ExploreTruth.com

Crack Is One Helluva Drug, But What About Facebook?

I hope I’m not being insensitive to the grave circumstances surrounding substance abuse, nor am I overly fond of the picture I used above this post.  But the parallels between addictive behavior in general and those found associated with online media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, do share some similarities.

So if you were wondering where you stood on the question of your addiction to your favorite social media community, here are some clues I came up with that may shed a little light on where you might stand.  These scenarios may or may not suggest examples of my online habits in any way.

1. If you’ve found yourself on Facebook , Twitter, or some online site, but originally got on your computer to do something else, and now have forgotten what exactly that other thing was…The crack may be trying to get you…
2. If you’ve found yourself in a room full of family or friends, and their were at least two to three computers open, a BlackBerry or iPhone, and conversations are all taking place over the top of your laptops or phones…The crack is about to get you….
3. If you’ve been making a promise each week for the past year, that you will cut down on your Twitter or Facebook use, and you haven’t..well…the crack may just have about got you…
4. If you reach over in bed and lovingly caress your laptop in the night, because you dosed of, with it almost burning a hole in your chest…well..that’s just sad…(ok, I’ll admit to this one…guilty as charged)
5. If your index fingers are slightly calloused due to excessive mouse tracking on your laptops mouse pad, or if your wrist and fingers involuntarily begin making clicking motions in public, and you try to pretend like you’re just pointing at something…well..that’s just strange…
6. If you hesitate to open your Facebook chat, because you know you just may be flooded with people just wanting to say hi, and you have stuff to do, but for some strange reason you open your chat anyway….hey it’s called loneliness, we all have to face it…but the crack is getting to you…
7. If you have more than 10 tabs open on your computer, (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, your email, a few sites you stumbled into, the thing you were actually intending to do when you came online) and you’re so disgusted with the info overload, that you start randomly shutting them all down, without checking to see if any of them were important…and then you realize you had an unfinished report or email that you have to retype…well…that was dumb,  but kudos..you are fighting the crack…this is a start.
8. If you’re version of a nightmare, is one where you aren’t able to find the favorite button for a YouTube video you like, so much that it wakes you up, and you go online in the real world?  Well…dang…what the hay?…
9. If people wonder why your hands are always perched between your legs, fumbling around with that all important text, status update, or one of the 100’s of thousands of apps available through your mobile device…well…be prepared for some misunderstandings.  I’m just saying…
10. If you get this warm cuddly feeling whenever you think of Facebook, and you’re actually ashamed and confused that you could be had in this way…well..join the club…that’s just the tension between truth and your current reality.  Make your way to the exit signs…
11. If the girls or guys online just seem so much easier to “Talk” to…haha…well…its time my friend…to make your way out into the sunshine.  Shave your face, or legs, and get back into physically close proximity to real human beings.  The crack has officially GOT you…I’m just saying.

All goofing around aside…Let’s figure out a way to get a handle on whatever website continues to pimp our time.  On December 31st, 2009, I casually stumbled on a 1 week challenge sparked by John Mayer.  In essence, he challenged his “twitter followers” to a brain dump, or more clearly put, an information diet, or a fast from the social media sites that can take up a lot of our time.

I jumped in, and since January 1st, 2010 until January 8th,  2010, I, with trembling fingers, stayed clear from all that was eeeeevil online.  Ok, I don’t need a medal for this effort.  It was only a week right?  Hmmm…well, the point was well taken Mr. Mayer.  I along with millions of Americans, and the world for that matter, are still trying to figure out how to manage the time spent on various social media sites.

According to an article in the New York Times, a Nielsen study shows the average time spent on Facebook for the 25-35 age group to be just between 3-4 hours a day.  Where do you think  you stand?  And for those really wanting to push the envelop, and don’t think any of this relates to them, consider giving John Mayer’s wee experiment a try.  The proof is in the pudding or the break from it..right? (BTW, as if powdered Facebook wasn’t enough, now you can drink Facebook, check it out).

The week away from Facebook, and twitter wasn’t that tough for me, but it did make me better recognize the casual tendency to repeatedly check email, Twitter, Facebook, and the other often visited sites, to the detriment of actual work I was trying to do online, or my computer.  And that’s the issue, especially for those who spend a lot of time on a computer for work, school, or their business, and even more important for those like myself, who value building relationships and networking to further business goals.  The key is knowing where to manage the line between genuine networking, and relationship building, and wasting time.

Do your online habits, or mobile phone usage, interrupt your ability to get the things you really value done?

If any of this applies in anyway, and you are serious about reclaiming your time, and increasing your productivity in 2010, check out “RescueTime”. The video below gives a short demo into how it works(I am not affiliated with this service, nor do I get paid in any way to promote about it. In fact I haven’t even used it, but it sure looks like a good idea). It’s basically a software that “automagically” tracks which web sites & applications are actively used at your computer and provides charts of this data.  So far, without any cool time tracking software, I just have a gut feeling, that my productivity can always do with a little tweaking!

