Procrastination - The Trap of Social Media

We've all been here.

It's 5pm the day before an essay/article/work report is due, with all the sincerity in the world you sit down at your computer ready to punch out a truly remarkable piece of work, one that Tolstoy would surely claim as his own.

Fast forward to three hours later...

You have managed to update your Twitter status seven times, do an in depth stalk of three old high school crushes, watch an episode of 30 rock, pin artsy pictures on Pinterest and update your profile on LinkedIn.

If you are a social media marketing manager, job well done.

If you are the rest of the world, chances are the work you have actually completed consists of a heading, a blank page and a blinking cursor anticipating something to be typed on a Word document.

I'm sure it took Tolstoy at least a few hours to come up with the title War and Peace, but if your headline consists of 'GOVT3236 - Analytical Essay' I don't think you can claim the time frame as deliberation on the English language.

It is times like this I manage to astound myself with the lengths I will go to NOT to do something. Usually this requires double the effort of the original task, but does my brain realise the absolute ridiculousness of the situation? Of course not, otherwise I would not be writing this blog post, (yes, I have an essay due tomorrow).

The most alarming of these moments was a week ago when I found myself in the unusual position of sitting in my completely spotless apartment, three loads of washing done, books rearranged, uni notes filed and despairingly, I was completely at a loss of distractions.

So what did I do? I Googled ways to not procrastinate. For two hours.

I had sunk to a new low and something needed to be done.

Luckily for me, I had searched ways to not procrastinate (great work, Sarah), so I had come across some cool applications that might would help me, now that I was to become an efficient and productive wiz-kid.

First thing was first, climbing out of the social media black hole just for a few hours. But how?

Anti-Social - is a downloadable productivity app which allows you to type in the domain names of sites that stop you from doing what you need to do. You simply type in the domains and then select the time frame you want to be blocked from them. If, in the event of a social media emergency, you need to gain access to these sites before time is up you can reboot your computer. You get five free trials of this and then if it works for you, download it for $15.

Freedom - is Anti-Social's little sister and goes one step further. Under the same premise of time frames it instead blocks you from accessing anything on the internet and is available for download for $10.

For those wanting both of these apps, you can bundle and buy the two for a reduced price of $20. The downside is that Anti-Social is not available on PC's, only Mac's. I guess this is because all the hip "I'm a converse wearing, satchel carrying, Mac" types are more addicted to social media than PC users, maybe...

If you are really in a time crunch the next application lays it on the line right from the get go.

Write or Die  - 'Putting the prod in productivity', because who doesn't like a bit of sadistic behaviour from a computer app? No one and that is what you'll get. The premise of this is that you have to keep typing or there will be consequences. Ranging from unpleasant sounds, to your work actually starting to delete itself, it's just best if you keep typing. You can download it from Itunes for $10.

I have yet employ these in my work because obviously I had to write this blog to help everyone out. I'm pretty selfless like that, it's nothing to do with me STILL avoiding work.

Anyway, time to get on with my version of War and Peace. If I copy and paste the essay question at the top of the page, that's at least four more lines... brilliant.

Kony2012: No Matter Which Side - We Can Agree On This

Since the Kony 2012 campaign last week the world has been in an uproar. Everyone has sat firmly on one of two sides; either promoting or condemning the video that was released and the charity behind it, 'Invisible Children'.

Quite literally hundreds of thousands of blog posts, news articles, radio and television shows, not to mention dinner conversations, have centred around Kony 2012, Uganda and the LRA. In multiple cases discussions were heated and intense. Innocent people unknowingly walked into a minefield by simply muttering the statement, "So what do you think about Kony2012?"

So here I will state the obvious - The campaign worked.

This campaign whether ill-informed, simplistic, or idealistic and with an apparently questionable fund dispersion system, reached tens of millions of people within days. Out of every campaign ever created this has without doubt been the most successful in the short term, particularly through the platform of social media.

Whether you agree or disagree on the issue at hand you cannot dispute the extreme reach of this remarkable social media marketing strategy. It will be interesting to see the effects this campaign has on marketing and social media campaigning from here on out.

So what's my opinion on Kony 2012? Well.... you walked right into that one didn't you!

While I do not necessarily condone the 'fundraising' aspect of the campaign as I don't much care for financial aid for military (especially of groups like the Ugandan Army who are constant violators of human rights) I do see a positive side to the campaign in its success of raising awareness.



I can see all of you nay-sayers raring up at that one with comments like "What, you mean people blindly following the new big fad?" and "They will forget about it in a week, how is that awareness!"

While I agree that both of these are valid arguments and have proven to be partly true over the last week, with people backtracking on opinions and already moving onto the next big thing, I still believe the awareness the campaign created will be beneficial.

In an online (of course) debate I had with a friend of mine, my reasoning for this was that for every 10 million people who blindly followed the campaign, there were perhaps 1000 who did further and extended research on Kony and the LRA. Maybe of these thousand, 100 people then researched the best method for getting involved in a grassroots movement to either minimise or prevent further events like this from happening. And maybe 20 of these people will continue in an effort to learn, raise awareness or help implement more appropriate prevention strategies in their lifetime.

As I write this there has been over 70 million hits on the video - if I work with my numbers above that is 140 people (I hope, I'm terrible at maths) who could possibly work towards beneficial solutions to prevent violations of human rights.

Isn't that an achievement? I think it is. It is also why I maintain my position that the Kony2012 campaign is a positive thing.

But here is the thing, don't just take my word for it. Be one of the 1000 who research further. Here are two great articles I have found, one from each side of the fence.

Some articles disagreeing with the campaign can be seen at:

-  'Unmuted - You Don't Have My Vote'

- 'Visible Children - We Got Trouble'

Some articles agreeing that the campaign has positives can be seen at:

-  'At Water's Edge - Can the United Nations Harness Kony2012's Energy?'

- 'Congo Siasa - From Campaigning to Action on Joseph Kony and the LRA'


Also to watch continued debates from both sides Al Jazeera has a spotlight on Kony - 'Al Jazeera - Spotlight: Kony'

I willingly admit that my opinion, is just that. This issue is vastly more complex than watching a 30 minute video. It would take years to understand, to any extent, the gravity of Uganda's political and  social history and why things are the way they are. Yet, as I referenced earlier, it could be a start for some people.