Just as I was about to write this blog, I remembered that I needed to check my Facebook news feed for new posts from friends and family. I also needed to send a text message to one of my colleagues about an upcoming project and get his feedback. I absolutely had to check my Outlook calendar for any appointments I might have scheduled for today. Oh, and I was going to finish reading that book about Mark Zuckerberg and Social Networking on my iPad. My life has been taken over by technology it seems.

It doesn't seem that long ago when I was bored to death and I would have to find things to do to fill my time. Back in those days, I had 3 network television channels on my TV and the only way I could keep up with my friends and family was by calling them or visiting them. If there was a project, personal or business related, I was able to devote my full attention to it until it was completed. Distractions were few and far between. Today it seems we are all overburdened with technology and communications devices that seem like technology leashes. They pull on us this way or that way constantly.  

Will we ever be able to take control of our lives again, or is it futile to even try? Younger generations seem perfectly happy to stay connected to that leash 24/7. Am I just too old to smell the cappuccino? Am I looking backward and thinking that it would be better to return to the past? Maybe, I should just fully embrace these technologies and take advantage of what they have to offer. After all, I have never had this kind of instant access to my family, my business associates or my world. It's a good thing, right? I think it is a good thing as long as you don't let it completely dominate your life.

If we let technology rule our daily lives, then we aren't really taking enough time out of each day for ourselves or for the ones we really care about. I guess I just need to find the right balance. That is easy to say, but hard to do, right? It is a lifestyle decision. Instead of letting technology run our lives, we need to step back and set some priorities. If you are trying to build the next Fortune 500 company, your time is not your own. You business life and personal life are the same. For you, there is no choice. But, for the rest of us...

Recently I wrote a blog about Mark Zuckerberg's view of social media and why he thought everyone on Facebook should be willing to share the most intimate details of their personal and business lives daily on his social network. One commenter to my blog responded that since Mark could really distinguish between his personal and professional lives, that was easy for him to say and to do. For the rest of us, we probably want to maintain some separation between those two areas of our lives.

So how can we find that balance? When and how can we free ourselves of our technology leashes? First step is to set priorities. Some people would feel completely lost if they had to put away their iPhones, Blackberries or notebook computers. I am sure age impacts those decisions. If you are old enough to have lived without all these gadgets and appliances, it is probably easier to find the proper settings and times to put them away.   

One suggestion for simplifying one's life is to start by stopping. Each day you set your agenda and try to optimize every minute of the day. What if you chose not to set any agenda? What if you just let go and didn't try to be totally productive every minute of the day. You could do whatever you felt like that morning or escape for the entire day. You could go for a walk or take a hike. You could pull out that novel that you have been meaning to read, but just couldn't find the time for.

You could take your kids or your significant other on a bike ride. You could go to the beach or the lake and just take in the natural beauty of the area. If your time is really limited, you could just go outside and watch the clouds roll by. Just remember to unplug. Leave your iPhone or Blackberry in the house or the glove box. If you have to take it with you, at least turn it off.

If you are a list person, then put aside an hour or more each day to do nothing. Write it down on your list. Stephen Covey, the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, suggests taking time for yourself on a regular basis to sharpen the saw. Translation: do something to improve your mind or your spiritual being. The metaphor is all about being able to perform at your best. Take time to sharpen the saw because with a dull saw you won't cut much wood or be very productive.

If every day of your life is so busy that you can't get everything done on your list, then re-examine your list. Typically, there are a number of things on your to-do list that might seem urgent, but aren't really that important to your job or personal life. Re-evaluate your activities in order to optimize the ones that really are important to your mission. Remove the ones that aren't really fundamentally necessary in achieving your daily goals and objectives. Your list just might become manageable.  

When it comes to your cell and your computer, you can simplify and declutter those devices. I used to receive 50-100 emails per day. A lot of them I thought I needed for work. You know the ones...Briefings on technology, leadership, management, etc. I have unsubscribed to most of them. If I need to learn the latest on any topic, I just Google it and generally learn more than I ever wanted to know in a short time.

