New Year resolutions? How are they going?
It used to be fags and booze that people gave up as a New Year resolution. 2010 was the first year I heard lots of people claiming they wanted to give up social networking. Fragile idiots.
Between Christmas and New Year I saw quite a few tweets from people quietly waving goodbye for a while (the correct social media terminology here is a “Twitter hiatus“).
Stephen Fry announced he was having a rest – in order to get some real work done. And then there was the Web 2.0 suicide machine. Oh – and a rash of articles and blog posts about social media being various shades of addictive, boring and deadly (some of which we’ve talked about here). At times it looked like the long-awaited backlash might finally break… the dwindling skeptical rump of luddites *soooo* want this to happen – but it hasn’t. A similar thing happened last year, and probably the year before that.
On the other hand – I noticed that lots of other people resolved to look after their blog, or tweet, more/better rather than less in 2010.
I guess you know something has really arrived when people start giving it up because they’re enjoying it too much.
I also predict that they’ll be back – just like the smokers and boozers – with their tails between their legs. Losers.
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About the author
Tim has been creating innovative online community stuff since 2000 and was recently named as one of Revolution Magazine's 'Future 50' - one of the the "marketers, authors, entrepreneurs, and thinkers who will shape the digital industry of tomorrow". It also called him "disruptive and challenging". Tim is a founding partner of Made by Many, Agilist, strategist, Dad and designer of social software.
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New Year’s Resolutions make it too damned easy to fail, and who wants to start the year by underachieving? Seriously, reach for the stars, ok, but let’s not aim for the next galaxy over unless we’re reasonably confident we’re up for the journey.
With all due respect, technophiles and social media addicts (and assets!) such as Mr Fry et al could save themselves the pain of failure by avoiding the temptation to overachieve in the first place, non?
Full disclosure: my 2010 mandate is limited to the following rather doable aims:
1. Floss daily
2. Write more; blog more often; comment on more blogs
3. Learn my angles (I always look like a lunatic in photos)
4. Fret less and have more fun
Sara Williams
January 27, 2010
at 4:29 pm
Tim, this would make a great study. I have to think that the failure rate is greater than the success rate when it comes to New Year’s Resolutions. Personally, why wait for the New Year to make such changes, that’s the biggest mistake or hint of not seeing it through. As for me my resolution, was not to make any. So I’m upholding my end of the deal. What about you?
Mike Scheiner
January 27, 2010
at 5:43 pm