Is too much Twitter bad for you?

Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are the big three social networking tools for busy professionals. But are we getting fooled into giving them more time than they're worth. Self-proclaimed "contrarian" Alan Weiss certainly thinks so, in his recent blog post Social Medea.

He takes aim at people who become too absorbed in these platforms, and makes some provocative points - such as:

• If you didn't use Facebook for a week, would your life be poorer?
• The people most in favour of these tools are those most likely to be making money encouraging their use.
• Serious conversations in these environments tend to peter out.
• Why talk of monetising Twitter when even Twitter itself can't make money from it?

The article is written in Alan's usually provocative style, and isn't entirely rational and unbiased (he even says so himself). For instance, his argument about taking a week's break from Facebook could equally be applied to "real world" networking; people selling spades are often the people most often talking up a gold rush; serious conversations might peter out online, but often create real connections offline; and Facebook - unlike Twitter - does make money.

But he does make some important points, and it's well worth the read.