The Downside of Being So ‘Connected’
February 11th, 2009 by Katelyn D'Eramo
I recently went to the movies to see the chick flick “He’s Just Not That Into You.” The movie, which is about men and women and the relationship/dating world, had one scene that left me thinking about social media, technology and public relations.
In the scene, Drew Barrymore explains all of the different ways she and a man are trying to reach each other. It started with a message left on her work voicemail telling her to call him at home, then he emailed her blackberry, which made her text to his cell, which he then emailed to her home email. You get the picture.
Is this an accurate portrayal of how “connected” we are these days? And how connected is that, exactly? The question is, are we really as connected as we think are, given the multiple ways that are available to reach out and be reached?
Take for an example, a simple business card or email signature. The person’s email address (sometimes multiple addresses), work phone number, cell phone number and home phone number are listed — as well as twitter name, screen name, skype name, etc. With all of this contact information, sometimes it’s difficult to figure out which is the best — or even appropriate — way to reach somebody.
For PR professionals, there is a need to always be reachable. You don’t want to miss out on a reporter calling about a story for your client or your client needing your services in a time of crisis, so it’s better to err on the side of caution and provide as much contact information as you can. But when does it become overkill? And what exactly are you suppose to do with all of those extra lines of communication? When is appropriate to call which number or to send a message to which email account or post on which blog? And how much time will it take to figure it out?
Are we just too connected?
With the rapidly developing social networks and other means of communications, what is the way you prefer to be contacted by your peers?
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 10:34 am and is filed under Social Media, Social Networks, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.














February 11th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Good post. I was just thinking the same thing not long ago as I was writing my own email signature. It was starting to look ridiculously long with all the ways to reach me.
There comes a breaking point for people on just how many social networks they can belong to. Should we all have accounts with Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Naymz, Digg.com, StumbleUpon, Delicious, and Reddit? Do we really need personal and professional email accounts, mobile phones, landlines and Skype?
Next I’ll be adding my “smoke signal” account!
It will eventually work itself as the market corrects and we end up with fewer social destinations and networks that are more niche.
But something to ponder…
February 11th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Great post, Katelyn. I still have this vision of two college students (or high school kids) on a date. Mom and Dad are out, and they’re sitting on the couch together, fingers flying as they text each other (not even sexting!). You’d think they could just talk, and (since Mom and Dad are out) find something else to be doing with those fingers!
JB