You’re excused to be on social media

We’re always distracted. We’re hardly ever focused on one thing at one time. As I write this blog post, I’m watching the season opener of AMC‘s original series “The Walking Dead.” I’m stopping and starting as I watch hordes of the undead attack the characters I’ve become attached to. I’m not being very productive. However, not all distractions are unproductive or bad, according to career and life blogger, Alexis Grant. Some distractions are meaningful distractions.

A “meaningful distraction” sounded like an oxymoron to my type-A ears, like a flawless opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi. If you get distracted from the task at hand, it’s hard to pick up from where you left off and finish on time or as planned. However, that’s the beauty of distractions. A distraction may take you off in a completely different direction and cause you to throw away whatever you were working on and start new and fresh with another idea. This seems especially true for those interested in advancing their brand on social media. In her blog post, Grant argues that scheduling time to peruse the Internet, to follow links in Tweets or to scroll through one’s newsfeed on Facebook or Instagram will help one to better promote their brand on social media. I follow many links in Tweets by news organizations, but I don’t necessarily use it to promote my own brand. A simple way to promote one’s own brand is to retweet interesting articles or tweets.

As a journalist, I don’t believe there is such a thing as “wasting time on the internet.” The Internet keeps journalists up-to-date on the latest happenings. Story leads can come from the what’s trending on the World Wide Web. Exploring the Internet for stories and news is no revelation to me, but now (thanks to Grant) I have an excuse for my time spent on the Internet and social media.