The EchoUser Experience

Living in San Francisco it’s all too easy to get wrapped up in the social media bubble.  There’s always a new service to use, an iPhone app to try out, a social network to join - it’s a constant game of catch-up, and I have to be honest that some days I positively hate it.

That said, I’m constantly learning about myself and my friends (and total strangers) by being so immersed in all this web 2.0 stuff. Who knew that I’d love broadcasting short messages to the world about what happens to be on my mind (good and bad)? Or that I’d feel compelled to log each entry into a cafe, office, or surf spot with one of my location-based apps?  If you’d asked me 2 years ago, the answer would be have been a definitive “not me!”

But things are different now, and as I adjust to a life where I’m always connected, I’m starting to rub up against some social “seams” I had totally ignored. For example, it turns out that not everyone I know on Facebook wants to know when I’ve “checked in” to a bar or cafe - especially when I change locations a half dozen times a day. Equally surprising is that my friends who use Google Buzz complain about the same, which is weird because it means that they monitor Buzz religiously since I barely ever notice new Buzz notifications!

So while I’m theoretically meant to use these tools with abandon and feel free to send out the minutae of my life to anyone who cares to pay attention (which isn’t always that many people), it turns out that what I actually have to do is carefully tip toe through the social media minefield, censoring myself as I go.

I wonder if social media tools will eventually take into account the social seams they’re potentially bowling right over, and try to maintain a little social order and sensitivity. For now, I’ll be sure to tread lightly…

So I spent a great hour and a bit at SF Green Drinks this past Wednesday night at the 111 Minna gallery.  Green Drinks are a once-monthly occurrence that bring together everyone in the green space, as well as plenty of onlookers, to chat, drink and be merry.  Yesterday’s event was sponsored by Matter Inc. and RMI2009, and was generally a success (at least in my book).

Something that did strike me, however, was how social media is being used to make the events more interactive.  We’ve all seen them: the projections on the wall of Tweets relevant to the event, the latest news and comments as they come streaming in from the Interwebs. I think it’s actually pretty neat, and gives me the feeling that I can feel the “pulse” of whatever event I’m currently scoping out.

That said, here’s the ironic part: many of the Tweets were coming from people already at Green Drinks, out mingling in the room.  This means that at some point each and every Twitterer took a minute to disconnect from the scene around them and send out a Tweet - an inherently unsocial thing to do at a social mixer, no?

It’s fascinating to see how people integrate social media into their lives, whether it’s on the bus, walking down the street, or at an event. The question for me is this: to what extent does integration come at the expense of real, authentic, in-person human experience?