YouTwitFace

Today's headline comes from a joke told by Conan O'Brien about the fictitious merger of YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. The new name would be YouTwitFace.

As funny as it is, he's not far off on his assessment of our reliance on social media in our day to day lives.

A friend of mine works for a company that filters out social media sites from every computer except one — hers. She is the public relations voice for that company and as such, is required to post on the company's behalf on social media.

A funny thing takes place around her office — coworkers ask to "sit" at her computer from time to time.

It doesn't take a genius to realize what they are doing, but a very valuable lesson can be learned as well. People will go to great lengths to have access to their social media.

Some of these same people "sitting" at her desk have smart phone and most likely check social media anyway. The filter isn't doing much good on that end.

Businesses think social media sites are eroding productivity. To some degree that is true, but another truth is that social media is so ingrained in many people, they will waste more time trying to get around the filter than time lost checking social media.

While completely embracing social media in the workplace isn't the answer either, I feel there has to be a balance. This thing isn't going away any time soon — if ever. We might as well deal with it.

I think I just might tweet about that.

Blessings,