Social Media Burnout

When the web was relatively new, I worked with a large insurance company to help them begin a monitoring program, this in the days before eWatch and other monitoring services. After the program was in place for a few weeks, the media relations manager got in touch with me to tell me how much time the effort was taking. A few months later, though, he reported that what initially was taking him several hours now got done in 15 to 20 minutes.

What happened? Something new and alien evolved into a routine.

Another recollection from the web’s early days: Psychologists, sociologists, and an army of other ologists lamented the collapse of civilization because huge huge segments of the population were spending all of their time huddled over their computers, surfing the web. “People will become isolated,” we were told; “they’ll forget how to socialize.” Business leaders wrung their hands over plummeting productivity as workers surfed instead of worked. (And companies like