Tweet
When my sister was 16 she talked on the phone for approximately 87 hours per day.
I can remember her sitting there with her giant 80′s hair and twirling the phone cord in her finger and blowing huge bubbles with her Hubba Bubba bubble gum. Jesus, I hope she doesn’t read my blog. 
She and her friends (they called themselves the Crayons) — would talk endlessly about absolutely nothing.
“Oh my god, I saw Trisha today and she was wearing the most hideous shoes.”
“Oh my god, I forgot my homework in Math class and Mr. Gordon embarrased me.”
“Oh my god, I saw Mark today in the parking lot and he said Hi to me.”
And this was the days when there was one phone line (no cell phone) — if you wanted to call someone at my house, you had to go through my sister.
It was horrible.
She was abusing the medium. She did nothing but talk on the phone.
You Can Abuse Social Networking Too
You can do the same thing with your social networking. You can gab and gab all day long about things that don’t really matter. You can tell people that you are having a cup of coffee. You can tell your network about a great article you just read or an awesome video you just watched.
And I encourage you to do so for some (controlled) portion of your day.
Find people with similar interests and gab. Share information, share content, share ideas, share some of your day with them.
But don’t become abusive of the medium. Learn to control your social networking time.
Don’t Stop Using The Phone
My sister is now in her late 30′s and is a successful business person and mother. She no longer talks on the phone for 87 hours per day.
However, she hasn’t quit using the phone.
She has learned to use it more effectively, no doubt, but she has not quit using it.
Not using or quitting social networking doesn’t make sense either. You should (at least) continue to monitor them, even if you don’t participate.
If you are abusing social media sites today, learn to use them better. After all, you’re not 16 any more.
What are your thoughts? Is it fair to compare social networking sites with the telephone? What is your advice for those of us that want to use social media properly?
Learn more here or sign up below
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Russ,
It most certainly is fair to compare social networing sites with the telephone. They both are networking tools and the phone used to be the best site for spreading the news.
I enjoyed the story about your sister’s overuse of the phone. When I was in gradeschool we still had the old crank wall phones. Our ring was three shorts and a long. We were on a party line and if you were sneaky in lifting up the receiver, you could listen in, it was called piking. If we stayed on the phone too long, the neighbors would butt in and tell us to get off.
Social Media ediquette? I don’t know the rules, but I’m sure they exist, they always do.
All the best, ruby
@ruby wilhite — that sounds like fun Ruby! Nothing like a little eavesdropping is there?