If you have joined too many groups on linkedin and receive daily or weekly email updates, then unjoin them. Getting rid of email clutter will make your life easier to manage. Do you have too many friends on Facebook? You can hide them from view and then the only news feeds you see will be about those people that you actually care about. Don't get me started on Twitter. Unless you have a business connection that requires you posting tweets or reading other's tweets...just say no. How important can information that consists of 170 characters or less really be? Check your news feeds no more than twice a day.

And consider turning off your television set occasionally. I realize that is a lot to ask. A great many people turn on their TVs when they get up in the morning and turn them off when they go to bed. Even if they aren't actually watching, it is like an extra voice in the house to keep them company. Bottom line: Living your life vicariously through your favorite television actors or personalities is okay as long as you don't spend the bulk of your free time doing it. I realize that some of you schedule your lives around our favorite TV shows. If you are that addicted, get a DVR and do something meaningful with at least a portion of your spare time.

One final note. Recent studies have indicated that technology appliances are having an adverse effects on the attention spans of humans across the world. Our attention spans are getting shorter and we are having a more difficult time focusing on anything for extended periods of time. It is no wonder that this is happening given the amount of information we are exposed to each day and the methods we are using to communicate with each other over cell phones, instant messaging platforms, email and Twitter.

The only way to extend your ability to focus and extend your attention span is by practicing. Stop scanning the news or trade sites and start reading full articles. Read entire books. Find projects that require your full attention for extended periods of time and engage. If you want your mind back, you will have to exercise it the same as you would exercise your body to gain muscle tone.

If you want to take your life back, you can do this. It isn't really that tough. I encourage you to tell us about your ideas on unleashing yourself from technology. Inquiring minds want to know.

My web community, www.boomeropinion.com  is all about capturing and broadcasting opinions and viewpoints. We provide daily polls, discussion forums, and news about critical issues facing America and Baby Boomers. If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined us, please consider it. It is free and only takes a minute to join. Coming soon you will be able to create your own polls, initiate discussions on topics you choose and ask questions of the membership. We also have a Twitter page, http://twitter.com@boomeropinion.

I believe they can. I suspect most of you reading this can't see the connection between the three. I also believe that Web 3.0 hasn't necessarily been defined to everyone's satisfaction yet. That's okay; I have been known to hypothesize with less objective information and data in the past. I'll give it my best shot.

We will start this exercise in reverse order. Web 3.0 has been defined as social media taken to the next level. It has been described as the semantic web with intelligence and learning capabilities; where web sites understand the relationships and ascertain differences in the data they mine. In other words Web 3.0 will allow web browser and various web sites to understand your preferences in everything from news to entertainment to products and present those to you in a format that enhance your experience online. 

I remember watching John Scully, the former CEO of Apple, give a presentation on the future of computing back in the mid eighties. In his presentation, he showed a video of a professor in the future using his Apple notebook computer, aka Knowledge Navigator. The notebook was not dissimilar from today's notebooks with one exception. His personal assistant was imbedded in the computer. This mythical avatar using a woman's voice informed the professor with the details of his schedule for that day, took telephone calls, made appointments, made flight reservations, reminded the professor of his mother's birthday and even ordered flowers for the professor's mother without being prompted to do so. Bottom line, the computer contained an artificial intelligence component, knew what his preferences were and carried out routine tasks for the good professor. 

Social media has provided a platform for people to congregate, discuss social issues, review music, television, books, as well as write about their daily activities, their likes and dislikes and discuss anything else that is on their mind. The primary advantage that social media has offered is bringing people from different geographic areas together to talk about anything they want to discuss. It has removed the barriers of social interaction and allowed millions of people to communicate with each other.

I am sure that a lot of you would agree that it can be a major waste of time and stifle productivity of those people out in the workforce who prefer to jibber jabber instead of doing their actual work. That said, social media also provides an excellent platform for advertisers to reach their audience and/or sell their merchandise online.

Of course, Baby Boomers are a pet project of mine since I operate a web community, www.boomer-insight.com, which caters to Boomers. What does any of this have to do with saving the economy?  Baby Boomers represent one out of three adults in America. They control 70% of the wealth in this country and spend $2 trillion annually on consumer goods and services, which is $400 billion more than any other generation group. According to a McKinsey Quarterly, Boomers will account for 40% of the spending by 2015.

