For most parents, there are those mornings you wake up and look at your kid and think to yourself, Oh My God, my baby is now a teenager. How did this happen? I'm not old enough to have a teenager? Where did the time go? Wasn't I in labour for 36 hours just yesterday? Which totally happened to me.
But the realization that my children are becoming awesome young adults was less shocking than noticing that there are at least ten ways for you to contact me on social media. TEN. No wonder I'm drowning in digital wasted time.
Of course there's email. I'm a huge fan of gmail, but I can't seem to delete fast enough to combat my exploding inbox. I tried used the SaneBox app, but even that can't slow down the email chaos.
If you have my phone number you can text me. I'm not a power texter yet, and find it confusing when I get texts from people I apparently know but have no idea who they are by their phone number. My favorite reason to text? My teenaged son.
I'm on Twitter a lot. And with that comes notifications and DMs and requests and other social media invitations. When I'm offline for a day, I miss the opportunity to respond. Sorry 'bout that.
Facebook has become my black hole of wasted time. I've narrowed the number of Facebook notifications I receive to a trickle but there's still the occasional direct message or compelling post on Facebook that requires a timely response or comment. I'm inevitably late. And, by the way, if you ask me to be your friend with no context or intro, I usually press delete.
Instagram is time consuming. Not just taking posting-worthy images, but being part of the community to share, like and...yup, respond to comments.
Then there are the ongoing requests that come through the YMC contact page. As Publisher of YMC, I'm privvy to the onslaught of requests for responses from YMC members, media, and potential advertisers. Seriously, we try to respond in a timely manner. *smiles sheepishly*
I don't really get Pinterest to be honest. But I'm there. Sometimes. I don't communicate there too much.
For my business contacts, I'm LinkedIn. Constant requests to "get linked" become overwhelming when the person, inevitably a stranger, doesn't take the extra two minutes to introduce themselves and explain why we should be connected. Having said that, I've met some cool folks on LinkedIn. Although it took me a while to initially respond to their InMail.
Our YMC YouTube Channel is starting to pick up speed. Posting a video means taking time to respond to comments. Don't get me wrong — I love comments (except when it's from a troll), but hate the time drain.
Probably like you, I felt cornered by Google to create a Google+ profile to share content and up my rankings. So, I did. And it's there. And, whatev.
The only time I ever really get off my computer is when I travel. I was computer free when my family headed to Orlando and Club Med's Sandpiper Resort.
I'm guessing your social story is not much different than mine. I'd love to hear how you manage the mounting pressure to respond on numerous platforms all day every day. And if you reached out to me on any or all of the above place I didn't get back to you in a timely manner yet, be patient. Or send me a gentle virtual nudge. Chat soon....or later!
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