Ok Ms. Boyd, you caught me red-handedly. GUILTY AS CHARGED!!! I am definitely fit the description of those “always-on” people that you described yourself as in ch. 6 of The Social Media Reader. If I pull up the browser on my cell phone, it will go directly to my Facebook mobile page, which I remained logged in to, even when I’m not using it. If I go to twitter, it will come up, already logged into, ready for use. A lot of times, my Facebook account will be up all day, periodially checking for updates and posting into different forums and groups between work. I don’t know if I work and occasionally take internet breaks, or surf the internet and occasionally take work breaks *that was a joke everyone, I definitely don’t want to get fired :-) * Text messaging is not exempt, where throughout the course of a day I can easily get 30-40 texts if I actually engage with the senders of the texts. I tend to agree with her that the always-on approach is definitely a lifestyle, and frankly can be very addictive.
A few weeks ago, I attended a seminar on Time Management, in which the presenter stated that the average time spent on social media and checking e-mails, etc. was almost 2 hours per day. He stated that he avoids this by only turning his phone on two times during a day – once at I believe he said 12:30 PM, and the other time at 5:30 PM. He said that his phone remains off at every other time during the day, and that these designated times are when he replies to texts, returns phone calls, etc. Maybe I need to take his approach!!!
In chapter 12 of A Networked Self, the “Kodak culture” (Chalfen 1987) is discussed. Personal photography in social media can be innocent, or can be extremely detrimental. For some odd reason, I’ve always been the person who will get up and move anytime someone pulls out a camera to take pictures. On the other hand, I know several people who are “camera hams”, and will pose at the drop of a dime. Never mind that some of these poses occur while they are in possession of alcohol (and other intoxicating substances), dressed provocatively, etc. And they have no problem displaying these images on their Facebook/Twitter accounts. As a coach who has recruited student-athletes to my institution, I on multiple occasions have looked at a person’s social media page to see what type of activities that person may indulge in. On some Facebook pages, I have seen student-athletes doing some things that needless to say, made offering them a scholarship impossible.
The perspective that you gave us from your experience as a coach is very interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Yes, I have seen quite a bit!!!! In instances where I had no other means of contacting a prospect (if he was from another city, I did not have his telephone number, etc.), I would look to MySpace, Facebook, etc. to see if the player had a page. If so, I was able to direct message the player. I even had a page set up for our program that the player could view that helped me as a coach to sell my program. Well naturally, if the player’s page isn’t protected, I’m going to take a look. Needless to say if I see pictures or statuses of the young man smoking, drinking, participating in gang activity or anything that could be detrimental to our team or institution, it would raise a red flag that would make me skeptical about bringing this player in.