This leads me to connect the dots. The biggest issue with advertising on social networks and social media has to do with the fact that these sites are not a predictive marketplace with regard to demographics and the ability to target specific groups who engage in social networking.  The demographics and interests of these social networkers is all over the map. Once the social networks employ more sophisticated algorithms to identify their target market segments by age, gender, interests, preferences and other specific data within these divergent groups, then social media will become the darlings of the major advertisers.

Social media can provide immense audiences for these ads, but they will have to be target specific. Of course, in the past, the Madison Avenue types have targeted the 18-49 age group demographic. Hopefully they will wake up, smell the cappuccino and crack the code of who has the spending power in America. Once they do that, then they can target the correct market segments within the Baby Boomer demographic and move America's economy back in the right direction.

Finally, I will throw in one more shameless plug for my web community, www.boomer-insight.com. If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined, please consider it. It takes less than a minute to sign up. You can participate in polls, forums and discussions on the most pressing issues facing America and issues specific to Baby Boomers. If you want to air you grievances on any subject, feel free to unburden yourself. We want to take advantage of your wisdom, knowledge and life experiences. Thanks for your support.

Popularity of the Leno show was higher than it had been in its late night timeslot. Ad revenues for the network were ahead of where they were before. Yet, because NBC's old business model, the affiliates were able to dictate to the network what they wanted and Leno was not the ticket. So the late night wars begin again.

While the infighting between Leno, Conan, Jimmy Fallon and NBC continues, it does make good material for other talk show hosts. Will Jay return to his old timeslot? Probably. Will Conan take his football and go home until his $40 million contract is paid up or his non compete clause runs out? No doubt. Will NBC regain its competitive edge? Maybe, but probably not.

The bottom line here is that technology and the internet has changed the playing field forever. The major television networks no longer only compete with each other. They compete with DVRs, cable network programming, video gaming and online media. Their markets have been shrinking over the last 10-15 years dramatically. Unless they get really creative and come up with some revolutionary programming, they will go the way of the small town newspapers.

Another problem for the television networks is their shrinking audience. Millenials (ages 14-25), view the computer as their primary entertainment device and don't care that much for television. According to Deloitte's State of the Media Democracy survey, Millenials spend one third less time watching television than other generations.

Given that Millenials represent approximately 80 million Americans, this should be disturbing news for the television networks. The networks' future is indeed in jeopardy. Now if NBC could just come up with a social media reality show, then...maybe...naaaah that won't do it.

If you watch television these days, you have probably noticed that cable networks like HBO, Showtime, TNT, USA, and others have been adding high quality dramas and comedies to their lineup in the past few years. In the past, you could only find such programming on the major networks. Not only do the big three television networks have to compete with new media, now they have to scramble to compete with the 2^nd tier cable channels.

So what will the traditional big networks do to stay on top? In the last few years, they have been franchising their most popular shows like Law and Order, CSI, NCIS, etc. They add new locations and new characters to formats that have done well. How many iterations of the same shows do they expect us to watch in any given week?

Are reality shows the answer? I don't think so. Obviously shows like American Idol get the ratings, but what have ABC, CBS and NBC given us? The Biggest Loser, Wife Swap, The Bachelor? The only reality shows on those networks that I personally like are Survivor and The Amazing Race. Survivor is in the top 5 of reality shows, but The Amazing Race didn't crack the top 20.

So unless these networks bring in some really creative folks and come up with some very compelling content or new media directions, their days are numbered. Oh, they will be around, but only as a small network division of some media giant. Wait a minute, isn't that happening to NBC as I write? Of course, NBC was already a division of GE and now will be split between Comcast (51%) and GE (49%) ownership.

Can they reconstruct their business model? What's your view on this topic? Can the major networks rebound and make a startling comeback?  Or will their content become a small weekly download on your video iPod?

If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined our community, www.boomeropinion.com, please consider it. It is free and only takes a couple of minutes to sign up. You can share your viewpoint and voice your opinion on the critical issues facing America. And if we recruit enough of you, we can positively impact business and political policies around the country.

