Social media: Good for novelty aggregation and making connections, but not for work?
there’s a sort of orthodoxy emerging around social media and work: they’re powerful “novelty aggregators”, and they’re good at helping people make connections with others in their fields.
Probably because of the novelty-aggregator function, services like Twitter and Facebook aren’t associated with getting work done. Michael Sippey calls the experience of clicking around in your Facebook or Twitter feed “social surfing”, and notes how easily time slides away. Merlin Mann sums this view up well: “Joining a Facebook group about creative productivity is like buying a chair about jogging.”
1 comment
Nov 10, 2010
Claudia Daggett said...
If people's use of social media includes an exchange of ideas and resources when connecting with those "other people in their fields," doesn't that -- by definition -- make social media a tool for professional growth? Can we really distinguish between reading about our work and doing our work?
