I say yes.  Facebook etc.  I know ordinary people who spend an hour or two a day on these sites quite easily.

This could be time spent on actually meeting people for real which is what we’ve done for some 50,000+ years.  I’m not the only one thinking this.

According to some studies the more time you spend on computers and the internet, the more likely you are to be depressed.

Check out the top 10 US Social Networking sites.

Interesting how facebook have destroyed their USP by going from being the anti-myspace to myspace on steroids.

Just today I read a quote about the internet, making money, and depression that stopped me cold. What does this paragraph mean for you, your personal brand, your business?

And why you maybe spending more time online ’social networking’ than you ought to be if you want both better general well being and more money.

“Admittedly, I am — by conditioning, preference, and age — a low-tech person in a high-tech world. This makes me cautious. For example, there are credible studies cropping up indicating that people who spend even a few hours a week on the Internet are more subject to depression than those who don’t, and that people using the Internet for several hours every day are very subject to depression. Researchers theorize this has to do with the isolation of the medium. For me, this validates my own anxiety about stripping human relationships out of the process of doing business. I worry about the sales professionals who are so into automation that they actually achieve isolation.“

A quote by Marketer Dan Kennedy.

It’s the last sentence at the end that stuck out out for me because I’ve been automating a lot of my sales strategies myself without an idea of the end result in mind. So this got me to thinking on lots of different subjects. What a can of worms!

Now I don’t think I’ve been depressed before but I’ve always been interested in getting the odds in my favor of decreasing the possibility of negative happenings so I decided to do some research and rethink my internet time because almost a year ago I was spending much less than 2 hours per day but now I’m spending more than 2 hours per day on the internet.

Simply put, if I spend less time on the internet its less likely I’ll become depressed.

Here’s another quote to get you thinking:

While this medium for communication has opened many doors of opportunities for individuals, the internet has created a new realm of social interactions for individuals. “Many of us would prefer to speak to the person sitting next to us in the office via computer rather then face to face.” (Brierley, 2001) Persons with poor social skills are often uncomfortable with face to face experiences and social settings. “With the avoidance of face and verbal cues, social risk is largely averted, while communication (for the keyboard-literate) is enhanced and the internet may function as a venue for avoiding intimacy.” (Ross, 2005) Engaging in large quantities of time online enables people with poor social skills to avoid offline social interactions and discomfort.

Real intimacy requires risk!

Web 2.0 and online social networking etc can become an excuse for avoiding genuine intimacy. It’s an easy way to avoid being rejected in some way and the fear of rejection is a powerful fear. The more time you spend social networking online, the greater the habit will become, and the harder it will be for you to interact with people in offline senarios. (And we haven’t even began to talk about sex and hooking up which is a whole other can of worms.)

My guess is that each younger generation that uses the internet and social networking more will generally have poorer face to face social and intimacy skills.

Babies need human touch otherwise their intelligence and social ability become severely stunted. I believe the requirement for this kind of interaction as a way to achieve general well being continues throughout life and that is why the more time you spend in front of the internet the more likely it is that you will be depressed.

Yes its true and particularly true for young people because they spend more time in front of the internet than anyone else. That’s why you now have bootcamps in China and Korea for kids addicted the internet who are depressed.

Instead of spending a couple of hours on facebook you could spend that time actually looking into someones eyes while they’re smiling back at you. Facebook and Myspace etc I think are a poor ROI for your general well being and business. You fool yourself into thinking that you’re connecting when its third rate form of connecting with people.

That’s why I’ve only logged into facebook once this month. I’m phasing out email also.

Personally I’ve always rated email, mobile phones, txt messages, instant messaging, social networking etc as second and third rate forms of communication. You’ve probably read some studies which say something like 93% of communications are nonverbal.

Nonverbal communication includes voice tone and on that basis I would say that phone calls trump email. Video casting trumps blogging. There are subtle nonverbal cues in handwriting as well but who handwrites letters anymore?

Regardless this is the number one reason why selling in-the-flesh and socializing in-the-flesh are superior to online interactions. Nonverbal communication is a critical factor in building closer relationships. Of course that doesn’t mean to say you should rush out and meet everyone. (Nonverbal communication also includes touch.)

