Too Connected
Ever feel like you’re too connected? That you’re a little too plugged in? I’ve felt this way before and dumped a lot of unnecessary online/offline activities in the past; however, I’m beginning to wonder if I have too much on my hands again.
Social Networks
I have accounts with the following social networking tools: Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Odeo, and Digg. I actively use Twitter on a regular basis. I login to my LinkedIn account periodically to check if my colleagues have profiles. I only login to Odeo when making adjustments to the podcasts I download via Juice. As for YouTube, I don’t create my own content but have an account to keep a playlist of videos I feature on a musician fan site I run. Digg has lost its appeal, and I no longer digg any stories there, much less the site.
Verdict: I think I need to lose Digg. It’s just not fun anymore, and some of the Digg users keep up way too much drama. I also need to evaluate my use of Twitter. That means I need to think about twittering things that “count” over things that don’t. I can live with the other accounts since they don’t require much work on my end.
Email & Messaging
I have 7 email accounts: Gmail (1), Yahoo (1), Comcast (1), AOL (3), and Hotmail (1). I only use the Gmail and Yahoo email accounts; however, I have the other email accounts because of messaging (AIM/AOL), my broadband service, and because the Zune requires you to have a Windows Live ID, hence my Hotmail account.
As for messaging, I have three AIM screen names, one account for ICQ, and one Yahoo screen name. I have used only one AIM screen name consistently for the past year and rarely use Yahoo IM at all. I do not even use ICQ. In fact, I no longer know anyone who uses ICQ.
Verdict: I’m definitely getting rid of my ICQ account. Since ICQ doesn’t allow you to cancel your account, I guess I’ll just have to delete everything out of my profile and take it off of my list of Trillian connections. I also will consolidate all of my AIM activities under one screen name. I guess I’ll keep the Yahoo screen name, which only gives people two ways to chat with me online.
Unfortunately, I can’t do much about the email situation. At best, I’ll have to keep 5 of my email accounts active. I really wish I could kill my Hotmail account again, but the Zune forces me to have it. Yet, another reason why I hate Microsoft, but I digress.
Misc.
I run a musician fan site. While the web site isn’t much work, the message board maintenance - I use PHPBB - is insane. I delete several spam accounts (at least 10 if I’m lucky) a week, and I’m getting a little sick of doing that. While the spam accounts can’t post anything unless I activate them, it’s very annoying to delete and ban host names constantly. Unfortunately, this type of maintenance discourages me from posting on the message board.
I also have two cell phones. One operates on a CDMA network and the other on GSM. This use to be cool, having two cell phones, but now, I’m getting tired of carrying both of them and dealing with two cell phone bills. I also don’t like the fact that when I use one phone, it interferes, somehow, with the Bluetooth signal of my other phone. In other words, I can use my Bluetooth headset with one phone but not both. Oh, I could use it with the other phone, but this entails some annoying settings changes. I’m better off just using the speaker phone. Oh yeah, did I mention that I also have Vonage?
I also run two blogs: this one and one for my musician fan site. There are times when I wonder if the one on the fan site is not worth the time and trouble. I don’t post a lot there, but I wonder if it adds any added value to the site. People read and sometimes comment on the musician fan site blog, but part of me wonders if I’m starting to spread myself too thin again. I keep my posts to a minimum, but once I start working on some of my personal projects, I wonder if having two blogs will become an inconvenience.
Verdict: Other than shutting the message board down, I don’t have any choice but to continue my battle with spammers alone. I could find someone to help me serve as the administrator for the site, but unfortunately, many of my message board users (people that I trust) are not technical people. While PHPBB is not that difficult to administer, I just don’t know if I have time to babysit a non-technical person on how to use wildcards to ban domains, how to identify spammers, and perform other admin duties. This is just a necessary evil I’ll have to carry on by myself for now.
I will need to keep Vonage since I don’t like giving my cell phone number(s) out to anyone; however, I am seriously leaning towards getting rid of one of my cell phone accounts. One of my cell phone contracts end in August of this year. I am definitely thinking about cutting that chord and having one less device to carry around.
I will also try to maintain a proper balance between blogging here and at the musician fan site. I don’t want to burn myself out or get too worried about when I should or shouldn’t be posting. I’ve got to remember that it’s not that serious and not to put any undue pressure on myself.
It doesn’t seem like I’ve eliminated a lot, but for now, this is the best I can manage. Perhaps I can get down to simpler connections one day like a friend of mine. He currently has one phone (cell), two screen names (1 AIM, 1 Yahoo), and one email address. That sounds nice, but I doubt I’ll ever get to that point unless I remove all digital traces of me online.