You Say His Blogger's Facebook Twittered Myspace?

Social Networking. Off the top of my head I can't think of two words that cause as much disdain and as much guilty pleasure as those two. Studies have come out that Facebook users have lower GPAs. Politicians have been slammed for Twittering during the State of the Union address rather than paying attention to the President. So, you'd think that any person with an ounce of productivity in his blood would quickly turn the other way when confronted by the vast array of status updating tools, right? Wrong.

Let's take me for instance. (Did you really think I would talk about someone else in my blog?) I used to love getting on Facebook to waste time between classes when I should have been doing homework. But times have changed, and now I'm all about being productive. That's where social networking comes in. How? By forgetting the social aspect of it, and focusing on the networking part. Part of being productive is knowing who to talk to when you need help on a subject. Thanks to Facebook, I have a vast array of experts in various fields at my fingertips. Another aspect of being productive is comprehending the values of people you would like to emulate or make a good impression on. I follow the Twitter feeds of Curt (our office's networking genious), Leo Laporte (a tech journalist who always seems to be on top of the newest technology), and Fr. Roderick (a priest from the Netherlands who manages 4-5 parishes and serves as CEO of SQPN, a multi-national podcasting cooperation with dozens of shows). By following these people, I start to discover how they are able to complete the things they have to do, and still make time for the things that are important to them. I also learn more about their sources of inspiration and where they go to keep up with the news. Lifehacker had an article about how following your boss' Twitter feed can help your career. The last aspect of productivity is conveying your own values. I am a huge advocate for the smart use of time, and right now I'm conveying that to you. But, even better, by integrating Facebook and Blogger, I'm able to write my thoughts once and reach people that might only use one or the other. Facebook and twitter have the ability to update each other as well, keeping my friends abreast of what I'm doing on the go.

So, the moral of this story? Stop wasting time on social networking sites with silly apps and useless stalking. Use these sites to your advantage. And when you can, integrate them together for power networking. You'll find the pleasure still intact, but without the guilt. You'll thank yourself, your friends and family will thank you, and I'll thank you. Unless I'm working on something more pressing.