Tech journalist David Kirkpatrick's book, the facebook EFFECT, published this year tells the inside story of the company that he says is connecting the World. In 2006 Kirkpatrick wrote an article for Fortune magazine titled Why Facebook Matters. Since his first interviews with Mark Zuckerberg, Mr. Kirkpatrick has been given complete access to the Facebook operation and its key executives.

Kirkpatrick believes that Facebook is more than just another social networking site. He agrees with Mark Zuckerberg who said in one of his early interviews, "Facebook's primary mission is to help people understand the world around them". According to Kirkpatrick, the Facebook founder is wise beyond his 26 years. Even though, when Kirkpatrick told Zuckerberg in 2006 that he thought the Facebook founder was a natural CEO, Zuckerberg acted as if that was an insult.  

Facebook is closing in on five hundred million users and is one of the fastest growing companies in the history of business. Current valuations put the company value at several billion dollars. Zuckerberg has managed to maintain a major percentage of his company stock and control of its board of directors. Given his age and experience that is an amazing feat. When the company does go public, Zuckerberg's stock will make him an instant billionaire.

So why is Facebook different than other social networking sites? Well, first of all, you have to use your real identity. Second, you can control who gets access to your page and personal information. Myspace can't make such claims. Advertising is unobtrusive on Facebook, unlike other social networks. Application development by third party developers provides users with lots of ways to engage their Facebook friends.

Every month, 20 billion pieces of content are posted on user walls. Facebook is the largest photo sharing site on the web, period. Facebook's major focus is to ensure that the information presented to you is the information that really you care about.  Zuckerberg's own wall lists his interests as "openness, breaking things, revolutions, information flow, minimalism, making things, and eliminating everything that doesn't matter".

It is not just about reading the lifestreams of your family and friends, although that is a major attraction for this site. Important news items, political provocations, holiday greetings, revolutions, viral movements, insults, jokes, wisecracks, thought provoking pronouncements, business news, first hand reports of catastrophic events, stock market results and everything else under the sun is posted daily by Facebook users on their walls and on their group pages.

Kirkpatrick says that not everything posted on Facebook is positive. Is living our lives in public a good thing? He wonders if we are becoming a nation of exhibitionists. Posting commentary on the minutiae of our lives can become tedious and a general waste of time. Will living our lives online take away our ability to experience our lives first hand?  Will we lose our ability to socialize face to face? Does Facebook contribute to information overload?   

Other questions Kirkpatrick attempts to answer in his book include: "How will Facebook alter users real-world interactions? How will repressive governments respond to this new form of citizen empowerment? Should a service this large be regulated? How do we feel about a form of communication used by hundreds of millions of people that is completely controlled by one company? Are we risking our freedom by entrusting so much information about our identity to one commercial entity?" Of course, these same questions could have been asked about America's phone company, AT&T, 50 years ago.

I suspect a lot of you reading this blog believe that Facebook is a harmless social network that has allowed us to find old friends and communicate with them as well as every member of our family. Although Kirkpatrick himself admitted that his high school daughter's circle of Facebook friends didn't include him. So the privacy feature does work. I personally believe it is a brilliantly conceived communication link that will change the world in more ways than we can understand at this point. I am not convinced it was designed with that purpose in mind, but it could conceivably evolve in that direction. One thing is for sure. It will be entertaining and enlightening to see where it goes from here.

Is Mark Zuckerberg the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? He has brought together a team of experienced executives to give him guidance. Members of his Board of Directors include the founders of Paypal and Netscape. He has a grand vision and all the money he needs to guide his company to become the next Microsoft or Apple. He started his company in a dorm room like Michael Dell. He dropped out of Harvard to take his vision to the next level like Bill Gates. Will he be able to maintain control and take his company all the way to the top? Only time will tell.

The Facebook Effect is an interesting and enlightening insider's look at the early beginnings, current operations and inner workings of Facebook and its inner circle of executives. If social media is on your radar or impacts your business, it is a must read.

What's your take on Facebook and how it might impact on human social interaction and global communications in the wired world? Do you think Mark Zuckerberg will become the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates? Let us know what you think?

