Social Media’s Deadly Dangerous Dark Side
Jenn Whinnem is back! Without further ado, beware of these occupational hazards of handling social media without the proper precautions! And then follow Jenn on Twitter.
Not only is social media serious business…it’s dangerous business. Hazardous to your health. People who handle kryptonite and other serious chemicals have got nothing on those who use social media for business. We dodge danger at every turn.
A friend of mine, who is a social media manager as of this past February, DM’d me (that’s sent me a private message through Twitter) the other day that she was starting to experience wrist pain from tweeting so much from her phone. My friend has no idea that this is only the beginning of the most treacherous career of her life.
Did I just hear you laugh? This is no laughing matter. People have died struggling to find the right hashtag during a medical emergency instead of calling for help.
Consider this scenario: you post a status update to your Facebook profile…except the previous user didn’t log out. That status could tear a family asunder.
To say nothing of the dangers of confusing an @ reply with a DM…although, you could just ask Anthony Weiner.
Here is a list of possible afflictions that could befall you that my friend Dr. Jason (who isn’t a doctor but plays one on TV) made up on the spot:
- TRTP (Tweet Related Thumb Paralysis), caused by posting from one’s mobile device
- 2RRETS, an abbreviated form of Tourette’s caused by an excess of character-restricted communication
- Both MAD (Multiple Account Disorder) and Premature Communication can result in these kinds of comments about Detroit driving from a Chrysler employee
- Narcissolipsism, the idea that yours is the only opinion worth broadcasting on the internet and that the moment you stop talking about how great you are, you cease to exist. The early stages involve livejournals and blogger accounts, but advanced cases include vloggers, celebrity Tweeters and Spencer Pratt
- PTDSD (Post Traumatic Denial of Service Disorder), when people refuse to abandon obsolete and unpopular methods of social media
- Abbrevatosis, the inappropriate overusage of acronyms coupled with the astonishment that not everyone knows what NOAM, LFMF and TSS means.
Do you use social media? What diseases and deadly ills are you bravely soldiering on through? And more importantly, what treatments have you found? This rash is just NOT going away.
Photo credit: Emi Nyman Giles, courtesy of Flickr, CC 2.0.
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ROFL. :) Sorry, I had to.
It's Krissy! So glad to see you, lady. And who could resist this one, really? Hope you have a great long weekend.
ShakirahDawud Thanks Shakirah, I've missed you! June was ridiculously hectic, and I'm so glad to be able to visit and keep in touch again. Moving, bah! My new office is the equivalent to what the inside of my head looks like, *snorts. Hope you had a great long weekend too! Aside from a slight sunburn, mine was great! :)
krissybrady Oh, I had missed this! I apologize! I'm glad you laughed.
OMG jennwhinnem you're going to give ExtremelyAvg a run for his money with all the acronyms!
Shonali ExtremelyAvg Believe me, I'll never do it again! It's a vestige of my previous life in pharma!
jennwhinnem Shonali That was a spectacular post. I loved it! I do like to make up acronymns and you did a fantastic job.
ExtremelyAvg Shonali thanks - really have to give jasonbrow credit for the diseases. He is really creative. I just turned them into acronyms.
jennwhinnem ExtremelyAvg Shonali jasonbrow
Thanks to jennwhinnem for the creative spark. It's not often I get to break out my medical scrubs and clinical equipment but I am grateful for this chance to be your Doctor of the day.
jennwhinnem Shonali ExtremelyAvg Wow, pharma must have its own set of Deadly Dangerous Diseases, communicationwise. You'll have to tell us about 'em one day, Jenn!
ShakirahDawud Shonali ExtremelyAvg Oh my God, you don't know. Usually better over a beer, but, should you not imbibe, I recommend something calming like chamomile tea.
jennwhinnem Any opportunity to have some chamomile tea, I leap for. Sounds even better than I thought!
Multiple personality disorder; trying to keep my real life business world in focus and not confuse it with my online world. At times I don't know if I'm coming or going. I find myself making a lot more notes these days just to make sure I don't forget.
Good to see you today; hope you have a good weekend.
bdorman264 Do you find yourself confining your verbal speech to 140 characters?! Watch out!
jennwhinnem That could be a sign, huh?
bdorman264 Early Onset Indiscerniblia. Sorry. With treatment, we can prolong your ability to recognize the online from the non-online, the "real" world. But the condition is often fatal. My condolences.
jasonbrow Yes, prolong but not cure unfortunately................:)
jasonbrow bdorman264 I'm gonna have to use EOI pretty soon. Just to make people ask me what it is. Then rattle that off. And watch them get even more mystified. Thanks.
Break it up ladies. I'm here now.
Very funny post, Jenn. I would have rt with a overly cool quippy comment, but left my laptop at my office and our home computer drives me nuts. So, here I am. I will share it with the world and can't wait for my very own Jennerific post!
Haha thanks EricaAllison !
EricaAllison Same here with the home computer thing. Glad to hear it's not just me. Sometimes I wonder if it's not a good idea to just throw it out and reclaim around 20 square feet of floor space (and 100 cubic feet of just plain space)...
ShakirahDawud Agreed! It's more of a distraction than a help sometimes. I feel like I'm working on an abacus half the time (so slow, I could just phone it in and be done with it).
Oh, yeah, and Jenn? I laughed.
Hey thanks Soulati | PR . I really think it's jasonbow who kicked it up a notch with his creative illnesses!
jennwhinnem Soulati | PR
I'm medically licensed to ill.
Let's not forget the TweetDeck platform with multiple Twitter accounts, one for Facebook and LinkedIn. Invariably, you WILL send a personal tweet on a client's account AND get called on that! Only to say, "Crapola." Scramble to Twitter.com to log in and delete said tweet which has already populated anyway. Yeah, that sucks.
Soulati | PR PRETTY MUCH!!!!
Hey, no need to get all screamy on me. I'm human sometimes and can make a mistake rarely. jennwhinnem
Oh, yeah, and just because it's you and me here; I just want to say I have almost 190 and you have hardly 80. Cool. jennwhinnem
Soulati | PR Ha ha I am soooo not competitive - CONGRATS to you.
Soulati | PR So what to we call that one, eh, jennwhinnem or Dr. jasonbrow ?
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