Social Networking is like social junk food. Social Networking favors interactions of greater quantity but less quality. Its the supersizing of interaction because you can ‘be friends’ with way more people and kind of keep track of what they’re doing an interact with them in an incredibly superficial way on masse. How good is it really for you?

It’s crap and it makes you socially obese (unhealthy).

In a way social networking fills you up but it just isn’t as good for you as wholesome actually meeting people face to face. Every hour you spend social networking could be an hour spent meeting someone face to face.

And its addictive like junk food. Just look at twitter.

What does more internet time mean if you’re trying to make money online?

And what about the ways of making money online that guys like John Chow advocate?

I think one of the ideas that people trying to make money online get seduced by is the idea of an automatic cash machine where they kind of just do nothing from the comfort of their own home and money is automatically just coming in.

This senario probably does not exist and its unlikely to ever, here’s why:

You can set up an online business so that you’re either doing most of the work yourself or you could outsource it to India or Virginia. Either way the internet is always changing and you’re always going to have to some how have your finger on the pulse to stay ahead of the pack.

You’re going to have to keep your finger on the pulse so you can make intelligent decisions, so there will need to be time dedicated to learning and research.

You might implement your decisions yourself, you might pay someone in India to do it but eventually you’ll be doing work even if its just a couple of hours a day which is what marketer Matt Furey says he spends on working on his business online.

Even though Dan Kennedy says you can’t beat in-the-flesh selling he also says you should only meet highly qualified prospects in business to maximise your conversion rate. You could apply this idea to your social situations in a way I suppose, I mean you’ll probably have a much more successful social life if you spend time meeting people who are interested in the same things you are and who have the positive kinds of traits you desire.

Maybe this is one of the reasons that Tim Ferris advocates a low tech diet. Tim also advocates firewalling your attention span after revealing that marijuana can lead to better productivity than a blackberry.

Another key understanding is the multiple mediums and opportunities that offline marketing presents. People marketing and making money online forget that many small businesses are still making millions with barely any internet presence or none.

Carlos Slim the Mexican telecom Billionaire who at times has been the richest man in the world does not even have a personal computer.

Marketing on the internet can bring you one of your highest ROI’s when done properly. But if you’ve set up some good online marketing, and you’re looking to expand your business with surplus cash you have available, spend that surplus cash on any form of marketing and publicity strategy that brings a profitable ROI.

There’s lots of different offline marketing channels that will produce fabulous ROI’s.

One easy way offline marketing and genuine social opportunity that can help avoid your online social networking problem is to actually create a plan for yourself and commit to going to a certain amount of business events and charity events per month/week so that you force yourself to meet more people in the flesh.

Create a plan and stick to it. Organize two events per week to attend and go them.

Some people are speaking harshly of Mark Zuckerberg but I’m sitting on the fence at the moment in most of the matters except one that I’ll talk about at the end of this article. At the end of the day the guys only 23 years old and he’s got a world of pressure on him at the moment. (Plus mega billion dollar signs in his eyes)

So what’s all this recent facebook hoohaa about?

Well there was the original controversy of him stealing the idea of facebook which has been in and out of court. An expose of sorts can be read about it here.

Initially you could pass this story off as the usual crackpots trying to cash in once someone makes it big. I haven’t really dug into the court case so I can’t comment too much but it did seem dodgy from what I read. Hence you could begin to form an idea in your mind that Zuckerberg might be dodgy.

But then there was Facebooks Beacon which went charging into peoples private data like a horny rampaging bull elephant looking for some major action. Was this naive or just purely motivated by dollar signs?

And how did Beacon even get the greenlight when it is almost certainly illegal and fraudulent? I mean they did recently get $200 million in funding and you’d think that they could have hire some decent lawyers. (You could already get the Block Facebook Beacon Firefox plugin).

People say Google have way more data than Facebook but Chris Apollo Lynn made some great points about Facebook vs Google:

1. Beacon partners send data to Facebook even if you have opted out and are logged out of Facebook.
2. Google’s practices are completely transparent. They explain it all to you and you can get there on the main page. Google even shows you how you can do it.
3. Google can’t datamine your info the same way facebook can: Google knows what you surf, but not who you are. Facebook knows everything that you tell it.
4. Google’s cookies can be cleared or blocked DIRECTLY on your browser. Facebook avoids that entirely.
5. Facebook lied to the press several times leading up to today and Zuckerberg still hasn’t addressed the data transmission for those who’ve opted out except by saying it doesn’t store the information. If that is the case, why do they send it?