My web community, www.boomeropinion.com  is all about capturing and broadcasting opinions and viewpoints. We provide daily polls, discussion forums, and news about critical issues facing America and Baby Boomers. If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined us, please consider it. It is free and only takes a minute to join. Coming soon you will be able to create your own polls, initiate discussions on topics you choose and ask questions of the membership. We also have a Twitter page, http://twitter.com@boomeropinion.

Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues at Facebook believe that by openly acknowledging who we are and behaving consistently among all our friends and business associates we will help create a healthier society. Of course, his business depends on this philosophy. In his book, The Facebook Effect, David Kirkpatrick says that Zuckerberg believes, "that if we live in an ‘open and transparent' world, people will be held to the consequences of their actions and be more likely to behave more responsibly".

In a recently released Pew Internet and American Life Project survey of 895 "tech experts" and "highly engaged internet" users, two thirds responded that today's millennials will continue, as they grow older, to "disclose a great deal of personal information" in order to stay connected, and to "take advantage of social, economic and political opportunities." Bottom line is that the younger generation who has grown up with Myspace and Facebook have no qualms about continuing to post personal information on social media about themselves and their activities throughout their lives.

These are the same people who have posted embarrassing photos and text about their exploits and bad behavior. Some of these people have lost out on good jobs and/or acceptance into graduate programs because of these disclosures on their favorite social media platforms. Have they learned their lessons, or do they just dismiss these missteps as part of becoming an adult?

Is this transparency a good thing? Will it help you expand your professional network? Will it help you land that promotion or get that next dream job by virtue of the fact that your personal postings impress your current or future bosses as much as your resume and job experiences? Mark Zuckerberg hopes so. Or will these postings stifle your career advancement and ruin your chances at moving up the ladder?

According to Zuckerberg, "Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity". His thoughts on this topic basically point out that "the level of transparency the world has now won't support having two identities for a person". Because of the proliferation of information about individuals on the internet, the possibility of maintaining separate identities on the web are all but impossible. Eventually one's professional image will be overwritten by their personal image regardless of how hard they try to separate one from the other. Zuckerberg believes you only have one identity. Maybe he has a point, but a lot of older users seem apprehensive about combining their professional and personal identities.

One of Zuckerberg's early investors and mentors, Reid Hoffman, the founder of the professional online network Linkedin, has done his best to discourage users from posting personal information on Linkedin. Reid said, "Mark doesn't believe that social and professional lives are distinct". He went on to say, "That's a classic college student view. One of the things you learn as you get older is that you have these different contexts." Of course, Mark developed the original version of Facebook while he was in college at Harvard. And even today, he is barely older than most college students.

A former Facebook programmer Charlie Cheever thinks that Zuckerberg doesn't believe in privacy. Privacy has been, and remains to be a big issue with Facebook and its users. There have been numerous user revolts on this issue. To Facebook's credit, the company has responded to its users and provided better privacy controls on numerous occasions since its inception. Of course, the question still remains, "Should one company, Facebook, have sole control over the personal information of nearly 500 million users?"

What are the pros of combining your professional and personal personas? Exposure, networking, common interests with those you might want to do business with. The cons are exposure, documented misbehavior, negative networking through guilt by association and political stances that might be unattractive to prospective business partners.

Bottom line: if you don't want your personal information to be mixed in with your professional online presence, you should not go on any form of social media or join any online clubs, political groups, or other associations. Google will make your personal info available to anyone who searches on your name. Yes, you can limit what is seen on Facebook, but sooner or later you will be outed by association or your friends. Whenever you post something online, just remember the whole world is watching and reading.

What's your opinion on this topic? Has social media hurt your career or the career of someone you know? Have you missed out on a job because of your Myspace or Facebook postings? Are you active on social media? Do your friends on Facebook tag your wall with photos of your misbehavior or document your outrageous activities?

My web community, www.boomeropinion.com  is all about capturing and broadcasting opinions and viewpoints. We provide daily polls, discussion forums, and news about critical issues facing America and Baby Boomers. If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined us, please consider it. It is free and only takes a minute to join. Coming soon you will be able to create your own polls, initiate discussions on topics you choose and ask questions of the membership. We also have a Twitter page, http://twitter.com@boomeropinion.