How many times have you sat staring at your MacBook or iPad, your mind blank, overwhelmed by the often chaotic virtual world that resides behind the glossy widescreen display? I've experienced this many times - a sense of not knowing where to begin, simply because there is too much to take in, too many places to go. I find the biggest culprits are both social networking and the mass of apps that can now be downloaded. We can more or less acquire, read, see and hear, anything via the internet. It’s wonderfully liberating and compelling, yet is also consuming and compulsive. Faced with an overload of information, I can find myself shutting down and switching off. It’s not a state I enjoy being in.
I feel the solution is to actively show constraint. Ask yourself: "What can I change to win back control of my virtual life?" I personally feel there are too many social network applications out there, fighting amongst a plethora of “life-saving” apps. As an interior designer, important criteria for me in terms of use include minimalism, aesthetic appeal and functionality. Take Facebook, that biggest of all the social network fish - well I really don't like Facebook. When confronted with my Facebook homepage, I see what I can only describe as virtual chaos. It is badly designed; there is little, if any, aesthetic pleasure; the advertising is intrusive and sharing my personal information is invasive. I made the decision recently to stop using Facebook for business and concentrate, albeit infrequently, on personal use.
LinkedIn, another of the big social networks, is to all intents and purposes rather cumbersome and awkward to use. As with Facebook, LinkedIn is far from sleek or well designed. There is little consideration for form follows function. And, just like Facebook, it is presented in a dull and uninspiring corporate blue. Worst of all, neither LinkedIn or Facebook are intuitive; in fact, the design mantra of "less is more" has been completely cast aside.
Twitter is the social network app that I have really invested my time and myself in. I enjoy the genuine sense of community that it brings and the authenticity of so many of the people using it. And most importantly, Twitter is simple to use and makes sense. I can jump in on conversations, catch up with followers, follow some amazing individuals and companies, post a link to my blog, post various links and retweet tweets, have a chat, have a moan, have some fun and be inspired. With a 140 character limit, Twitter is, for me, grounded and practical and the Mac Twitter app is a joy to use. Best of all, Twitter works as an ideal platform for mixing my business and personal sides. I use it as a business tool, but given I am my business, I feel it is important that I am also myself. And so I enjoy being personable and open.
The other social medium that, as a designer, I’m discovering and growing to love is Pinterest. The internet can become a bold, beautiful and aesthetic design and style paradise when tapping into the right places. Having the ability to “pin” images from various websites and blogs onto different boards, makes Pinterest a powerful and extremely useful tool for the designer. Not only that, but other people can follow my boards, like, comment on and repin my pins, just as I can with theirs. This makes Pinterest a social network that is visually stimulating, creative and fun, and its impact isn’t to be underestimated.
A recent article from Uprising describes Pinterest as a new movement, despite its having been around since early 2010. One reason for this is our insatiable appetite for visual stimulation and communication. Through looking at my boards and pins on Pinterest, people will get a real visual sense of me – the interior designer and the person – my style and tastes, what I feel is pertinent, relevant and worthy of attention. It's a quick and effective way of making sense of vast amounts of information. The Uprising article outlines some recent stats for Pinterest, stating that "the number of visitors went up nearly 430% between September and December last year, reaching 7.21million users worldwide." What's more, the article states that "Pinterest drives more web traffic to other sites than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined." Quite impressive indeed!
If I were to concentrate on one other social medium, it would be the blog. Often written by individuals and free from any sanction, blogs can be liberating and freeing. They are frequently a catalyst for new ideas, conversations and projects. I find that my blog provides me with a space to discuss and explore great design. It's a place where I can showcase the best of interior design, product design and architecture. And most importantly, it acts as a tool that allows people to engage with my thoughts and ideas, where I can build my own brand image. Both Twitter and Pinterest are ideal places to promote blogs; I have certainly discovered many excellent blogs this way.
I believe it’s OK to have a minimal approach to the internet, to desire an aesthetic interaction and to be selective in terms of where we best use our time. Better to invest in fewer social networks than try to spread yourself across many. There’s an abundance of great material and wonderful people out there and I’m more likely to find what I need by focusing on what’s truly useful for me. It’s a simple lesson really, but form does follow function and less is undoubtedly more.
