Let's face it -- we are all on social media, in one form or another. The list is huge: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Four Square, and a myriad of others. Everyone from almost every age group is involved with the social media community, for so many different reasons. Even large corporations Like Coca-Cola and Home Depot are into the social media thing. But as interesting and fantabulous as social media is for us, it also becomes so embedded in our lives that if, God forbid, we ever had to quit social media we would end up like a group of coke addicts who stopped cold turkey. Imagine what quitting would involve.
First off, everybody loves the Internet. Aside from shopping and email, we love the fact that we can communicate with other human beings. That was our first addiction -- connecting to people around us, and not just locally. We loved the fact that we could communicate with people in other countries, other time zones, of other languages. The rise of email and chatting found legs in international communication.
Next, we saw the evolution of the smart phone. A simple, wireless telephone device that hooked up with the technological equivalent of steroids, became the smart phone. With its PC-like prowess, the smart phone bridged the gap between the Internet and the mobile user. No longer did you have to be at a desk to enjoy all that the internet had to offer. Smartphones were like mobile nirvana.
The next level of addiction is the "app"... those software-based extensions of the smart phone that enable additional fun things from quirky games to web-based gambling. We can't get enough of apps, because they are small enough, simple enough, and cheap enough to tinker with harmlessly.
Do you see the trend? Like drug addicts looking for our next high, technologists and developers are in the game of providing the next big thing. Think "Ecstasy for Android," and you'll get where I'm going with this.
We have unknowingly been trained to want more technology, and in that process we have taught ourselves that it's okay. The difference is the same as the one between Advil and Heroin; some drugs are okay, some are downright brutal.
I personally quit Facebook and Twitter, among others, years ago, though I'll admit I did rejoin Yelp to deal with customer service issues. Me, addicted... naw! What's a little harmless Yelp here and there, right?
Consider how deep you are in social media dung right now, and consider how hard it would be if you just let all of it go, today.
.. Couldn't do it, could ya?..