The Method of Madness

On the Internet, everyone is an expert. I’ve come to realize this from being on Twitter and roving around the HR and Recruitment social media space, and this disturbs me.

One of the most important things to me is authenticity, which goes hand-in-hand with truth and other qualities like it. Authenticity is important to building an audience and building credibility, but I’ve witnessed a lot of people building authenticity and had myself thinking, “How in the world can they be doing this?” I thought about it, cursed a few times, had a beer, and then it came to me. Well, really, it just came to me, but whatever.

Community. In other words, these “authentic” people (Bloggers, Tweeters, what-have-you) have essentially found others willing to agree with their ideas and opinions. In this world of social media, those folks are also (usually) willing to reshare the content. And so the cycle goes, turning into a self-sustaining circle jerk of like-minded personalities that does nothing but recycle and re-hash the same content and ideas.

Cliques, anyone? My, how little changes from high school…

The next step, of course, is the “community” self-styling itself as a collective of experts. This works, by the way, because of how “authenticity” is constructed; it’s akin to a virus, really. And bingo: you’ve got a load of bullshit coming down the pipeline, probably 2/3′s of which is more self-serving drivel to position the community as experts, and the other 1/3 consisting of the recycled content.

So in the beginning of my post, I singled out the HR/Recruitment social media space. My bottom line opinion about it is just what I’ve written here: a bunch of self-styled (and self-rewarded) influencers who do more collective hot-air blowing than any real change. I can’t even count how many blog posts, Tweets, and statuses have reflected and condemned some of the worst HR practices – discrimination, bad decisions, etc. – and yet, I’ve seen nothing remarkably changed about the industry by all of these “influencers.” So, again, my contention is that their “influence” stops as soon as it hits the computer screen.

And so the illusion of expertise. Expertise on a subject goes beyond just knowing it and talking about it. Expertise would have you effectively sharing these ideas to enact meaningful change. If these “influencers” can’t produce meaningful change in the industry they purport to represent, the only thing they’re influencing is other people’s perceptions of them.

Sorry, I’m just not that into you.

There’s something about social media that irritates me.

Is it really always on?

Perhaps what I mean can best be illustrated with this example: my boyfriend gets mad at me if I don’t answer my cell phone. He will call once, twice, as many times until I pick up with an exasperated “What?”, to which he replies with an equally exasperated “Hello?” My point is that because I have a cell phone, he felt I should be available at all times. Several harsh words and a stern tone later, my boyfriend now understands that just because I’m mobile doesn’t mean I’m available all the time. Do people realize this with social media?

The Internet world is all about speed, and indeed, when a customer makes a complaint online you want to address it with due course and quickness. But does this mean you need to have someone stalking the corporate Twitter feed at 3 AM? I don’t think so. The other facet to social media is that it’s all about relationships, about people – and people don’t operate 24 hours a day. We all need a breather and a moment to step away to gather our energy.

While our mobility – meaning iPhones, Blackberries, etc – have enabled us to access social media on the go, I believe that this brings another layer to the “accessibility” issue. Followers, fans, and friends can all come to expect you to be “there” in an almost omnipresent fashion. Here’s another example. I had a follower on Twitter join my feed, and about four hours later I had a chance to sit down to my email and send him a ‘thank you’ DM. By then, he had already un-followed me.

While I love the fact we can access information from pretty much anywhere in the world, just because you can doesn’t translate to you should. Everyone has priorities away from their social roles and we need to respectful of that part of the relationship we have with those people. I can’t say it any plainer: give me my space!