Social networking through Facebook, MySpace, and relative newcomers such as Yuwie, can represent a heavy use of time, and people who use these sites may need to evaluate the cost v. benefit of using them.
There is a strong connection between (a) information, (b) time, and (c) money. How do we use our time, and other people's, in getting, grinding and giving information?
Does the time and implicitly the money we spend in using and processing information through Facebook add Information Net-Value
to our lives and other people's? Could we use Information and Time more usefully?
And what is Information for? Is it:
- For decision-making, as university textbooks assume.
- Simply for knowledge work.
- For taking some kind of action.
- For social exchange & satisfaction, as implicit with Facebook.
Whatever the reason and purpose for getting, grinding and giving information (Facebook being a notable example), is it worth it?
In fact there is a connection between (a) the Information we get, grind and give, (b) our use of Time, (c) the Money we spend (directly or indirectly), in buying and using IT, and (d) the Net Value we get, in some form or another, at the end of it all.
And what is IT (Information Technology) for? Same as above? The fact is that IT (or ICT - information & communications technology), and the use we make of it - such as Facebook, is a double-edged sword.
- ICT can save work, and make work.
- It can enable things we couldn't do before, and it can make us do things we didn't have to do before.
- ICT enables information which may, or may not, be useful.
- It can help in making things easier, and can make things harder.
- It can light up our life in networking with other people, or blight our life in adding stress and information overload.
- We can spend time & money on it usefully, or uselessly.
- It can reduce risk, or lead to increased risk.
We might therefore say that the social life of ICT-enabled information almost always has an upside and a downside to it.
The negative-net-value in Facebook Addiction (with its implications for social, moral and productivity issues in using a social networking site during business hours), is a further example of the downside.
So this article is not just about Facebook Addiction, nor is it about Should you get paid to Facebook?
What this article is really about is: Information Net-Value.
So, should U Facebook?
What do you think; should U Facebook?
2 comments:
Hi James - I think you're right in saying that many people are spending hours on Facebook without considering whether their time might be spent more profitably in other activities.
A survey conducted earlier this year by Sophos found something like 22% of people were admitting to Facebook addiction and logging into the social networking site 10 times a day or more - indeed 1 in 7 people admit to all-day loafing!
I think social networking sites like Facebook can have uses for business, but there is a danger that its benefits may be exaggerated -- people like lurking on Facebook rather than doing really constuctive interaction with friends, family, customers and partners I fear.
I should have said constructive instead of "constuctive" of course. :)
My keyboard must have got stricky from all the coffee I've had poured over it. :)
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