What is really behind Door #3?

Photo: Door. by BrittneyBush

I love social media. I blog in a variety of places, I read and comment on many other's blogs, I check Twitter at least once (alright, twice) a day. I think social media has revolutionized the online experience. It has made information more accessible to more people worldwide. It has given many a voice — and an audience — who would not have one without its tools. More great things will definitely be created in this sphere.

New social media outlets continually crop up in Blogville. All of them offer to take online interpersonal networking and hanging out to ecstatically satisfactory levels. These networks make MySpace, Facebook and Digg look like way-ancient old timers. Soon these new kids will be eclipsed by something else, however. In the Wild Wild Web, it's only a matter of (extremely short) time before a site or a technology shows its age. Someone always shouts, "Hey! What's next?" It's simply tech evolution, and it will not stop.

But I am growing skeptical about what these new sites offer. If I join more of them, what do I get? How will they improve my online life? And what will they do to my life off-line?

Other Blogville residents have been thinking about these issues. I've been emailing with Drew McLellan about all these digital distractions and keeping up with them. He has asked his blog readers if all this stuff is really about work or just play. Greg Verdino has asked his readership, as we spend our precious time on soc nets, if it's coming down to Tweet or change the world. What are we really spending our time on? And yes, all joking aside in David Armano's spot-on list, some of us do really need a "Twittervention".

Is there a social media backlash growing? Many participated in the first "International Delete Your MySpace Account Day" in January. After a stint of bad PR, Facebook has finally agreed to let users completely delete their accounts and erase all their personal information. While these actions represent the more vocal folk's choices, how many of us have joined a social network just to let our accounts rot from neglect? Perhaps this is some subconscious, silent protest on our parts.

Still, why do many of us feel compelled to join more soc nets? With more to join appearing almost weekly, what should we do?

This recent New York Times article, "The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors", has some answers. Dr. Dan Ariely of M.I.T. has written a new book called Predictably Irrational. In it, he claims that people take on too many projects and say "yes" to so many things not to keep their options open, but for another reason entirely. In a computer simulation Ariely created, subjects continually clicked on doors to keep them open — even though they lost points for doing so. Here's why:

Apparently they did not care so much about maintaining flexibility in the future. What really motivated them was the desire to avoid the immediate pain of watching a door close. [my emphasis]

“Closing a door on an option is experienced as a loss, and people are willing to pay a price to avoid the emotion of loss,” Dr. Ariely says. In the experiment, the price was easy to measure in lost cash. In life, the costs are less obvious — wasted time, missed opportunities. If you are afraid to drop any project at the office, you pay for it at home.

“We may work more hours at our jobs,” Dr. Ariely writes in his book, “without realizing that the childhood of our sons and daughters is slipping away. Sometimes these doors close too slowly for us to see them vanishing.”

The complete article is fascinating. You can even play Dr. Ariely's "closing doors" game here. See how you react. 

After reading my fellow bloggers' posts and this timely article, I feel energized to do what my instincts were telling me. My time is precious, and I will not join any additional social networks at this point. I don't think I am losing anything; I've got some vital home and work projects that need my primary attention. Doing so will improve the quality of my life, without question.

Bonus link: Read Kathy Sierra's post "Is Twitter TOO Good?" for more insight into what we digerati face in balancing online and "real world" demands.

Comments

[Drew McLellan]

KG,

I think this is an issue we'll all be wrestling with for some time to come, don't you?

I wonder if we are even more susceptible to this because of what we do for a living. I know I feel a pressure to stay current, so I can advise my clients.

Bravo for slamming the door. Did you consider tossing out some of the sites you're already a part of in your purging efforts?

Drew

[KG]

Hey Drew —

Yes, I think we will be wrestling with this for a long while, especially since much of it is work related.

My big dilemma is: How do we filter out the new soc nets coming up? I'm sure there will be some great, innovative stuff out there. I'll wait for the WOM and see what others think --- the outstanding ones generate buzz fast.

I'm letting go of my Jaiku and Pownce accounts. They both offer useful features and have substantial communities, but I get so much out of blogging and Twitter. Jaiku and Pownce don't offer anything different AND useful to me.