Friday, February 7, 2014

Check, Re-Check, Triple Check

2014 is the year to get HEALTHY when it comes to social media interaction.  In 2009 I wrote a blog called "Slapped In The Facebook" that was timely.  As the years have passed, it's apparent we need to read, re-read and triple-read it again.

Recently, I read an article by Phil Cooke that posed the question "Is It Time to Close Your Facebook Account?" Here were five reasons he gave...
  1. "You're Addicted - You may laugh, but some psychologists are pushing to have "Internet Addiction" broadly classified as a clinical disorder.  If you're checking, re-checking, and triple-checking your Facebook page again and again over the course of the day, it might be time to let it rest.
  2. You Don't Understand Privacy.  I don't have my phone numbers, home address, or other private information on Facebook for a reason.  There are simply too many horror stories out there - some from stalkers and others from social media's notoriously bad security flaws.  If you can't keep it private, you shouldn't be online.
  3. You Trash The Company Or The Boss.  As I told CBS Moneywatch - it's baffling, but millions of employees across America assume their boss doesn't use Facebook.  Vent your frustrations about your "idiot boss" or the "crazy CEO" and guess what? They'll find out.  If you can't play nice on social media, stay out of the sandbox.
  4. You Can't Say "No" To Past Relationships. An attorney told me recently that the word "Facebook" appears in a shocking number of divorce proceedings today.  if you're in a good relationship and discover your old high school flame is suddenly divorced and trolling, don't even THINK about clicking "like."
  5. You Have Trouble With Focus.  In my book "One Big Thing: Discovering What You Were Born To Do," I discovered that human beings are simply wired to focus on one thing at a time. Study after study reveals the only thing multi-tasking does is help us do a lot  of things badly.  But Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms are the epitome of distraction - and keep millions of people frittering away their time instead of accomplishing something important.  If you have trouble focusing on what's important, you may need to close the account."
Do you struggle with any of the options above? Are there other good reasons to close social media accounts?