Monday, March 12, 2012

Has Social Networking Taken Over My Life

After 2005 I sort of was burnt out and bored of anything social networking. Everytime I met anyone they wanted to tell me their reunion story, and with this and our own media exposure, it meant it was time to disappear.


I joined Facebook, got it and quite enjoyed it. I signed up on Twitter reasonably early (the iPad says I am member 6 million and something) but didn't get it. All other forms of social media passed me by - I just wasn't interested.


Something happened around November last year. I started tweeting again and suddenly I started to gorge on news, both general and tech. I suddenly got Twitter, enjoying it as both a news feed and to keep in touch with new and old friends (1,700 odd tweets in 3 months is a bit sad). As a result recently I have gone on a mad frenzy on all things social and app.


This brings me to tell the story of a lunch I had last week with a friend I hadn't seen for ages.


My iPhone beeped and SmartSynch informs me its Mark's birthday. A quick Facebook message later and we are meeting for lunch.


Lunch in Soho means a bus and tube ride. No waiting required at the bus stop with Bus Guru app that keeps me informed of when the bus will arrive at my stop - I leave the house with 2 minutes to spare.


I take a book but rarely open it as I use dead tube standing time to catch up with my unread stories and articles on Instapaper - skim reading and retweeting as I go.


I arrive at 'Le Reseau Social' in Soho first - Mark texts me to say he's lost so I use the Lost app that texts him my GPS location and he uses it on Google Maps to find the restaurant. Whilst waiting I use this time to check him out on LinkedIn to see where he has been working recently. I also check up banjo to see who is tweeting near me.


Fantastic to see him, drinks arrives and we get down to choosing food. I check out foodspotting to see which meals people rate in this place - its a choice between the chicken and the steak. I just can't decide so I ask thumb.it. Within 3 minutes 72 people have answered and its Steak with 65% vote.


I tweet about it.


The food arrives and before eating I immediately take a picture for foodspotting ready to write my review, and with Instagram, post a comment which instantly posts to Twitter and Facebook. I have already updated Twitter 5 times. Blimey - forgot to check in with Foursquare - I've been here before, maybe I can become Major - sadly not today.


That deserves a tweet.


So I show Mark my kids pictures on Flickr, my kids doing silly things on YouTube. I play him some music I uploaded that I recorded as a kid on SoundCloud, play him fav track at the moment on This Is My Jam. This reminds me to show him my recent pins of punk bands I put up on Pinterest. Oh, at the same time I show him my own bespoke online paper created using paper.li.


I tweet again.


We say our goodbyes. Strangely for some reason Mark looks bored and reluctant to arrange another meet.


I tweet about it. (he doesn't use Twitter)


On my way back to the station my phone pings an alert. Highlight tells me another friend is just around the corner. No time now.


Hop on the tube to go home and its perfect time to update my Facebook status, add an entry to Google+, update Path, and write a blog about the meet in Blogger, which automatically updates Tumblr, which in turn updates Twitter, Facebook and Google+. 


I tweet about it. Nearly home, and quickly check my Klout score - great its gone up 0.17% since yesterday.


And home to read everyones tweets and start the process of again.


Of course this lunch didn't actually really happen - but I don't think its far off so if I contact you to meet up for lunch, think twice and I would try and make a polite excuse if I were you.

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