★ Social Media is Ruining Everything…

While reading two posts today, I got angry and embarrassed for how things are going and where we’re heading. The first post from WSJ.com called, “The End of the Email Era” This piece in a respectable paper (even the online edition) lead me to have an internal argument / rant as I sipped what was meant to be a relaxing oolong tea. My rant on this post was simply too long to put into less than 10 tweets so I kept it to myself with no plans of writing a blog post.

Later in the day, a post from my friend MG Siegler on TechCrunch called, “Google Wave And The Dawn Of Passive-Aggressive Communication” simply put me over the edge. I’m not calling out the respective authors of these op-ed pieces nor am I calling out the publications. Honestly, I’m calling out myself and the masses who power up their computers and smartphones everyday and shape the future of online communication.

I profit on social media. It’s become my bread and butter and the daily evolution of how I communicate online with friends, colleagues and people that I’ve yet to meet. Social networking has changed my life and until now, I’ve fully embraced where we’re going (most of the time). The next couple of years look pretty awesome. The market I love and embrace will continue to grow, evolve and connect more people but the next 10 years are certainly leading to doom us all.

Last night I was talking to my Dad on the phone for over two and a half hours. He’s taught me so much in life and his teachings have lead me on many paths, some that I don’t think he wholeheartedly agrees on such as my embrace of technology. He doesn’t follow eastern philosophy and instead he lives it in his daily life. His approach to technology is the exact opposite of mine but he’s the only person I can talk to for hours on end without a single mention of phones, TVs, computers or Twitter. We talk about history, philosophy, the martial arts and journeys of our bodies, minds and spirits. Naturally, Dad doesn’t embrace social networking but he understands its current value to a future world without borders where anyone can connect with anything without delay, cost or filter. True communications that make the world smaller.

This benefits of social networking, beginning with email, are apparent to us all. It’s how this new form of communication has affected us that bothers me and furthermore, where we’re going bothers me even more.

MG makes excellent points in how he weighs in on the differences between Email, Instant Messages, Twitter, Facebook and Google Wave. Wave’s success is uncertain at this time. No one knows if Google Wave will be huge or simply become something that us geeks use as a niche product. Gmail, which had invites going for big money on eBay a few years ago has trumped AOL as the #2 webmail client in the world. Google Voice (formerly called GrandCentral) is still invite only and only after I show it off to people, do they get excited about it. Wave is exciting but many people are left disappointing. This is comforting to me.

Google Wave fills the void between Twitter, Email and IM by allowing users to engage in the conversation or let it slip by w/o adding commentary. Emails pretty much need to be replied to or at least the person sending you a message expects a reply. I’m surprised that tools weren’t put in place long ago do make sure that an email isn’t ignored. There’s that annoying Outlook “Read Receipts” option that just pisses people off but it’s not server side and only works if they’re running Outlook too. In concept, Google Wave appeals to me but in application it’s the biggest time sink I’ve ever been a whiteness to.

A typical moment in Wave would be emails coming in, replying to them as a chat format, sharing attachments and ultimately collaborating with 1 or many people in real time quickly and seamlessly. For this, I embrace Google Wave but the inevitable collapse of being unable to disconnect is upon us and yes I’m looking at you Neo because Google is making The Matrix more and more of a reality each year.

Many people make the argument that email is counter-productive but it’s not really. It’s an organized and more importantly comfortable communication medium for people that call themselves “non-computer users” My family who is, for the most part, not technically savvy will use email fluently without complaints. Email may be counter productive for the hyper-active real-time folks in the tech sector but real-time isn’t where it’s at because frankly, business moves slow and a real time communications tool isn’t going to make it that much faster.

Social networks are counter productive if you’re measuring productivity in units. If I have 10 tasks to complete today and all social networks are banned aside from an internal collaboration tool like Yammer or MS Sharepoint, I’ll get that work done faster by far than if I had Twitter & Facebook status updates popping up to say hello. throw in some social networks and productivity drops significantly. Some would argue that Google Wave is exactly like Microsoft Sharepoint. The utility and major uses are identical but Sharepoint isn’t real time. I find RT distracting as things move automatically on the page and prefer email notifications or checking it when I find time in the middle of the day.

Business won’t move faster with RT because, like today, there’s always that decision maker that doesn’t stay connected to Email, Sharepoint and soon, Google Wave because he doesn’t want to or he’s simply too busy. For business to benefit, everyone has to be on board.

Collaboration is great when it’s used to improve workflow. Merging or “mashups” of technologies such as Email and IM is a bad choice. Furthermore, making it web based such as Google Wave just bites cause I like owning my conversation and not Google. It seems like everyone else is okay with giving Google everything. For now, we’re okay to sit back and open wide for the convergence of email, IM and social status updates w/ real time collaboration tools but soon I think we’re going to collaborate so much that no work will actually get done. The time when a typical corporate drone spends all day checking what his co-workers are doing, who’s eating lunch, who’s turning in a project, what is done here and there and the exact location of that cute girl in accounting (GPS auto-location), will be the ultimate collapse of “optimization” and we’ll become victim of useless information overload. Those that prevail will be those who “don’t get it” and just use email “cause it’s easier.” They’ll be getting so much done and we’ll be collaborating on and on and on.

“What did you do today hun? Oh man, I collaborated so much my head hurts! We collaborated some great ideas and I look forward to sharing more tomorrow. We’re working so hard but it feels like we always fall short of actually getting anything done.”