{"id":1597,"date":"2010-02-20T12:29:03","date_gmt":"2010-02-20T20:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=1597"},"modified":"2013-08-21T11:33:11","modified_gmt":"2013-08-21T19:33:11","slug":"is-social-networking-bad-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/is-social-networking-bad-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Social Networking Bad for You?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

<\/a><\/p>\n

Image courtesy of ComputerArt<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Using part of your other 8 hours on social networking websites such as Facebook<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a>, and\u00a0Twitter<\/a> can build your human capital, but social networking has a dark side that can stifle creativity and foster narrow-mindedness if you’re not careful.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time if you had different opinions, interests, or views from the norm, you were considered odd or maybe even weird.\u00a0 Then the Internet came along and changed all that.\u00a0 No matter how different you are, and no matter how strange your beliefs, you can find a million others just like you.<\/p>\n

On the surface, there’s nothing wrong with this.\u00a0 No matter what you think or what you like, there’s an online community just a few clicks away where everybody knows your name.\u00a0 The internet is now one big high school cafeteria.\u00a0 Jocks over here, nerds over there, brainiacs back there, stoners over . . . uh, stoners?<\/p>\n

Do you remember how good it felt to “fit in” to feel connected to a shared belief, purpose, or enemy (or how alienating and lonely it felt to not fit in)?\u00a0 But do you also remember the prejudice and the close-mindedness of belonging to a clique?\u00a0 The term for this is groupthink.<\/p>\n

Groupthink is when individual creativity, uniqueness, differences, and independent thinking is secondary to the group’s cohesiveness and mission.\u00a0 The stronger and tighter the group, the easier it is for groupthink to rear its ugly head.\u00a0 In other words, groupthink is what happens when its members check their individuality and ideas at the door and succumb to the will of the group.\u00a0 At the extreme, groupthink is what is required for cults to form and function. See my related post, “How to Use Herd Behavior to Get Others to Follow.<\/a>”<\/p>\n

One of the main contributors to groupthink according to Dr. Clark McCauley<\/a> is “isolation of the group from outside sources of information and analysis.”\u00a0 So how are groupthink and social media related?\u00a0 If I looked at your website bookmarks, reviewed your browser’s history, and analyzed your RSS feeds, what would I find?\u00a0 I’d probably find an eclectic mix of information (e.g., sports, politics, self-help), but would I find varying perspectives within a similar interest?<\/p>\n

All learning doesn’t increase your human capital. If you limit your focus to a narrow band of information while sheltering yourself from other ideas and perspectives, you are preventing growth.\u00a0 For example, I’m into learning how to maximize my productivity and increasing my efficiency.\u00a0 For a time, I followed a very narrow technology-based view of how to do this.\u00a0 I read all of the “life hacks” blogs such as Lifehacker<\/a> and Stepcase Lifehack<\/a> and became obsessed with downloading the latest gadgets and implementing the latest tips and tricks.\u00a0 I listened to tech-focused productivity podcasts and audio books.\u00a0 I learned a great deal (and still do) from these websites and programs, but my mistake was not that I went deep into a topic (i.e., how to use technology to get more done), but that I stopped searching for learning new strategies outside of my narrow focus.\u00a0 Even though I was trying to build my human capital, I was actually decreasing it by having tunnel vision.<\/p>\n

How to Avoid Social Networking ‘Groupthink’ <\/strong><\/p>\n

Will you expand your mind and increase your creativity more by talking to people just like you or with people who are different?\u00a0 If you’re always nodding your head in agreement, you’re not exposing yourself to unique or contradictory ideas.\u00a0 Here are a few ways to maximize creativity and limit groupthink:<\/p>\n