I get asked a lot about social media, and if I think Facebook, for example, is a “waste of time.” They reference “kitten videos” or other such silliness. I do use Facebook, and so I’ve paid attention to the interactions I’ve had on it lately, and analyzed them a bit. Today, 
for example, I spent some time with someone commenting back and forth on each other’s posts, sharing funny pictures, videos, links, etc. I decided there are two ways to look at it:
- “I wasted 20 minutes making stupid pictures, searching for that comedy video on Youtube, and teasing her about her clothing choices.”
OR
- Â “I spent 20 minutes laughing and engaging with a dear friend who moved away and I haven’t seen in years.”
My personal analysis, combined with my experience as a productivity trainer, led me to a formula. Try evaluating your time on these sites by the following criteria:
- Is your time on these sites preventing you from completing other important tasks or goals? Do you find yourself thinking, “I still haven’t made any progress on (insert your goal here.)” or “I still haven’t done (insert important task here.)” If that’s the case, maybe some time away from social media is a good idea.
- How does it make you feel? Pay attention to whether or not you sign off feeling any kind of unease, sadness, displeasure, frustration, disappointment, guilt, or other negative emotion. If that’s the case, limiting or eliminating your time on these sites is probably a good idea for you. But if you sign off smiling, chuckling, feeling reconnected to friends and/or family, then your time spent on these sites is probably worthy of your attention.
If you don’t like your answer to either of these questions, maybe it’s time to rethink your Facebook use.
Bonus tip: Are you connected to a bunch of people you don’t actually know in person? If so, does that mean you spend your time on Facebook reading the random musings of people who aren’t even your friends? If you’re concerned about how much time you may be spending on Facebook, perhaps it would help to “purge” your friend list down to the people you actually know and really care about.
Remember that your attention determines your experiences, and your experiences determine your life. So in a very real way, your attention determines your life. Make wise choices about where you direct your attention.
What do you think? Is Facebook worthy of your attention? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments. Thanks for reading!
Your articles always help to put things into perspective. So much of our time is wasted doing unproductive things that prevent us from accomplishing our goals.
Lita, thanks for your input! Sometimes it’s hard to decide what “productive” means. My work is informed by the dictionary definition: “achieving or producing a significant amount or result.” Putting things to this test helps me maintain my perspective. I appreciate you reading and commenting!
Great post! Of course, I completely agree with the “purge” concept. Use the tools to focus on who is most important.
So many experts weighing in and I’m grateful! Thanks Drew! Everyone should check out Promptivate as a tool for helping to maintain quality relationships.
This is well done, Maura, and exactly the way I feel about Facebook. I recently pared my friends list down by about 30% for various reasons. It’s making my FB experience much more rewarding with a lot less contention. I enjoy Facebook and think it’s a great way to spend a few minutes a day. There’s no way I spend more than 20 minutes a day on it, and to me it’s well worth it. Especially since I work from home and don’t get a lot of social interaction many days. Thanks for you post!
Thanks so much Christine! And another great resource for my readers interested in communication strategy: Andris Media Group is truly a joy to work with!
I couldn’t agree more. I encourage clients to spend only 5-10 minutes on any given social channel in a very intentional and planned way with a goal in mind, and then they are free to decide if they want to kill any more productive time on their own – that’s their choice to make.
Great thoughts Maura! Have a good time in DC! Try and see some ‘sights’ while you travel. =)
Thanks for reading and sharing your input, Joey! To others reading, if you need help managing your company’s social media, I recommend Joey’s business, McGirr Enterprises!
This is such a hard question to answer when a lot of your business depends on social media to succeed. In my case, I’m constantly connected to FB and IG; in fact, if I’m not, then I’m not circulating my “brand” so to speak. What I need to be careful of is not spending too much time on Facebook in general, but spending too much distracted time on Facebook. Seems cliche or hypocritical or just plain wrong, huh? But it’s true. I need to get on, post my stuff, contact who I need to contact, and get off. Scrolling through my newsfeed is what I should be doing only 15-20 minutes a day like everyone else who wants to be productive. I just think it’s easier for me to be distracted since my job revolves around being on social media in the first place 🙂
Brooke, thanks for reading and commenting. You raise a great point. Buffer is one of my favorite tools to make sure I’m spreading my message in a useful way, but minimizes the opportunities for me to be distracted. You might find it useful. Of course it doesn’t eliminate my need or desire to “be social” on social media, but it does help ensure that I’m regularly offering useful content in my stream. Thanks again!
Hi Maura! I thought I’d give you my input for it is one that I struggle with a lot. I pay very close attention to how FB makes me feel. I have “deactivated” many times both my personal or my yoga site just to “give myself a break” from media especially if it starts working on me in a negative way. The negativity can even possibly be from me and I know I better take a step back and “refocus”. My yoga site I use for mostly my own reference and information (which my slowly be changing as I am getting more involved with groups, studios and the community). That is mostly because most of the population on that site are your “celebrities” who are mostly just outputting and not exactly “mingling with the crowd” which can be a little frustrating because if I am needing certain input or information, I am at the mercy of what they are offering that day not what they will respond to. I have purged many for not being responsive and I feel that is my prerogative, ya know? As I am on my own spiritual path (always), balancing the body, mind and spirit so that I can be a good teacher, I have to really be true to what and how things are effecting me. I have enough personal reflection of my own to balance. If I find myself needing to counter any imbalances that are reflected via FB/Media or other resources, I fix it immediately. 🙂
Regarding my personal FB, I never had anyone who is not truly our “friends”, family or military family. One general rule, if they are not in my phone contacts….they are not on our FB.
Hi Jen-
Great thoughts, thanks for sharing!