Barely have people begun to understand social media—its diversity and utility—and we have doubters already popping up with ‘studies’ to warn against social media addiction

A survey by the Salford Business School of Manchester is being shared, tweeted, posted and circulated rapidly on the internet because of its headline grabbing finding that social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter feed anxiety and make people feel inadequate. Oh really? According to the study, over half of 300 odd people surveyed said "their lives had been altered for the worse" and their confidence fell after comparing their confidence to those online.

And that's not all that they are cribbing about-51% said that social networking sites had changed their behaviour negatively. Nearly 70% found they had issues with their relationships at their workplace after being 'confrontational' online. Ironically, while 55% said they found social media addictive, this apparent 'addiction' seems to be contradicted by the finding that over 60% felt compelled to turn off their cell phones, BlackBerrys and computers to take a break or that a third switched their devices off several times each day.

To my mind, the study seems to have gathered a strange bunch of 300 persons, who seem 'predisposed' to anxiety and probably feel the same sense of insecurity at school gatherings or public places, where there are bound to be others with different and better skills. Why wouldn't the same people also feel an equal degree of insecurity or anxiety-watching some of the reality or skill shows? Frankly, watching stupendously talented children in singing and dancing contests these days. What about the little MasterChef contestants that ended recently? At that age, most Indian middle class and rich parents in nuclear families, probably don't allow children to even touch knives, light gas stoves or go to school alone. So do these kids give the world an insecurity complex? Do we all go into collective depression and blame television media?  

The Salford school survey is the man-bites-dog kind of conclusion of this survey of just 300 persons, which has ensured that it finds a place in every newspaper today and is still being zipped around cyberspace and replicated on innumerable blogs and sites.

If the survey had concluded that  social media, with all its warts, has expanded our universe like never before-in a jiffy, it takes us back in time, re-connects with the past, allows us to find people around the world with similar thoughts and interests and opens our mind to diverse interests, skill-sets, knowledge levels, new paradigms and it gives us the choice of active interaction and participation or the freedom to remain a silent observer (the social media term is lurker, but its not such a bad thing to lurk and keep ones mouth shut)-would it have caused a stir? No, because those benefits are already evident.

Social media primarily connects people with common interests. It is an incredible communication tool, influencer and opinion maker, but it has a long way to go before people, social groups or companies even begin to understand how to use it effectively.

Indeed, we have hundreds of books, blogs and consultancy firms raking in big bucks by claiming they understand how to use social media effectively, but in our experience, most people are clueless. Some of the more honest, "social media" experts admit that they are also trying to learn and figure it out. One of them told us-"Google and Facebook themselves haven't yet figured out the neural networks that form and this is evident in the number of times that they change their algorithms". The fact that nobody has a clue is great news for 'social media' consultants who can confidently throw jargon and offer solutions without any clear metric. Also, since clicks, views, likes and even followers can be gamed so easily, and the gaming is rampant-it is almost impossible to judge what works and what flops.

In terms of news and views, social media is bypassing old-fashioned metrics such as eyeballs/TRPs for television and readership in the print space. Television and its stars actively use social media to promote programmes and increase viewership. Similarly, print publications that use the social space smartly are increasing their reach manifold-primarily through Twitter and Facebook. But the advertising world has still to catch on. There is no integrated readership/viewership study yet, which can provide estimates of true combined influence. And until that happens, we will be influenced by random surveys.