We may be cringing at the unboxing of Christmas crates at nearby shopping locations, but let’s face facts; the holidays have arrived. Also arriving this month? Early speculations about what the new year might bring.
The first to cross my transom is this post, a conjecture on social media trends for the upcoming year. I especially enjoy point number five on this list:
Mobile becomes a social media lifeline– With approximately 70 percent of organizations banning social networks and, simultaneously, sales of smartphones on the rise, it’s likely that employees will seek to feed their social media addictions on their mobile devices. What used to be cigarette breaks could turn into “social media breaks” as long as there is a clear signal and IT isn’t looking. As a result, we may see more and/or better mobile versions of our favorite social drug of choice.
Imagine, a group of people huddling outside a building around a plastic smokers stoop, and 15 feet away in the opposite direction another group of employees gathered in a community WiFi area checking e-mail, flicking and pinching touch screen smartphones, and texting madly to friends and loved ones. It could happen in the next 12 months.
I’ve never been a smoker, but always admired the built-in camaraderie I’ve witnessed by those feeding the tobacco addiction. Sometimes I’ve even wished I could stand nicotine, so that I could be in on all of those all-inclusive groups. They always seemed like they had so much fun out there, chatting, puffing, and hacking away.
I’m not your typical over-connected uber-geek. I have all the tools (e-mail, text plan, twitter and facebook clients for laptop, desktop, and mobile) but I don’t have a large social network, nor the family commitments that require constantly being in touch. What I do require throughout my day though, is mental breaks from working with my client base, even if it is just a few minutes to mindlessly surf the mobile web.
So what about you? Do you find yourself taking some time every few hours to text, e-mail, and check your twitter client? Leave a comment below, and let’s talk about it.
