The Cost of Being “Social”: Tweeting Isn’t Free

http://www.jamesvandyne.com/the-cost-of-being-social-tweeting-isnt-free/

by jamesvandyne • 12 years ago

11 10 12 years ago

dasil003• 12 years ago

Like most people, I start and end my day in bed, looking at my phone.

I have to admit to sometimes rolling over and checking my phone in the morning, but certainly not every day. If it's literally true that most people begin and end each day in bed with their phone that's a pretty sad commentary on the state of the world IMHO.

JoeAltmaier• 12 years ago

Its got to be generational. When I'm home with my family, my phone is in a drawer. It doesn't get in the way of real social activity.

Maybe its single people, who have no social links at home but the phone, that do this?

PeterWhittaker5• 12 years ago

> Like most people, I start and end my day in bed, looking at my phone.
Its got to be generational.

It's more complicated than that: I'm 49, my wife a few years older. Her iPad and iPhone are on the bedside table; when she wakes, she opens the blinds and returns to bed to catch up on FB, etc., for a while.

My phone is only ever in the bedroom if I need an alarm. Otherwise, it is downstairs, in my office, on silent from 10pm to 7:30am. (If there is a piece of tech at my bedside, it's my tablet, on Airplane mode: It's my e-reader.)

My first conscious moments downstairs involve needy pets and connecting my caffeine mainline. I turn to the news only after a while, at my laptop: I prefer the bigger screen and keyboard and trackpad for production and consumption, except for books and essays, which I read on the aforementioned tablet. My phones have always been second choices for consumption, and third for production, used only for what they excel at, mobile convenience.

Mobile. Hmm....

Perhaps we need two other, more distinct words. For some, like the article's author, a mobile device is Ubiquity: Always present, always in hand, always in use, Primary. My wife is closer to that than I (though there are many tasks for which she also prefers her laptop; she will go from iPhone or iPad to Air, rarely from iPhone to/from iPad).

For others, for me, a mobile device is Necessity or Necessary Evil or Handy, Secondary: Used only when my Primary, my laptop, is unavailable. (And even then, sometimes my laptop comes with and my mobile becomes an access point.)

As to the real point of the story, I agree wholeheartedly. I struggle with this myself and continue to swing between the poles trying to find the happy medium of just enough Connection and Consumption to keep up and so much that I am overwhelmed and unproductive.

(Sometimes my wife scolds me for not checking FB frequently enough: FB is the first thing to go when HN, /., etc., take too much of my time.)

brador3• 12 years ago

I had this problem and created http://skimfeed.com as a solution. No comments, nothing to follow, upvote, tag, or retweet. Just straight up news catch up in 15 minutes for morning and night.

PeterWhittaker5• 12 years ago

Intriguing. I will add this to my daily news review (as first item), and see what is left when I get to the others. Thanks for doing this!

brador3• 12 years ago

Leave feedback in the box on the site once you feel it out, many of the features you see have been at user request and anything goes!

The Cost of Being “Social”: Tweeting Isn’t Free

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