A pair of ladies who seemed scholarly were sitting across from me and were discussing a new phenomenon. They were discussing Social Media Depression. I instantly wanted to whip out my iPad or Crackberry and look it up but being not in the USA, the data roaming charges would have killed me.
I started mentally taking notes resolving that I would look up this issue as soon as I could. Indeed this is not just an isolated case. There are lots of scholarly works focused on this topic. As far as I can tell this is not just a simple issue.
Today the web has become a place of wonderment and joy as well as a tedium and a bore. We have some wonderful stories of long lost family members being re-united. Of couples finding true love online. But we have the dark side of stalking and even murder. Now we have the issue of addiction and other afflictions which can only be described as diseases or neuroses.
Recent statistics are showing that we are reaching saturation point where there are literally no more people to add to our social network. While I am not actively looking, I can see in the past 3 years on average I have added 4 people to my network a week. That means that I now have a network of effectively more than 1,500 people.
I cannot possibly manage that many. Yet I have directly interacted with all these people. (At least I think so). I have two profiles on Facebook. I have 5 Twitter accounts. I have 20 emails accounts that roll up to my Outlook. I have 12 phone numbers. Need I go on?
So what can we do? We have to learn to manage this. I need better tools but perhaps I need to actually unplug and switch off.
Dr Jared DeFife writing in Psychology today has this advice:
“We have a complicated relationship with digital media. Our ability to connect to others, communicate with the masses (hello blogosphere!), and retrieve information at a click is astounding and unprecedented. We used to have touch-tone phones instead of touch-screen PDAs. Even those of us who grew up without the internet, email, Crackberries, Google or Wikipedia can hardly imagine what we could possibly do without them. Most of us are plugged in pretty much 24/7, and it may come with significant costs to our health and <http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/happiness> happiness. It’s probably not realistic or useful to go off the grid for good, but just make sure you find some time to unplug and unwind.”
Yes, I am a genuine example of a Social Disease.
Here are a few references for you to consider:
