Comments on: Take time out – gain perspective.

By: Internet Marketing Links Round Up for June 23, 2008

Internet Marketing Links Round Up for June 23, 2008 — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:59:46 +0000

[...] great post by Colin Walker on the importance and need for all those head-deep in social media to take a step back, take a break, and gain perspective. It’s all in the [...]

By: Web Success Diva

Web Success Diva — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:01:53 +0000

Great post! Your points are exactly why, I'm only connected during certain times of the day and week — it's just too much and often times you can feel overwhelmed and lose touch with the “social” in social media.

Maria Reyes-McDavis

By: colinwalker

colinwalker — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:26:11 +0000

Agreed – Facebook just doesn't cut it.

Yes the image was on Flickr – thanks for making it available.

By: Natalia Osiatynska

Natalia Osiatynska — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:36:11 +0000

Nice photo ; )

And a thought-provoking article. Incidentally, I found it when someone I know Googled me and pointed it out. Because you used—and credited; thanks!—a photo of mine which I "freed" for such purposes by assigning it a Creative Commons license. Where was it—on Flickr.

I agree with you on the importance of dialogue, particularly when it can be meaningful and purposeful. Facebook is lost on me. Flickr is changing my life. And no, the hours I've spent on it don't cut into my social life; rather, they've been time put into shaping much of it.

Thanks man, and best of luck!

By: Joe Dawson

Joe Dawson — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:00:05 +0000

I think that you have to apply an activity downtime, it renews your enthusiasm and it also refreshes your outlook. I am not half as active as most of you, neither do I attract the traffic but when I went away on holiday recently I had renewed energy! Going back to Ryan's comment on music artists and Green Day are a good example of trying to redefine themselves. I read in NME that they often undertake other projects which in turn give them the angle to produce an album they are proud to put their name to! It's all about identity and finding the common ground!!

By: gregory

gregory — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:08:26 +0000

if you pay attention to the self, everything falls in to place perfectly.. if you pay attention to all of this stuff, catastrophe .. and doing the former, all this stuff is merely a river and not a problem

By: 080603 Daily Links (June 03, 2008) Daily Must-Reads for Recruiters | johnsumser.com: Recruiting News and Views

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:09:42 +0000

[...] Take time out – gain perspective. “The further you drift away from the conversation the harder it is to become enthusiastic about the direction it takes and this is the curse of social media: it is addictive in the sense that you need to keep an involvement in order to maintain an overview and monitor the breadth of conversation rather than trying to control it in one location. Conversations will occur wherever there are people – this is not going to change so people just have to get used to it. This distribution of the discussion is what’s really important; you are exposing a potentially greater audience to the conversation and allowing it to take twists that otherwise it wouldn’t take.“ [...]

By: manuscrypts

manuscrypts — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:02:30 +0000

i think (like you've rightly said) that its a question of intent. So I'd disagree on Facebook not lending itself to meaningful conversation. Yes, its definitely not twitter like conversations, but (for example)it does help one identify other people with similar interests and open up a lot of discussions thanks to that categorising. Where the conversation goes later depends on the users, and in that sense its platform independent…..so its conversation, but of a different kind..

By: Social Media is timely, get over it « Alexander van Elsas’s Weblog on new media & technologies and their effect on social behavior

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:56:52 +0000

[...] today all related to the effect social media has on the tech elite. Colin Walker kicks it of with a well written essay, followed by Sarah Perez and Frederic over at the last Podcast. Each of them has had the pleasure [...]

By: Time Out: Gaining Perspective and Fighting Social Media Burnout : The Last Podcast

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:59:40 +0000

[...] bBoth Colin Walker and Sarah in Tampa are both talking about taking some time off from the always-on social media [...]

By: colinwalker

colinwalker — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:23:26 +0000

Not at all Ryan – that is a great way to look at it.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:15:55 +0000

In response to your final question. I think that the reassessment is constant – and often unnoticed – just as it is in conversation. There's a fine line, however, between continuing your path when you receive no feedback and going a direction you don't believe in just to get a response/rise out of people. It's the same thing that artists and musicians have battled for ages. Not to say that we are artists of the same kind as they, but there is something to be said for the poet-esque role that we find ourselves in as it relates to this ongoing new media discovery. (Sorry if that was a bit high-minded).

By: Taking a Breather From Social Media? Maybe We’re Doing It Wrong | sarahintampa

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:49:20 +0000

[...] Colin Walker had a great, philosophical post on taking time out from social media to gain perspective. While on [...]

By: Julian Baldwin

Julian Baldwin — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:27:08 +0000

I agree with “a lack of involvement by others outside of the usual suspects” and that may be a sign that social media is not maturing as quickly as it could (compared to where we think it should be) or that most people haven't found a way to conveniently work it in (assuming they have an interest in the first place). If social media is part of your job then it is much easier to keep up with the conversations and participate in conversations that go into greater analysis.

I've been thinking a lot about defining goals that will allow me to focus on class and move ahead in the social media sphere. It will certainly be a trial and error, one big experiment for now, kind of approach. Eventually anyone who puts in time will hit a work flow that is unique to their circumstances.