Do You Get Social Tool Fatigue?
A few weeks ago, Forrester Research analyst Jeremiah Owyang announced that he was taking a 20 day hiatus from Twitter. This Tuesday, CIO Magazine’s C.G. Lynch described how, while social media tools may have improved his writing, he needed to turn them off in order to actually write:
“Without those tools, I might have not had the same experts and colleagues at my disposal who offer me some of the best insights on technology, media, journalism and life — all things that make me a productive and (I hope) intellectually curious individual.
But to do the basic thing that sustains me (write), I had to block it all out.”
Yesterday, Jennifer Leggio noted that “FriendFeed is a little high maintenance — you need to really have time to manage that community to get the most out of it.”
I know I’ve found some of these social media tools overwhelming at times, especially when I’ve been particularly busy at work. Even though I’ve reduced my Twitter useage since starting to work on the agency side (see below), it can still be too much somtimes. I still find I’ll have days when I just need to close Twitter, Google Reader, Facebook and the other apps, and just focus. However, sometimes it feels like there’s a pressure there to keep up the flow.
My question to you: do you get social tool fatigue? How do you deal with it? Do you find it easy to switch off when you have to?
