I have been on vacation the past week or so and am currently
on personal leave to finish writing my dissertation proposal (which, as you can
see, I am procrastinating!) During my vacation, I swore I would take a break
from blogging, Twitter, email, and all things electronic.
I admit - I did honestly make the attempt and in fact, did
not turn on my computer one time.
However, the iPad is a constant companion, especially since the books I
am reading (currently, the Game of Thrones series) are on there, so I had the
iPad with me a lot - even on the beach.
It was very easy to check if I had emails, to check out my Facebook or
to send a Twitter or two. Long story
short, I failed miserably at the disconnecting aspect.
Which brings me back to the question of does social media
impact personal life? The obvious answer in my case is a resounding yes. Is
this impact good or bad? The answer to that: it depends. On vacation, while at
the beach, sitting in my beach chair under the canopy, I took pictures with my
iPad and posted them to Facebook. This
was a good benefit to my personal life, as it kept a record of the vacation,
captured moments that were happening right then and there, let friends and
family see what was going on, and allowed all the friends we were vacationing
with to have pictures they could tag and keep as memories.
 |
| Social Media Impact on Socity |
However, while in
same beach chair under same canopy, I also checked my email because, gosh
darnit, I just can't help myself! This
was a BAD impact on my personal life because clearly, I was NOT escaping my
work and truly enjoying the vacation. Granted, I did mostly just read or delete
the emails versus responding, but the fact that I was constantly connected to
work is an aspect of social media that interferes with personal life. Obviously, I could turn off the email, but I
don't, and I would imagine there are many others like me who can't turn off as
well.
I also tweeted while
on vacation. Not on a daily basis, but I
definitely did tweet. I found this the
second most difficult thing to avoid on vacation besides email. Those of you
who tweet know that a daily presence is important, and so I felt as if I was
missing out on things, which means this social media tool has a bad impact on
my personal life - feeling guilty that I am not posting because a) I am missing
information posted by those I follow and/or b) I might lose followers due to
long-term silence in the twittersphere. I couldn't help myself - I did
participate in the weekly #edchat on Tuesday.
At the beach again, in my chair....but there it is - I was giving an
entire hour of my vacation and time with friends to connect with my PLN. Bad impact or good impact on my personal
life? A little of both I would think.
Bad because I took that time away from the family and friends I was
currently with, but good because I was connecting with people I 'know'
virtually and sharing and getting ideas. (And - let's admit it - pretty cool
that I could do it on the beach!!)
I did not blog - the one thing I managed to control. However - I felt extreme guilt that I was not
blogging, since it's now been well over a week with no post. So - this is a bad
impact of social media on personal life - the guilt. I don't know about those of you who blog or
tweet or Facebook, but I personally feel a constant sense of guilt if I am NOT
posting regularly. And the funny thing
is, I don't really know that anyone besides me cares that I don't post - heck,
I don't even know if there are people out there reading what I write or are
interested in what I have to say, but I feel a sense of responsibility to post,
and when I don't, I feel guilty. The
fact that every day I think about what I could post to Twitter or Linked In,
and that I am constantly, in every aspect of what I do, thinking about whether
it would make an interesting blog post or tweet, means that social media is
impacting my personal life on a daily basis.
My conclusion -
social media definitely impacts personal life.
How much is up to the individual person. And whether it's a good impact
or bad impact depends on the situation, the time, and the reason. Social media and the folks you connect with
via social media channels do become part of your personal life, so it's a matter
of balancing the live experiences with the virtual experiences and knowing when
to disconnect. Balance is the key and
clearly I need to work on my balancing act!
