Recap of Social Media Fast '10 (January 2-9)

So my wife and I spawned the idea of SMF 2010 (sounds like a film festival acronym, right?) when discussing new year's resolutions on New Year's Day. As per the New York Times back in August, Facebook attracted nearly 88m unique visitors in July and this was a symptom of a forthcoming "exodus". With those figures in mind along with the suggested mass "exodus" (an embellishment considering Facebook had 102m unique visitors in 11/09), the two of us had been feeling that the e-transition of our relationships (think green here) was gradually contributing to the erosion of our social skills. So we decided to partake in the fast in tandem for the week of 1/2-1/9.

The rules were simple - no personally-affiliated social media. No Twitter, Facebook or MySpace. Given my unemployed state, LinkedIn was an exception. It felt right and, well, somewhat sacrificial. Not like lent or anything, but kind of old-fashioned (like late 90's old fashioned). Telephone calls, voicemail, email and human interaction. Off we went.

The first couple of days were pretty simple - I had a ton of reading and financial research that had been held up by social media OVERuse. I dug deep into a book, read financial statements, actually responded to emails, answered my phone and began nervously exercising my "conventional" communication skills. It was a little nerve wracking to start, but it quickly felt good. Normal even. I felt like I had an actual NEED to speak to people - versus checking their catalog of status updates or their profile pictures. As the week progressed and my to-do list with it, I gradually forgot about social media.

Before I knew it and felt fully reconnected to my friends, the week was over. I took a peek at Twitter, but with no need to immediately visit Facebook - I actually made it an 8th day without it. My re-exposure to it was so very anticlimactic. I realized I didn't need it - I didn't actually even like it that much. With all the bells and whistles, it is a veritable socially-oriented coloring book for adults. With that in mind, I discovered how to configure Twitter (which I'd previously mocked as a one-dimensional company angling for a buyout) to manage my Facebook updates and think I've visited the site 4-5 times since.

In summary - the distance between Facebook and I now feels appropriate. I still struggle with the occasional inclination not to answer my phone or emails, but unfortunately, this existed prior to my sojourn into social media. Unfortunately, being given and exercising the ability to check a page and see EXACTLY what they're doing, where they are, what their personal status, where they're working and what their personal interests currently are sort of makes the phone call redundant sometimes, doesn't it? I'll be using that as my rationale when I don't answer the phone (much less frequently) in the future.

Nate