• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, June 1, 2016

My relationship with social media is somewhat complicated. It’s that way for many people who are striving to balance their professional and personal lives.

Social media can be many things: an outlet, a lifeline or a stream of information, both relevant and sometimes simply indulgent.  When posting and sharing, you want to avoid being an emotionless robot — but you can't share too much for fear of exposing your own silliness and/or insecurities.  You want to be friendly, but friendship is a valuable thing and not to be bestowed lightly on someone you just met at a conference, interacting only on a panel or in a conversation about “viewable impressions.”

I strive for authenticity — and sometimes, maybe most of the time, social media feels less than genuine. What you post and share with the world is typically only half the story.  The full story is shrouded under a fog of uneasiness, not yet quite ready for the world to see.

I use Twitter for news, but I rarely share personal info there. It's a stream of information on a professional level and it’s fast, with the new being reported there and spreading like wildfire.

I use Facebook for more personal interaction. I guard who I friend, because my rule is, I need to be able to pick up a phone or send someone an email and be able to engage with them about a mutually interesting topic, or else they shouldn't be my friend on Facebook.  

Pinterest is eye candy and Instagram is too, with both platforms full of pics and ideas to get you thinking — but also with a high overlap for what I see on Facebook.

Of course my view of social media is tied directly to my life stage and physical location.  I'm a dad.  My high school and college friends are mostly far away, separated by 3,000 miles across the continent.  They stayed East Coast while I ventured west, and I only see them once every couple of years, if I’m lucky. Facebook is how I stay connected to them, at least by some degree.  

I have only a little time each week that's not dominated by work, kids’ activities, being a husband, and trying to exercise and take a little care of myself.  Staying in contact with old friends is nearly impossible without Facebook. Younger people see their friends regularly, so Facebook is less necessary for them.  They use Instagram to share immediate experiences and they talk about them later, in person.  As those folks get older and the literal distance between their friendships grows, Facebook becomes a more valuable tool.

I find very little brainpower exists for me to try out new social media platforms. I'm less a trailblazer than I was in my 20s, when I had time to test things out and get my friends to do the same.  Limitations on time mean you try out fewer new channels.  Or maybe it's just that no new good ideas are being developed?  

I tried out Vine when it launched, but it didn't stick.  I tested Snapchat, but I didn't see the way I would make use of it.  I remember using FourSquare, but I don't know anyone who uses it these days. I see a ton of other social apps in the iTunes Store, but none of them hold any perceived value for me.  Maybe the innovation is over and the winners have emerged — or maybe I'm just gettin' old.  Who knows?

All in all, and without any emojis being used in this column whatsoever, I say my relationship with social media is complicated — only because while I try to be hip, I am actually quite a simple man.  Maybe it’s actually not too complicated after all.