TheWayoftheWeb

Content and Digital Marketing Specialists

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Information overload…

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Stress is one of the big factors in working and living in the 21st century.

So why have we started using the internet to increase our stress, rather than using it to make life easier?

I took a day off from the internet last week. It was a conscious decision to take a break and rest, and I ended the day feeling reinvigorated, and with some interesting ideas and topics to discuss here.

So why has it taken five days since then to post on the blog?

Net Stress.

Obviously before I could do anything I needed to check Facebook and my email for new messages. Then I needed to update Twitter. And catch up on the popular blogs via RSS. And then I remembered I’d started a Shelfari profile and hadn’t filled it in. And then there were more Facebook messages. And some people IM’d me on MSN. And then there were more emails.

And just the same as taking a holiday from the day job, spending 24 hours away from the next has left me more stressed than before I took a rest. And it’s all self-inflicted.

Should I be worried about internet addiction?

The Facebook rush…

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Well, the votes are in, and it seems Facebook is now the heir to the Myspace generation.
I knew people were using it in preference to general social sites, but increasingly it seems as if it’s also replacing the likes of LinkedIn for business use.

The reason seems to be that despite the attraction of niches, Facebook has enough mass to allow you to connect to a lot of people fairly quickly. It also gently restricts you to concentrating people you actually know, or had lost touch with. And it’s simple to use, to include pics and videos, and to install countless interesting applications.

I did worry the Apps would get distracting, but as long as I can avoid the more frivolous ones, there’s some interesting stuff. So far I’ve added an Instant Messaging App, a Twitter App and the feed from here…who knows what’s next…

In the meantime, I’ll still have my old profiles, and I think there’s still mileage in LinkedIn…

So if you want to drop me a connection:

Badger on Myspace
Badger on Facebook
Badger on LinkedIn
Badger on Twitter

EDIT: 10:19pm:

I just found that my StumbleUpon addiction also has a facebook app. Dammit.

Twitter’s decline?

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I’m still struggling to ‘get’ Twitter. I understand the concept, and why it might appeal, but I never seem to have the time, effort and inclination to push it any further than randomly updating my dull days. And seeing endless posts by the likes of Jason Calcanis and Robert Scoble have stopped inspiring me and started infuriating me. After all, how can I compete with a day spent acting with Josh Hartnett….

I know there are flaws with using Alexa as a detailed analysis, but as a general guide it seems to suggest Twitter may have peaked, and that maybe more and more people are starting to get overloaded… (The embedded image doesn’t seem to work, so either click on the blank rectangle above, or here, if you prefer)

Which is why, when someone suggested Social Networking as part of one of the brands I work with, I suggested a central database, which you could then select to syndicate out to other brands. So you might register on a film site, but by selecting your other interests when you registered, or by keyword selection, you could then get the appropriate tick boxes to syndicate your comment to the other sites you might have an interest in, without having to retype everything…

If you want more of me…

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I’m still coming to terms with Twitter (Safe to say I’ve missed the early-adopter and advocate stages), but if you want to know what I’m doing more often then now, then go to http://twitter.com/BadgerGravling

I have found Twitterholic has made things a darn site easier, as I can now find a few of the updates by people I was actually looking for. And I love the fact that a 3rd party has made the most useful tool for a web application, without any ill-feeling.

Obviously there’s a huge difference between Twitterholic, with a couple of discreet link to moneymaking, and Photobucket inserting paid ads in content destined for Myspace, before anyone says anything.

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