Brother Ian over at Flagged For Follow Up recently touched a nerve on a recurring theme in my life – those uninitiated to social media claiming they can’t get involved because they don’t have time for that stuff.

I have no problem with anyone who doesn’t want to participate in social media. I don’t want to read a print newspaper anymore and am completely happy with agreeing to disagree on that point. Due to the very definition of what social media is, it only has value if other people with whom you want to stay connected to are also participating. So if they aren’t, it might have less value for you. But saying its because you don’t have time? Not sure I buy that.

Chances are all of us make the time doing things that are important to us – stopping at Starbucks for a coffee instead of drinking what comes out of the pot at home, watching TV, talking on the phone, etc. For those with networks of friends, thought leaders, and co-workers involved in social media, updating Facebook or reading a Twitter feed sometimes even saves the time of having to get long verbal updates from many individuals separately. Additionally, your personally crafted RSS feed can highlight only the information that you find most relevant instead of having to skim a paper or a host of sites to find what you need to be well informed.

Like Ian, I make time for social media because it is important to me, it is valuable to my job, it prioritizes relevant information for me, and it allows me to keep in touch with more people from more parts of my life than at any time in the past. And if I have to watch 1 fewer TV program per week to fit it in, I find that to be a good trade.