Most of us use social media in some way, even if it is only by opening a LinkedIn account. But some of us have also become high-volume consumers/producers of social media.

While exploring the personal and business benefits of LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc., have we noticed additional stress level? Have we become consumers just for the sake of participation? Has the constant barrage of email, text, and status updates improved the effectiveness of our communication, bettered our social interaction, and made us more successful and happy?

So many articles, studies and books have been written about this very subject, but I thought this recent post (exploring Harrisburg University's one-week ban on social media) was particularly interesting/entertaining.

So has social media become too influential on our lives? At least one alarming statistic from the survey indicates so. According to Darr, about 15% of students said they were spending between 11 to 20 hours on social media sites--per day. How does one even have time to sleep with all that tweeting and Facebook updating?

Harrisburg University's Social Media Ban Lifted, Addictions Soothed (FastCompany.com)

I'm curious: would it be more or less revealing for the university to conduct the same test, but this time with the administration and faculty as the subjects?

If you were to go without social media for say, two weeks, would your life be better or worse? (Next step, lock the Crackberry away for a week.)

Page 1 of 1 pages