5 Urgent Reasons For Monitoring Social Media Usage

5 Urgent Reasons For Monitoring Social Media Usage 5 Urgent Reasons For Monitoring Social Media Usage Image Source: iStockFOR those born in the past 20 years,  it’s almost inconceivable  how businesses functioned prior to the Internet. Social media, electronic mail, and a host of apps that can be customised to every need, have transformed things utterly. But even those who come of age right now will be aware of the debates around the importance of monitoring social media use and our other reflexive online habits.True, the entire planet is now within our reach, and it’s possible to run an entire business, remotely, from anywhere on the planet, using little more than a smartphone and your pick of a plethora  of apps and browser-based management tools.  But how healthy is this? The e-commerce era has already erodedâ€"some would argue, obliteratedâ€"traditional barriers between work and life to the extent that many entrepreneurs now insist that the once golden aspiration of “work-life balance” is little more than a myth.Wherever you stand on that argument, it’s undeniable that the ability to connect with work any time, any place, has forced the need to constantly reevaluate, readjust and balance our priorities at home and at work.And the work of some researchers and writers has amassed sufficient data to create grounds for concern that unless we can find a way for effectively monitoring  social media and e-communication, we may be gambling with our long-term psychological and physical health.Here are just five things that should be talking points in any consideration of monitoring social media and how we manage our internet habits in general. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 1. Humans Don’t Multi-Task WellNEUROSCIENTIST Daniel J Levitin’s 2015 book, The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, flags the dangers of excessive multitasking and information overload arising from the constant processing of endlessly inbound and multi-faced e-communications.Levitin explores the view of neuroscientist Earl Mille r that the human brain is “not wired to multi-task well”, and probes possible links between multitasking and the brains increased production of the hormones cortisol and adrenaline, which can “overstimulate your brain and cause mental fog or scrambled thinking”.This assertion is alarming when so much of e-business is founded on the principle that the internet improves efficiency, sharpens performance and boosts productivity. It’s worth asking whether we are sacrificing quality for ‘feel the width’ quantity?Also creating grounds for concern is Levitin’s observation that successive attention shifts, which are so central  to  the multi-tasking  method, can burn up oxygenated glucose (the fuel used by the brain to stay focused and make decisions).2. The Lure of the Shiny and NewOTHER red flags arising out of our constant engagement with electronic communication and the social networks include what Levitin describes as a dopamine-addiction feedback loopâ€"this is essentia lly an ongoing ‘reward’ to our systems for constantly seeking external stimulation.  Levitin also sounds the alarm on the “novelty bias” of the prefrontal cortex of the human brain, and the consequent ease with which people can be distracted and hijacked from their purpose by the shiny and the new. These scientific facts alone are a wake-up call to start monitoring social media use today. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 3. Monitoring Social Media ‘Connectedness’LEVITIN suggests that because of the way the human brain is wired, the feelings of social connectedness from engagement with Facebook, Twitter and other social networks may well be falseâ€"an illusory “dollop of reward hormones” from the “dumb, novelty-seeking portion of the brain”, stimulated by our search for new stories, connections and circles on social media.His contentions are echoed in a number of key research projects of recent years, which have linked Facebook in particular wi th depression; with envy; and with narcissism.4. ‘Always On’ Can Be RudeHOW often have you been in a social or professional setting and in conversation with someone who is checking their social media or email accounts by phone? They never seem to be 100 percent ‘present’, and it can be annoying.But if Levitin and other researchers are correct, such people deserve pity, because they are exhibiting signs of an addiction.Last December, Cornell University published research  exploring the issues faced by people  who attempted  to stop using Facebook, even for a limited period.One of the authors, information science and communication researcher Eric Baumer, said: “In addition to concerns over personal addiction, people are reluctant about corporations collecting, analyzing, and potentially monetizing their personal information. However, Facebook also serves numerous important social functions, in some cases providing the only means for certain groups to keep in touch. These res ults highlight the complexities involved in people’s ongoing decisions about how to use, or not use, social media.” (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 5. Complete Disconnect is not PracticalMONITORING social media is fine in principle, but it must contend with the reality that in the world of business, complete withdrawal from social media and email communication would not be a wise move.It does work for some people. For instance, the British computer entrepreneur Sir Clive Sinclair famously revealed that he does not use the Internet, as it distracts him from invention, and prefers telephone to email. In 2010 he revealed that he does not use computers at all. However, it is a fairly safe bet that he makes up for this personal choice by engaging professional employees who operate in that space.In 2010, the US novelist Jonathan Franzen told TIME  magazine that serious fiction was not compatible with access to the Internet. Far from monitoring social media use, Fra nzen’s  approach was much more decisiveâ€"he chose to work in a bare office, using only a low-spec laptop from which he removed the wireless card and permanently blocked its ethernet port.In the manner of someone who’d given this matter more than passing thought, Franzen explained, “What you have to do is, you plug in an ethernet cable with superglue, and then you saw off the little head of it.”The approach might work for a creative author of fiction, but it seems a little drastic for someone in the world of business.So… what is the solution?AS WITH  most dilemmas, the best approach to tackling this problem is often the middle wayâ€"though  managed and moderate usage, and by limiting  specific tasks such as email processing to specific times of the day.If you have a concern about the reflexive impulse to tweet or to post to Facebook any thought that comes into your mind, log the thought in a notebook, or in a file on the hard-drive of your laptop.You may well find that whe n you revisit the thought some hours later, that it wasn’t really that significant in the first place.You should also log the times when you are accessing  email outside of regular working hours. For many entrepreneurs, the ability to access email any time  is necessary, but it is important that you manage this as well as you would the working day in an office. Impose order on randomness.The internet, email and the social networks are amazing tools with which modern entrepreneurs can grow their businesses into global brands.However, it’s important that they be treated as tools, and consciously used for specific and targeted purposes.  Monitoring social media is an important step.  Like anything in life, if properly managed and used in moderation, the  effects of social media can be properly and truly liberating, rather than insidiously enslaving.