social media illness

Social media networks: good or bad? useful or useless?
Try as I might I am unable to downsize the number of social media networks I am registered to. Before you ask; No. I don't update my Facebook status every flippin' hour with what I've had to eat/done in the toilet/my dogs activities BUT I do tweet & sometimes about the most mundane of activities that no one in the world would find interesting (except a few close friends.. perhaps!) There are definite pros and cons and when utilised correctly it has brought more benefits then actual problems (for me, I can't say the same for others!). In fact one of the main reason to why I registered with social media networks initially was due to the nature of my work. Being an 'outdoorsy', globetrotting individual means less time indoors, more time outdoors and more time spent away in some jungle/foreign country; which made it easier to keep in touch with family and friends and letting them know what I was up to through sites such as Facebook. Saying that though, I think handwritten letters and emails are personal and I would prefer receiving personal messages and letters (quite rare these days), however when you have 30 odd family members and a dozen friends scattered across the globe, writing an individual/mass email takes up quite a bit of time; whereas with Facebook,. it is socially acceptable to post a short message on a persons wall or send a quick direct message without it being super long.

Ie;
Dear Mum & Dad.
Sorry haven't been in touch, check out my photos from my recent trip. We're doing well and surviving. Will call once we have the chance! Miss you loads.

M

Now that I am based in one country and am running a business (in the same industry: outdoor education, adventure travel) all the social media networks available have proven to be a priceless marketing tool and a way to get our names out there instantly plus information about us is available online to 100's and 1000's of potential and existing clients.
Also a proven success was a recent tree-planting campaign we did; we were extremely short of funds: to cut a long story short we weren't granted the funds we needed to plant the number of trees we initially pledged to plant. I started the campaign with 0 trees (each tree costing MYR5/GBP1/USD1.60)  2 days later: 300 trees, 4 days later 600 trees and the 5th and final day of the campaign I raised enough money to plant 700 trees. For a 5 day campaign, which was targeted towards friends and family; that's a pretty impressive amount to raise. The traditional method of campaigning would see me out on the streets, calling various people, posting up flyers... its amazing how one little Facebook status not only increased the number of trees but awareness of what we were doing as a company! Which is why I have now signed up to almost all the existing social media networks out there to test the efficiency of a particular app and to compare the responses. I have spoken to quite a few people who moan and groan about Facebook/Twitter/Myspace and say they really can't be bothered reading about others and updating their lives online, privacy issues etc etc: to those who complain about the ever-growing social media network, just say NO then, sign out, stop complaining that its a pain to update your status on a regular basis or bitching about someone posting/blogging about issues you don't necessarily agree with, guess what? They have every right to do so and you have every right to sign off and deactivate/delete your account or block them, I occasionally get frustrated and think why would she/he post that offensive article/quote-in actual fact: it is none of my business. As for my own personal accounts: I use 3. I am fast blocking followers to my twitter account and tweaking privacy settings as I find twitter to be my one & only outlet and I do understand that people don't really want to know what's happening in my life except a few close friends and family; so if I block you on twitter or if you unfollow me, its for your own benefit: trust me.