Wednesday, July 2, 2008

When Social Media Stars Complain...About Information Overload

When people whose careers are based on social media/Web 2.0 start complaining about information overload, what does that mean for people who have, um, real jobs?

Anna Marie Cox, the former Wonkette blogger, recently wrote a Tweet that struck home with me on what is otherwise supposed to be a vacation week:

"I have 390 unread msgs, 91 friend requests, 2 deadlines, an unholy outstanding expense acct & a blog to feed. Def time to clean the kitchen."

Social media certainly makes it easier to keep in touch than traditional media, but it also significantly adds to my information overload.

I probably shouldn't post this -- but -- I am checking email during vacation as a defensive measure. Which means some people will expect me to respond to their emails. (Of course, I could claim that I posted this entry earlier in June, had it scheduled to be published today, and once on vacation decided against checking email. Ya never know.)

Yet if I don't check email, I will be inundated with a thousand unread messages -- and it's hard to relax knowing that's what awaits you after vacation.

I'd love to hear better suggestions as to how to cope with information overload.

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