You Might Be Addicted to Social Media If…

Social media is a great tool for connecting with people, promoting your business and just plain socializing. You can learn great tips ranging from which gadgets best suit your lifestyle to how to make a great sandwich. If you’ve got a quirky interest, there’s probably someone else (possibly dozens, even hundreds) out there with that same quirky interests.

Yes, some people see social media as a time waster, a useless popularity contest and a distraction from the important things in life. But it’s fun and has a lot of practical businesses as well. Of course, you can get carried away with it so, in the tradition of Jeff Foxworthy’s “You might be a redneck” here are some fun indicators that you or someone you know might be addicted to social media:

• You have to carry an extra set of business cards with you – just to list all the social media communities you belong to.
• An attractive person walks by and you whisper to your friends “wow, I’d like to friend him/her on Facebook.”
• You refer to your friends from Twitter by their @ username when you talk to them in person.
• You send out twice as many e-cards at Christmastime to your social media friends as you send real cards to people you’ve met in person.
• You own a t-shirt that says either “Tweet this!”or “Digg this!”
• You wake up extra early to be the first one in your online circle of friends to wish everyone a good morning.
• You subscribe to 100 RSS feeds and 100 channels on Youtube just so you can be the first to post a link to the next viral meme.
• You choose your friends based on their Twinfluence.
• You suffer from updates withdrawal when you run to the grocery store and forget your iPhone at home.
• You stopped driving in to work and started taking the train just so you can continue to post updates during that otherwise wasted time.
• You have a tickler file titled “cool status updates.”
• You’re seeing someone to help you with on-line/off-line life balance.
• You’ve created multiple accounts in the same community and each one has taken on a personality of its own.
• You have nightmares about your account getting locked out.
• You run into people at the supermarket that recognize you from social media.
• The microphone on your cell phone stops working but it takes you over a week to realize it.
• Your entire online profile is based on a character you created in grade school.
• You know at least three people in each major city throughout the world.
• You have a tattoo with your Twitter username or myspace url on it.
• All your emails and text messages are 140 characters or less – out of habit.
• When you don’t post an update on your status for 24 hours, you get 100 messages asking if you’re okay.
• You find it to be a traumatic experience when someone stops following your updates on Twitter.
• People offer you money to post a link to their web site.
• You created your own Ning network and are migrating everyone to it.

Have some more? Add a comment and include a link to your favorite social media profile.

James Feudo

James Feudo owns the Boston Web Design Agency JVF Solutions and loves blogging about personal development and communication in his spare time.