Social networks, tools, utility and noise

There is some irony in this post about social tools, like Twitter, in that I’ll probably tweet this (is that the correct terminology?) and maybe even post it as a note on Facebook. This is about social tools and noise and it’s prompted by a blog post titled 20 days off from Twitter: A View From The Outside.

In part, the blogger Jeremiah Owyang says, “When I watched what was happening on twitter from afar, I realized more than ever how much of the data that was created was pure noise…”

That’s no surprise. I think we all know that much of it is noise but much of the “outside world” is noise too, though perhaps of a different kind.

For a long time after moving to New Brunswick I spent much less time online because the outside world was much more engaging. It was a new place, new people, new house … even a new dog. These days I’m blogging much more often largely because much of all that is no longer new. Through curious osmosis it has become part of everyday life, the kind of living we take for granted and probably don’t appreciate enough. It’s also winter – January and this is Canada. That means cold and snow. As someone who doesn’t drive but walks everywhere … well, let’s just say I’m a little more housebound.

Where is all this going? Why have I tediously written all this preamble? Just this:

With social tools like Twitter and Facebook and all those others, I think it’s important to manage just how many people/companies you follow. How many friends you have. Otherwise, you feed the noise level for yourself. I know some people follow dozens, even hundreds of Twitter accounts. Or have hundreds of friends on Facebook. How do you keep up with the ones you actually care about? How do you use a tool like Twirl without having it “Ding!” constantly?

I suspect it’s a bit of a game for some – follow as many of accounts as possible, gather the most friends (a term used very loosely). Soon, however, the utility of the account vanishes as the noise level rises. I currently follow 21 accounts on Twitter. Depending on what other people/companies I come upon, I may add a few more. But already I find Twhirl dinging with great frequency. (It’s interesting to see how it increases as those in the Pacific time zone rise and shine. It appears I follow more people on the west coast than I do in the east, which is where I actually live.)

I think there is a utility tipping point here. Tools such as these become more useful the more connections you make and the more people embrace the tool. But once it achieves its tipping point the usefullness starts going the other way. It decreases as the noise increases.

I guess the question is, how do you tell where that tipping point is?