And checkout how facebook stole Christmas (moveon.org):

“Oh my gosh, my cousins entire christmas shopping list this week was displayed on the [Facebook news] feed. thats so messed up. This has gotta stop!” — Tasha Valdez from Michigan

“I bought some shoes and a dress on Overstock.com and was shocked to see it on my news feed the next time I logged onto facebook. The next day I had several people come up to me and comment on the things I bought. It was really creepy. I wonder what would have happened if I had bought underwear?” — Rachel Hundley

“i found out what i was getting for Christmas from my sister…sadness.” — Annie Kadala from north Carolina

“I made a purchase yesterday for my wife for Christmas…When my wife logged onto Facebook, there was an entry in her news feed that I had bought a ring from Overstock. It had a link to the ring and everything. Christmas ruined.” — Sean Lane from Massachusetts

“I saw my gf bought an item i had been saying i wanted … so now part of my christmas gift has been ruined. Facebook is ruining christmas!” — Matthew Helfgott

Coke and Overstock have now bailed from Facebooks Beacon due to the privacy concerns and controversies.

Meanwhile while Facebook crashes and burns Zuckerberg plays Jetman.

To be fair back when Donald Trump was about $900 million in the red during the early nineties he went and played golf and everything turned out alright for him. (He made even more money, married a Slovenian Supermodel and got his own TV show (note to self – it pays handsomely to be a complete jackass with a monumental ego))

Does that mean its time to ditch facebook?

No.

There are still some good benefits to facebook and in all honesty its not like you’re exposing yourself any less than you do on myspace. And do these 20 and 30 somethings really care about privacy any more?

No. They’re brought up to be extreme extroverts online. Its still a top 30 site and there’s still money to be made.

Mark has already apologized for the screw up. Chris Apollo Lynn asks is that enough? Do you still trust him?

And could facebook be about to crash and die as fast as it rose to the top of the near top of the heap?

Whatever the case may be if Mark Zuckerberg was Eric from That 70’s show right about now Red would be calling him a dumbass. Exhibits 1, 2, and 3.

1. Facebook tries to overturn the First Amendment.
2. Nov 6th 2007 Zuckerberg announces Beacon and says “The next hundred years will be different for advertising, and it starts today“
3. Turns down a $1 Billion dollars from Yahoo.com. This is where a guy like Mark Cuban would have exit stage left.

So what should Facebook be doing? Check it out here and here.

Also checkout Facebook is a beacon for bad PR. Facebook’s beacon even tracks non-facebook users. (The Facebook boogie man runs rampant)

You know the Web 2.0 crash has already started and Facebook is really just dancing to the tune. The dotcom industry is like the penny mining industry in a lot of ways. A cycle of scams and hype that happen every decade give or take a few years. What’s great about now though is there are lots of ways of making money online for the little guy – blogging even.

It’s the Google vs Facebook PR Death match.

Since Google is the new Microsoft, Facebook has a chance to present itself as the new Google. Too bad facebook has already taken the evil legal low road.

Google and Facebook Duel It Out for PR Hype

Making a winning facebook app is like mining for gold. Less than 4% have 10,000 or more subscribers.

The best way to make money out of this phenomenon is to sell pots and pans like you do in any gold rush.

Hot Facebook app tips

Recruitment Agents are beginning to use social networking platforms like Facebook more and more to recruit staff.

Interestingly some still prefer cold calling and job boards although like it says it does work better than print.

Social networking sites are called ‘better than print’ for recruiting IT staff

Facebook is launching a new ad platform called SocialAds. Read all about it here.Facebook goes anti-social.

Ben over at instigator blog has a lot of high quality content which I will be following much more closely from now on. Some quick actions to take to build up your social media profile.

VideoEgg pays $8 – $12 per thousand impressions according to an article I refer to in my who wants to be a facebook millionaire?

Ad Network – Overview | Videoegg