Social Media Lesson Learned: Balance

ByAndrea Rickett
social media, salty waffle, social media faith, social media faith based organizations, social media church, social media share, social media community, social media balanceI want to go out and ride four-wheelers all day, go jump in a lake, bike ride for a few hours… play on wave-runners, knee board, ski, snorkel… chill by a fire roasting marshmallows with friends and family… but I don’t.Instead, I site on my computer. While the sun is shining I sit here… looking for new sites online, reading articles, writing them, talking to people… but I just sit in my room and stare outside… sometimes I dream, sometimes I think about the headache I have from looking at the computer. Yet I still don’t get up and go.

For a while I attributed my depression to my job, writing articles about social media and only interacting with people online. I started to grow slightly bitter toward the online medium. But I learned it isn’t about communicating online. It’s about balance.

I struggle with making friends and being active, so I don’t. But for anyone who does balance their life outside of the technical realm with life inside it, social media is great. It is a wonderful addition to life, but one must remember it is an addition not a replacement.

There is so much content being created online today it is crazy! There are more than 82 million people in the US creating content in 2008, and will be nearly 115 million by 2013 (eMarketer). Users of Blogger alone have written over half a trillion words, which translates to 5.3 million novels (source).

It would take several lifetimes to look at it all. So I say don’t. Look at what you think is most relevant, talk to those you relate to and want to build a relationship with, and write about what is most important to you; then, go out and play!

Discussion Questions:

  1. Do you have a healthy balance between your online and offline presence?
  2. If yes, what do you do to keep the balance?
  3. If no, how do you want to improve?

I am in the process of setting goals to get outside more and build a community of friends I enjoy having fun with. Being an introverted military spouse is difficult sometimes, especially when you move to a new place, but I know God will help me through this time in my life. I am going to strive toward having fun these next few months! 🙂

How about you?