status in all the right places my “friends” will. 😉

Social Media Overload

© copyright 2010 adaddyblog.com

Above are just a few of the popular sites. Are you starting to experience overload and burnout? Or do you thrive on all of this? Sometimes I feel like I live under a rock… this all changes so fast. What sites do you use and/or recommend? I’d hate to miss out on the next big thing. Okay, I’m climbing back under my rock now. Oops, almost forgot to update my status on all of these sites: “Daddy is now back under his rock.”

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  1. Wow! I read your site and get an education! 🙂 Facebook and twitter I know about, but uh as for all the others… You tell ME any of those others that I just HAVE to join?

    1. LOL. You’re asking they guy who lives under a rock? A few of those sites are sort of internationally competitive with Facebook (and the rapidly declining MySpace)… and a few target a younger demographic (speaking strictly for myself, of course). Honestly your use of one or another of the above will be rather dependent upon your needs. That was a long winded way of saying, “beats me?” Thanks so much for stopping by again, Esther. Have a great weekend!

  2. lol there are just too many! what the heck is meetup and fark and friendster? lol its so funny I feel so old looking at these! My Gram sent me a funny email about how the computer generation has gone crazy with all these things (myself included especially with blogger lol) but its hilarious! here it is: if it is too long, please feel free to delete (I emailed it to Shan too)

    This is for the over-50 generation: (my apologies to those under 50)

    I thought about the 30-year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a Blackberry that played music, took videos, pictures and communicated with Facebook and Twitter. I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grandkids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space. That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific, Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world. My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag. The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue Tooth [it’s red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife as everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. Seems I have to take my hearing aid out to use it and I got a little loud. I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dashboard, but the lady inside was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, “Re-calc-ul-ating.” You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then when I would make a right turn instead, it was not good. When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets, and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy the GPS lady, at least she loves me. To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven’t figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have to run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings. The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden “Paper or Plastic?” every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused but I never remember to take them in with me. Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, “Paper or Plastic?” I just say, “Doesn’t matter to me. I am bi-sacksual.” Then it’s their turn to stare at me with a blank look. I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, “No, but I do toot a lot.”

    1. OMG!!! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing your Gram’s wit and wisdom, Nikki. That is hilarious. I def will not delete it. I’m sure my readers (all 6 of them) will love it. She sounds a lot more with it technologically than my mom. My mom knows what all of this stuff is, but firmly refuses (I’ve offered to pay) to get a computer. She still has an old IBM Selectric Executive Typewriter in one of her bedrooms for when she doesn’t feel like handwriting a letter. LOL. Thanks again for sharing!

    • Kerry McCullough on at
    • Reply

    I can’t even begin to tell you! Every time I think I have one down, another pops up. I spend as much time networking as I do blogging. Ugh, I wish it could be different, but it seems like the only way to keep people reading 🙁
    I feel ya, though!

    1. What you don’t hire a PR firm and a ghost writer like the rest of us bloggers, Kerry? With a gorgeous baby like Niall to drive visitors I can’t imagine you’ll have any problem getting readers. On an unrelated note, my wife is an only child, too, so she can probably identify with you in some ways. We are also cinching our belts tighter so my wife can stay home with our wee one. If any of my readers in Maryland are getting married, in addition to her blog, check out budgetwiseweddingmd.com.

  3. I stick to just Facebook and Twitter….and I can hardly keep up with those two!!!

    1. Hi Cori,

      Thanks for stopping by. I know what you mean, between facebook, twitter and my blog, it’s hard to keep up with much else. I wish I had more free time to read my friends’ blogs. I did visit yours a couple of times recently, including yesterday… and just not just so I could win your Life360 ID Bracelet Giveaway. LOL. Have a great weekend.

      –Daddy

  4. I don’t even know what some of them are. I must live under a rock.

    1. LOL. I understand. Daddy here definitely lives under a rock. I’m sure I’ll be relying on our toddler soon for technical advice. So nice of you to stop by. Have a lovely weekend. I’m heading back under my rock now. 😉

      –Daddy

  5. First of all, I love your Wordle. I love creating those things!!! So fun! Secondly, it does get overwhelming to keep up with. I love social media, but it is difficult to find the time to keep up with all of it. And I haven’t even ventured into all of the ones you mention. I’m still figuring my way through it all and focusing on the ones that are easiest to keep up to date with (via my Droid) and are the ones I find most enjoyable. Any advice you can give for any of the sites and how best to stay on top of it all would be appreciated it!!

    1. Yes, I do love wordle.net. I’ll have to write a blog about it some time. It’s what a friend of mine calls AWOT (a wast of time), but what a fun, creative one.

      Thanks so much for dropping by my blog. I left a comment on yours a while ago. So sorry to hear of your niece’s challenges. What a cool event though.

      Love your My Hello Designs site, too. Don’t know how you find the time. I’m following it and your blog as well.

      As for tips on keeping up with all this… I don’t have and iPhone (my wife does) or a Droid or even a Blackberry.

      I do have an iPad, an iTouch and the odd laptop or two lying about…. that’s what I use to keep up… and mostly Facebook and Twitter.

  6. I might be the last Twitter hold out. 😉

    Visiting from Mom Loop. 🙂

    1. Hi, Kristin. I know what you mean about Twitter. I just didn’t get the appeal myself before I joined and even for a bit there after, but with the use of thing like hash tags (#) it’s easy to talk with a group of like-minded friends. Like I talk with other dads about parenting issues, so It’s kinda nice. If you ever do come over to the dark side, let me know and I’ll follow you on twitter (I’m adaddyblog on Twitter as well). Oh, and I do follow you on Google Friend Connect. Thanks for dropping by adaddyblog.com from Mom Loop. Have a lovely weekend!

