Social Media has ruined my life!

A big call I know! Perhaps more accurately it should be “social media has ruined my social life”.

After this past weekend I’ve come to understand that I actually have a very real problem. Of course it’s just like me to develop an addiction.

I literally live my entire life on Social Media!

I’m just looking at the couch where I have sat for the entire last three days and there is an arse print. Not even slightly joking about this. I have dented the couch. I have sat in that one spot for 3 days with my beautiful trusty laptop in my lap. I’ve lived my life through that 13 inch screen all weekend. A weekend when so so much was going on in the outside world but I chose to participate via social media rather than in the flesh. Yep, I have a problem.

My little world for 3 whole days

The worst/scary part is that I’ve had an absolute ball all weekend. Loved it! Had the time of my life! Now this scares the hell out of me cause I used to be a people-person who loved a crowd. Now I’m a Twitter-Facebook-blogging-no-human-contact-person. The irony is that I’m coming to this conclusion by blogging about it! Then I’ll tweet the blog and put it on my Facebook, further plummeting myself into this addiction.

So there are 4 screens that I have open ALL of the time – Twitter, Facebook, Tweetdeck and this blog. I switch between the four like a sex addict at an orgy. They each give me something special, and hold a unique place in my heart. For gods sake, look at the terms I’m using to describe them. You would think they were my loved ones.

Twitter is my biggest obsession. I don’t feel I need to go out anymore because being on Twitter is like one giant playdate with all the cool, funny people. Its like being in a bar with everyone you love and when everyone is at their very best. No awkward moments, no having to start a conversation, no trying to avoid people – its Brilliant! I have the strangest feeling like I’ve been surrounded by people all weekend even though the only person I’ve spoken to is the check-out chick at Franklins.

Just a little story about the ‘connectedness’ of Twitter… On Saturday I was having separate chats with @SassyLang and @petegoodlet about my blog post on Mardi Gras. Turns out they both had a connection to Daylesford, and they’d known each other on Twitter for a while. Then last night I saw some Tweets from them about how great it was to finally meet up. How cool is that! A twitter-Date! And you know I love a Twitter-Date. Now I am desperate to meet both of them. They are like-minded, fabulous people who I would never have met otherwise.

I'm gonna join this support group

But back to my social media addiction. So Facebook is where I dump all the cool stuff that I find on Twitter such a news stories, great photos and funny stuff. It’s also where I post my blog each day, ramming it down the throats of my friends. The blog is brilliant fun, and a chance to rant and vent. It’s amazingly self-indulgent which I of course love. I then push it out via Twitter. This completes the social media circle – all intricately linked; all a massive network of words, pics, people and stuff. I am now so deeply immersed in this little world that I do not know if I can pull myself out.

But I have to get this addiction under control or I will fast become a lonely old man with dogs. And I’ll lose my ability to make conversation. I’m becoming one of those guys who has absolutely no personality to offer face-to-face, who becomes intimidated by real people. Basicly I’m becoming a hermit, a weirdo, a recluse. This is not good. So as much as I love and adore my little social media world I need to put some limits on it.

What do you think appropriate? What if I limit it to 8 hours a day? That’s a step in the right direction.