One of the best things about social media is that it’s free. As long as you have a computer and an Internet connection, you’re good to go. You don’t even need to own this stuff—a visit to most local libraries is all it takes to log onto your account and start interacting with your e-friends.
But I’m working on an article right now about social media, and my research seems to tell a slightly different story. Yes, social media is free, at least in terms of membership. A valid email address is all it takes. But there are hidden costs, and they are astounding.
These costs are in the form of time spent indulging in social media, and the figures are astronomical. I call it indulging, by the way, for a very good reason—that’s exactly what it is.
Surfing a social media site, visiting and communicating with your online buddies, is not an investment of time. It’s time spent, perhaps even wasted, but not invested, as it would be if you were writing, or creating content for your blog or for an article. Social media surfing is the same as any other kind of Internet surfing. It’s a pastime that can rapidly become an addiction, and for many folks, it already has. Bluntly stated, spending too much time with social media is flat out wasteful.
In my article, I analyze how all of this time adds up, and the overall impact it has on the economy. Again, as I said before, the numbers are astounding.
Now I suppose there are going to be readers out there saying that here is some grumpy old guy who doesn’t really understand what social media is all about and how much fun it is. To set the record straight, I’m not really grumpy, I’m not even 60 yet, and I love to surf social media sites.
I have social media accounts, and unlike some folks my age, spend a fair amount of time on them. Which is how I identified the problem. I was spending too much time on them. And it wasn’t until a friend of mine pointed out how he thought that he might actually be addicted to social media, when I realized that there might be a problem here.
Let’s face it, sitting at the keyboard, staring at the monitor for hours on end, particularly into the wee hours of the morning, is not really any different than spending endless hours doing Internet gambling or even visiting porn sites. It’s a flat out waste of time.
Do I sound anti-social? If so, sorry, but I’m really not. I’m just the opposite. I love spending time with people under one condition—that we do it face-to-face.
And that is precisely my point. All that time you spend interacting with your keyboard and monitor, even if you are sending electronic impulses to another human being somewhere else, is still just interacting with your keyboard and monitor. And when you get right down to it, how fulfilling can that really be?
I think—in fact I honestly believe—that if we as a society spent as much time meeting up with schoolmates and friends in person, as opposed to chatting with them online, the world would be a different place. Indeed, I’m certain it would be a better one.
More on this to come. Be sure to watch for my next published article on the true cost of social media. In the meantime, go out and have a mini reunion or something.
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