Do we need best practice in social networking?

Following on from a comment by one of my readers Jane, pointing out that there may be issues around when it is and isn't appropriate to use social networking I thought a little piece on appropriate, and inappropriate use of these new technologies might be worthwhile. We have already seen, here in the UK, two very good examples of inappropriate use of twitter, firstly by jurers during a criminal trial, a situation in which the jury, as part of their commitment to the legal process are bound not to discuss a case that they are sitting on, and secondly the use of twitter by politicians during a debate in the House of Commons. I think we are at a stage when, loath as I am always to suggest this, we need to look at a revamping of legislation around communication devices, rather than simply looking at etiquette guidelines.

I am reminded of the ongoing situation with mobile phones, where as they became ubiquitous and there was a marketing push to suggest that we should all be constantly connected, a situation developed where you would see people checking their messages and texting during meals out in restaurants, using the phone whilst pushing a baby carriage across a busy road, and the most obvious one, using mobile phones whilst driving. This latter one has now been legislated against, using existing laws regarding being distracted whilst driving, and we are seeing more and more places such as restaurants asking clients not to use their phones whilst dining. So we have legislative and etiquette based controls. Anecdotally I would suggest that legislation is proving more effective that etiquette, as one would expect.

I do not like the idea of using legislative power to control a situation that should never have arisen in a polite and respectful society, and certainly not where legislation is already in place as in the case of criminal trials and the behaviour of jurers. I think what we need is rapid re-education into appropriate use of this quickly growing technology, and a better understanding of how this technology should be used as it was intended. Or perhaps I am just finally becoming the old cummudgeon that I secret suspected I would. I guess a major factor is the constant drive for ever more success, whether that be in a business context or in our personal lives. Certainly, within my own business sector I am finding that it is increasingly difficult to achieve any really effective downtime, simply because the demands on my time are so great, so I am guilty of picking up email and messages and texts at all hours of the day and night. Perhaps we need to look towards working smarter and becoming better at delegating and outsourcing. I believe that I could free up some of my time if I was better at passing on some of my workload that I am not so efficient at to another company, so maybe that is something to consider.....