Socialnetworkitis = Growning Pains
I forget the exact quote, and I'm too lazy to look it up, but it goes something like this: yesterday's luxuries are today's necessities.
That's one of the things I was thinking of when I read this post from Online Spin called "Are you suffering from Socialnetworkitis?. The point of the post is that keeping up with all the new social computing tools is exhausting for some of us.
Why are some of us so exhausted? I don't think it would be fair to say it affects all of "us", not by a long shot, but you can't deny that many of us are having that experience. I think there are two ways to understand it.
The first is that it's a new habit -- a new personal and group process. And new processes don't simply replace old processes. Old processes die hard. Therefore many of are now operating both old processes and new social computing based processes concurrently. This is evident in the referenced post. Here's a quote:
First, my work and personal email accounts. Yes, in fact, these are perhaps my most important online social networks, and certainly the ones I’m most active in.
We're drawn back into email culture, because for many of us, email is a frighteningly, deeply, embedded tool in our work processes. I think there's an interesting discussion around whether or not email is really a good fit for the category of social computing in the first place. However that goes, it's clear to me that the newer social computing tools have the potential to replace email in a majority of use cases -- and for the better. And that's only one example. However, changes of that sort take a while if we have to wait on the users themselves to change. Recall this quote:
...accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
How long? Bear this in mind: the younger generations aren't enmeshed in the processes that form a big part of the social fabric underlying business culture today. I suspect the 18-24-year-olds, who use the new tools, with new processes built around them, will outcompete the laggards and put them into early retirement -- or at least force them into adapting.
The second reason is that the new tools remain immature, and so are the associated processes. To be clear, while 18-24-year-olds have all the raw materials to effect new business processes, there are few examples of any working models yet. Immature tools, and people just learning how to use them, don't combine to make a relaxing, restful, experience.
I get the socialnetworkitis feeling. I do. Do I want a cure? Sure, but there's another quote that comes to mind to describe my feelings in that regard. It has the phrase "cold, dead, fingers" in it.