The Public Isolation Project is based on a very interesting idea : going 100% digital for 30 days without any contact with the real world. ‘Exploring the anti-social side of social media’, as the organisers put it.

CNN covered the project two days ago, observing Cristin Norine, ‘the lady in the glass house’, as she documented her real-time observations and feelings each day.

It’s obvious that she’ll quickly expand her network, content, and engagement online – it’s the equivalent of a brand dedicating all their time to engaging with consumers solely through social media. However, the lack of depth could be a barrier for *really* developing relationships. The falsity of this purposefully siloed experiment shadows the interactions.

Splitting one’s ‘digital’ and ‘real’ life is something that, as we’ve said many times at 1000heads, we find totally bizarre. People just don’t think of their social media use as this kind of manic, isolated activity, especially as technology interfaces become increasingly invisible, and smart apps bring augmented digital layers to the real world in real time.

Face-to-face interactions still win. We live in physical spaces and social media facilitates communication, connections… but taken in isolation it’s, well, it’s a headline-grabbing experiment, but of no real use to anyone.

‘Social media’ isn’t anti-social, unless you choose to see it – or use it – that way.

Tags: cristin norine, offline WOM, public isolation project, social media, word of mouth