A Day Without Social Is Like A Day Without...

A random Tweet telling of Twitter’s Top Tweeters taking time out of the tweetosphere in recognition of World AIDS Day, December 1, 2010, inspired me to take my own break from my connection to an ever-growing number of people, characters and news sources. Granted I’m no Kim Kardashian, with millions of followers [I still have no idea why so many are interested in her] but I think an issue of such importance to the human race needed to be supported, however seemingly small my gesture.

I started by replacing all my head shot images to the symbolic red ribbon in the very early hours of December 1, changing gears from the freakish light bulb head creature I decided to go with to represent my personal brand – it’s really not that far off reality, but anyway…

Then throughout the day I abstained from all postings, tweets, retweets, Likes, comments, links, thank you notes and other feed-based activities in support of this symbolic and important day.

Celebrity endorsement of social movements within the world of social media has the ability to touch a lot of lives. The viral impact of such simple and minimal gestures holds massive implications for the needs of non profits, political movements, human rights efforts and lobbying efforts, both ‘good and bad’.

Personally, I took the opportunity to take the day off Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – yes I had to respond to email and messages, but I resisted my usual soap box rants to support the possible ground swell social media can pose on general public knowledge, opinion and support.

It wasn’t easy. Social media plays a huge role in my life, being the primary channel for setting up both business and personal real-life engagements and abstaining from its magnetic charms was like a day in solitary confinement. So rather than brood around the machine, I took a ‘me’ day and took time to do some things that always seem last in line. It was a nice change, but man do I feel better I’m back on my soapbox no longer having to resist that tempting, little retweet button.