RescueTime Time Tracking Overview from Tony Wright on Vimeo.

Also check out:

Facebook Addiction Growing Issue

Psychologist Discusses Facebook Addiction

Continue reading...

Can Success Poison Your Soul?

I’ve always been a fan of personal development, lifestyle design and taking an intentional approach to your life.  But I’ve realized that the underbelly of self-improvement can be, well, self.  As human beings, our desire to become better people, can often be motivated by a desire to simply enhance our social position or financial status.

Cornel West, one of my favorite philosophers, and thinkers, always reminds us to remember “that cry of affliction“, and allowing it to inform your life’s work.  He acknowledges that the relationship between our careers and the plight of others may be complicated, but still recommends that its one that deserves attention.

What was he essentially getting at?  Well from what I gathered, he was highlighting the two forces at work in the hearts and minds of humanity for as long as historians have had ink, and before.  One reverting towards self, and the other leaning towards a life of selflessness.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do think that some of the core ingredients of lifestyle design:  intentionally structuring your life for more time freedom, the ability to earn a living doing what you love on your own terms, and to have the degree of mobility that you choose in your life, can all play an integral part in affording one the ability to orient themselves in such a way, where they can do more for others.  However, I think we can delude ourselves if we proceed with the idea of delaying soul growth for the immediate advantages of financial growth.  Where the plight of others is completely enshrouded by sustaining or advancing ones pursuits.

We risk what Cornel re-quotes in the video below, as “The catastrophe of success”.  What you are when you’re broke, time strapped, location dependent, may just be what you’ll be when you have all the cash, flexibility, and are gallivanting around the world.  I simply have tried not to do let my ambition compromise my ability to perceive what truly matters.

All this thought on success, and greatness, reminded me of a short verse in the book of Proverbs(4:7):

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

Here are a couple of highly relevant videos with Cornel West personifying someone who has pushed past simply existing for self, and has used his voracious intellect and empathic vision, in order to inspire others to think critically, question all assumptions, and to have the courage to differentiate between success and greatness. Enjoy!

Continue reading...

Hustler’s with Hearts: Innerprenuership

To get rich or die trying.  Hustle till I I D-I-E.  Make money by any means necessary.  I gotta get mine, fool, you gotta get yours.  If it ain’t about money, I ain’t concerned.  I’m a hustla homie, you better ask about me.

These were the messages wrapped in frustratingly tight plastic wrapped CD covers. They breathed the soul of a genre whose capitalistic fantasies and narratives seemed to run as wide and wild as Bet or MTV would let them.  My brothers and I used our gifts of stealth, to buy, borrow, and sneak them inside our house.  We became students in a class that never graded, and one where there always seemed to be extra credit.  My parents would have killed us if they knew were listening to that sort of music, but we found a way.  We sought it out.  Or maybe it found us.

The version of the American Dream I was led to believe represented and glamorized a top breed of ambitious and motivated people. Tupac defined it as, “my ambitions as a rider”.  He would then point to what he saw as a commonality among humanity… , “something we all adore, something worth dying for, stuck in this game, searching for fortune and fame”.

Somewhere along the way something took hold. My idea of the (more…)

Continue reading...

The Cure For Common Insanity

I’ve heard that Einstein is responsible for saying, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. I’m not sure if my 5 consecutive trips to the fridge, expecting a miraculously cooked meal qualifies me for a straitjacket, but I’ve definitely met Einstein’s definition.  And to my defense, I’ve been heavily influenced.  I live in a society that reinforces many illusions that I gladly participate in.  If you try to wake me up with a dose of the truth, who knows, I may be liable to hurt you.  It’s inconvenient, and you’re messing with a very comfortable guy.

Ok, I’m probably more the opposite. I had to at least describe the times in my life where the threat of change has produced some resistance.  Most of the time, I’m proactive in diagnosing the areas in my life that don’t reflect my core values.  It hasn’t always been easy.  I believe that most of us, at some point in our lives can relate to the discrepancy between our most treasured values we claim to hold, and the way we are actually currently living our lives.  This has shown up particularly in 3 areas of my life.  Maybe you can relate, and also share your thoughts, and whats worked for you. (more…)

Continue reading...

Make Your Mondays Feel Like Fridays

Lifestyle Design for a lot of people sounds unrealistic. But it doesn’t have to be. Maybe there is a way to change things around to better reflect the life we want to live.

Even prior to reading Tim Ferris’s Four Hour Work Week years ago, I felt that something was wrong.  Something was wrong with living an unfulfilled life of cubicle walls, and soul sucking paper shuffling.  I know there is a reality to making a living that we all have to face, but I’d like to introduce you to two people who are challenging some commonly held views on work, and are living examples of alternative ways to think and approach the subject of work.  I’ve been interested in designing a life that better reflected what I was most passionate about.  But knowing how to do it, in the face of what may appear to be unquestionable facts of life, is why I am exploring this topic(more post to come). (more…)

Continue reading...