  7. Hello! Stopping by from MomLoop. I am not very plugged into other forms of social media. Probably because I seem to have enough trouble keeping up with my blog. I figure I will join Facebook when my kids have accounts to keep up with them. I love Stumbleupon but that is a time sucker too. I don’t twitter (does everyone really need to know/care what I am doing every minute?) Anyway, just my 2 cents. I am sure it can get pretty overwhelming.

    1. Hey, Kim. Thanks for dropping by adaddyblog.com. Per your point on Twitter, believe me I understand. You are the second non-twitterer (is that a word) who’s stopped by from Mom Loop. As I said to Kristin, I know what you mean about Twitter. I just didn’t get the appeal myself before I joined and even for a bit there after, but with the use of thing like hash tags (#) it’s easy to talk with a group of like-minded friends. Like I talk with other dads about parenting issues, so It’s kinda nice. Just found a great blog a few minutes ago I’d have never seen by another dad. Thanks for stopping by from Mom Loop. I’m following you on Google Friend Connect (Michael). Thanks for Sharing the Sweetness in your Friday blog, and have a great weekend!

  8. Yes, I guess Twitter offers more real time convo that back and forth comments, huh? Oh well. Maybe that will change for me with time but for now, I am a non-twitter person. Thanks for the nice comments and have a nice weekend.

    1. You are very welcome, Kim. I must confess at first I thought twitter was just for people who wanted to stalk Ashton Kutcher (aplusk) or Justin Bieber (justinbieber), so clearly I saw no appeal either.

      But yes, there are communities of “microbloggers” and regular bloggers that talk in real-time on Twitter. My job doesn’t permit me much time to be on there, but I have learned some cool stuff from other parents.

      Have a great weekend!

  9. Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Our fishing trip was a lot of fun. Hopefully next time there will be a bit more water and some fish!

    So true about the information overload, it’s a little crazy.

    1. You’re welcome. Hey, it was time together. I went on many a fishing trip with my family as a kiddo and water and fish were the least of my concerns. LOL. Good luck with that hexagon quilt. Can’t imagine all of that work, but it’s going to be beautiful.

  10. Visiting from MomLoop. I never really got into Twitter. When I first started FB I was addicted. I followed the feed and updated my status multiple times during the day. Now, not so much. I might check once a day if that. I’m sure it was the novelty of reconnecting with friends from High School and college that I never thought I would hear from again. At one time I wanted to join every network I came across until I realized how much of a time suck it all is. In the blink of an eye hours could go by. LIterally. And how do you keep up with all of it? Now I’m basically a blogger. Interesting post.

    1. Thanks for dropping by, Jill. Oh, and congrats to your son on doing well at the first cross country meet of the season. As for all of these social media sites, I’m with you. It was fun to catch up with old friends on Facebook, but life really doesn’t leave me much time to focus on other things. Mostly I read my friends blogs and work on my blog in my free time… with a little twitter and facebook thrown in.

  11. wow! michael that’s alot. if anyone is aware of my abilities the computer is not my best. I’m getting better, but it’s too much for me to branch out from just the blog. Thinking about this, you could spend 24 hours on the computer with all of those web sites. The bags are under my eyes as well as the dark black circles. Blogging is for me. have a good day. love rosie

    1. I totally understand, Rose. I feel the same way. I mostly focus on the blog, though I don’t post nearly as often as you. If any of my other guests are reading this you should definitely check out Rose’s blog: “Wonders of Life”. I check Facebook periodically because my friends are on there, and I use Twitter to connect with other parents and bloggers, but that’s about it. Have a great Sunday! I just put our wee one down for her nap, and I best go clean up so I can take her to my mom’s after she wakes.

  12. Hi there! Just wanted to tell you to make sure you check out my blog on Monday! Not telling you why yet, just do it!! =)

    1. What a lovely thing to wake up to on a Monday morning. Thank you so much for passing along the award. Being a relatively new blogger, it’s my first! If I understand the process, I’m to pass on the bloggy love to 15 of my newest favs? I did a bit of research and it seems this particular award has been making the rounds since 2004. How very kind of you to include me. I have a blog posting today, but will pass on this honor to other deserving blogs later this week, and of course share a link of the kind giver of the award. Have a lovely week!

      One Lovely Blog Award
      Awarded by My Mad World

  13. GREAT post! I do feel like I’m on overload sometimes and sometimes I feel like I need to learn more about the networking sites that I’m missing.

    I’ve used FB even before I started my blog and love it. I only get on for about 5-10 a day if that. Love Twitter once I leaned how to navigate. And I use blogger but I so want to move over to WordPress, just a bit anxious to learn a new navigating system. Aside from MySpace, I’ve registered for almost all of the other sites you have listed, just don’t use them as often as I should.

    Wouldn’t it be great if someone took all of those sites you mention above and put together a very simple what it is, how to use it, and listed the networking sites from must have to not so important? Have a super Monday!

    1. Wow, Lori… you have registered for almost all of the sites I mentioned? Back when I was earning my MBA I remember reading about the classification of individuals within a social system on the basis of innovativeness (if that’s a word?). They broke people down into five groups: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards. You certainly sound like you are in at least the early adopter category. I’d hate to think of myself as a laggard, but I’m probably more in one of the majority categories in the middle. So, per your question, “Wouldn’t it be great if someone took all of those sites you mention above and put together a very simple what it is, how to use it, and listed the networking sites from must have to not so important?” Yep, it sure would. Now who do I know who has joined all of them? 😉

  1. […] 24, 2011 About a year ago I wrote a post on the subject of Social Networking burnout. I wondered aloud at the time was its incredible growth sustainable, or would there be a […]

  2. […] a year ago I wrote a post on the subject of Social Networking burnout. I wondered aloud at the time was its incredible growth sustainable, or would there be a […]

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