It’s Hard Being Social Out of Hours

When you enter the world of social media, you may not realise it at first, but you are stepping onto the world stage. You will soon be engaging with people who share your interests, passions and even expertise. You will be sharing ideas, collaborating on projects and, without knowing it, creating friendships and long lasting connections.

But – and there is a but – you will also find yourself operating outside of your normal hours. Way outside your normal hours.

Here in Australia, just as our day ends, it starts in the USA. So as I am powering down and thinking about curling up with a good book, my US-based friends are hitting the morning hard – coffee, exercise, the latest news. Meanwhile in Europe, it’s reaching towards midday – there’s work to be done and meetings to be had.

You can see it all on Twitter. It’s like a defibrillator kicking life into the global conversation. And for a few hours there is this wonderful meeting of timezones – everyone is awake, sharp, conversant.

A couple of hours later – well into the wee small hours – it’s another story. I find that my mind’s not so sharp, my voice not so loud. And while I like to be at my best at all times, sometimes it’s just not possible.

Thankfully, this neat site now shows Every Time Zone in a nice, iPad ready format. So now, if you want my best thinking and my brilliant repartee, we can sort out something that works for us all. Unless of course we’re talking across three continents. In which case, I’ll need something more than a zap to get my heart racing.

Via SwissMiss