Are You An Online Zombie? Do Make These Stupid Mistakes?

stupid

Does social media make you feel stupid? Do you make stupid mistakes online?

Me too! I’ve spent 15+ years on Twitter (Now X), participating almost daily there!

While at it I have noticed a gradual change in user behavior.

It seems that many of us, including me are going crazy!

  • We behave like real time idiots.
  • We act like racing rats on steroids.
  • Some turn into online zombies.

This post is not just another rant. Let me explain what

I mean by all those derogative terms. Also

let me explain how to deal with the situation

We can do it without giving up on social media or Twitter-X altogether.

Why and how? I still believe that it can be a valuable tool for business people.

In case you are new to X-Twitter read my posts on X pros and cons and ways to use X-Twitter first.


Is Twitter is Too Fast for You?

The faster the Web becomes the less we can cope with it.

No surprise here. It’s important to recognize how it changes us though.

Social networking in real time is in a way too much in too little time. That’s one of the reasons we even tend to believe fake news.

Nobody can digest it all. Your Twitter stream updates too fast with more than a few dozens of accounts you follow.

Even after more than 20+ years on the Web it’s difficult for me to manage the incessant influx of messages, news and media.

Scientists have shown that a more of information does not mean more knowledge or even more wisdom.

The opposite is the case. Just image a 100 people shouting at you at the same time. You won’t understand anyone of them most of time.

Only from time to time you will be able to understand what the loudest of the loud is shouting.

The more people and media shout at us the less we know.

The huge onslaught of in most cases worthless or faulty information makes you a real time idiot.


Are You Trying to Keep Up?

Many people attempt to keep up nonetheless.

They have social apps on their mobiles to be able to update and read updaes everywhere and all the time.

They drink caffeine all the time to stay awake, or worse they take drugs a generation ago were used to stay awake while dancing all night.

Only a few can make it in the digital rat race.

We call them early adopters or power users but those positive connotations are only half of the truth.

You have to get up early and have enough power to stay in the race.

You have to become a racing rat on steroids but the bots will always be faster than you.


Do You Notice Cognitive Overload?

Some people of course realized real time means an cognitive overload.

They know they can’t cope. they notice when it becomes too much. Others don’t!

There are basically two kinds of online zombies apart of course of the metaphorical use of the term for people who like like zombies after a long day of social media toil.

One type of social zombies are basically cyborgs. They have no implants and such but they behave like cyborgs.

Cyborgs claim to be human but they’re social media accounts are in many cases complete automated.

They cope by automating most of X-Twitter e.g. X and other tools already curb automation!

At first you think a real person is following you and engaging. Then you notice that they are not.

  • They match keywords they rehare and follow you based on those.
  • They insert feeds into their timeline and link to your post without ever reading them.
  • They send DM (direct messages) automatically.


Are You Dead or Undead on Social Media?

The other kind of social Web zombies are those who have abandoned X-Twitter by and large but they keep their old account.

They follow 20, 50 or 100 people instead of the 2000, 5000 or 10k they followed yesterday. It’s a purge!

After unfollowing almost everybody such zombies keep most of their followers.

You can’t detect them as easily as the cyborgs because they look even more like humans and keep quite most of the time until they broadcast to their audience once again.

I call them hollow men. They aren’t real on Twitter anymore even if they have real people behind them in real life.

Some people by now advocate the so called social media suicide.

Deleting all your profiles to get away and reclaim their lives.

That may be a solution for some or even many but I don’t want to go back to living in cages.


How to Advance Your X-Twitter Activity

I’m for progress. The only question is the right direction for that progress!

It’s also how to find the way of course to go there. Advance in the right direction!

Thus I still want to use X-Twitter as a business tool.

Yet I don’t want to become a real time idiot, a racing rat on steroids or a Twitter zombie.

As I read several self improvement and personal development blogs from time to time I’m familiar with

  • decluttering
  • time management
  • working smart instead of hard
  • focusing

techniques which help me survive the real time frenzy unscathed.

Of course the most important tool is common sense.

Let me outline a few basic techniques to help you cope wit Twitter and other real time Web applications.

Don’t use and try everything.
Believe me or not but I didn’t really use Facebook for man years.

I’m on X-Twitter most of the time, but also usually on LinkedIn just as much to keep my profile buzzing.

You have to focus on one medium or up to 5 for different purposes but you don’t need 5 social sites for social networking at the same time.

Perform one task at at time on one medium at a time.
Imagine making a phone call, chatting online and writing an email at the same time. It doesn’t work.

While you still may need a phone, a messenger app and an email client you will go crazy being available all the time on all channels.

I make appointments to chat via Skype. In case we need to talk I or the person on the other end calls.

I write one email per recipient per day. I check my email once daily.

This is also the best way to deal with Twitter.

Check it once daily unless you use it for actual productive work like I sometimes do.

Use advanced tools.
To sort the wheat from the chaff these days you can’t solely rely on your brain. It’s too much to cope.

There are advanced tools tools there that can help.

Advanced does not mean complicated. They literally advance you. Some of the tools are:

A combination all three of them works great for me.

For instance I do not follow the people and sources I need to follow for my client blogs.

I have them organized in lists based on the topics I write about or optimize for.

I check the lists only when needed.

I also use X-Twitter lists to organize the people I follow from the search, social media and blogging spheres.

For instance you may wonder why I retweet hours or days old tweets of yours.

Everybody knows that the attention span on Twitter is more or less minutes usually.

You are probably on my “best friends” list.

Also I will look up what’s popular on Twitter and search for blogging related tweets using XPro (formerly known as Tweetdeck).

Unfollow people, the wrong people.
While unfollowing 99% of people might work for some hollow men it’s like throwing away most of your precious relationships.

You still should unfollow some people or should I say accounts to minimize the work load associated with Twitter. Follow those who matter!

  • Unfollow heavy hitters tweeting 20+ links a day. Nobody can follow these anyways.
  • Unfollow people who never reply or retweet. One way communication is like talking to a wall.
  • Unfollow one way accounts that only broadcast their blog entries selfishly.
  • Unfollow cyborgs and hollow men who automate and don’t engage.

Organize them in lists or in your feed reader instead if you want to keep some of them.

To keep both your sanity and credibility you have to actively prevent becoming a real time idiot, racing rat on steroids and online zombie. Don’t try to be the

  • most prolific
  • fastest
  • or loudest

to get noticed. You’ll end up being obnoxious like the US president who has to piss off people to stay in the limelight. Prefer substance over boldness.

Strive for being the

  • most trustworthy
  • friendly
  • or straightforward

person on Twitter in your trade, industry or niche. Bot visits on websites do not count as visitors.

Bot followers on X-Twitter do not count either.

Real time idiots, racing rats on steroids and Twitter zombies are almost as bad as bots.

Choose wisely who to connect with and who to become.

Don’t fall for automated and often fake AI accounts!

I get liked by “hot girls” every day on XXX (Twitter)!

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