A Curmudgeonly View of Social Media

(MoneyWatch)  I admit to being a last-minute passenger on the Facebook/Twitter train. It took me a long time to convince myself there was anything beneficial (other than procrastination opportunities) to be gained by reconnecting with former journalism colleagues, old volleyball teammates, and the kid who sat three rows behind me in seventh-grade geometry.

Yes, I admit that I have managed to expand my networking opportunities (who knew that an old high-school crush is now a published and well-reviewed author?), catch up with friends, and even collaborate with co-workers.

And yes, I must say Twitter has proved useful, when the folks I follow turn me on to new nuggets of information (or I can get Andy Roddick's reactions to Wimbledon in real time).

But I'm still a little bit on the fence. How productive is social media, really? And doesn't it seem just a tad too hyped right now? I haven't been able put my unease specifically into words -- but luckily, Scott Berkun just did it for me.

In fact, Berkun is officially calling bull$&#! on social media. A couple of his points that resonated with me:

1. It ain't Utopia. Berkun says,

"Be suspicious of technologies claimed to change the world. The problem with the world is rarely the lack of technologies, the problem is us."

So-called social media (and he also takes umbrage with the term, since it's pretty much redundant -- what media isn't social, by definition?) isn't the magical answer.

2. The signal-to-noise ratio sucks. Berkun says:

"I find all social media frequently consists of people re-forwarding things they were forwarded that almost none of them appear to have read, as they believe they are rewarded for publishing frequently above all else."

Yup. I'm right there with him. I may have to read dozens of Tweets or Facebook status updates to glean anything relevant -- really, I'm not all that interested in the weather outside your window right now, unless it's a hurricane heading my way. What's popular is rarely what's good, says Berkun (and he's right).

Now Berkun doesn't hate social media, and neither do I -- I think it's fun and somewhat useful and heck, you can follow me on Twitter (@cc_holland), if you like -- but he is saying you need to cut through the hype and take a realistic view of what it can, and can't, do for you.

Berkun has a lot more to say on the topic -- check out his full post -- but I'm also interested in your thoughts. What kind of value are you getting out of social media? Let me know in the comments section.

(image by Damien Basile via Flickr, CC 2.0)