I consume a large amount of online content. By “consume,” I mean actually reading things. My RSS clients — I use both Google Reader and a nifty, self-hosted program called Fever — are real rivals to the browser as my window on the web. They allow me to search and sort content far more efficiently than clicking from site to site, and fresh information is what powers my writing and thinking.

Naturally, I enjoy sharing what I find. To a fault, in fact, and there are plenty of great venues for this. The latest is Google Buzz, a promising new service which has generated an amazing amount of participation and discussion (some quite heated) since its introduction last week. Buzz can also be a huge time suck, and its convenient presence in Gmail — upon which I depend — hasn’t helped my writing output over the past few days.

It’s kind of like opening a bag of potato chips. Sure, you could eat just one and save the rest for later. But most of us don’t stop until we get to the crunchy bits at the bottom. That’s where I’m at with social media. It’s time to brush away the crumbs and go on a content sharing diet.

Eliminating rich and fatty foods

Any real diet starts with cutting the most calorie-rich foods. You know — the good stuff. To me, things like Buzz and Friendfeed are the most hypnotic. They’re full of rich content, smart discussion, and realtime goodness. They are the strawberry cheesecake of the social media world.

I’ve already bid farewell to Friendfeed. I’m not going to leave Buzz (which, based on open standards, is likely a first step toward the sort of social media nirvana I ranted about last month). But I am going to turn it off for a bit. I’ll certainly be back. By that time, Google will have added the service filtering and simpler contact management it needs to be less noisy.

I’m enthusiastic about Google Buzz. But I’m going to leave that bag of chips sealed for now.

Fewer, smaller meals

Nutritionists will tell you that eating six small meals is a better idea than gorging once or twice. I’m going to try this with social media. Rather than “holding court” a couple times a day on a given service, I’m going to split my activity into six or so timed periods. In fact, I’ll schedule these.

This technique seems particularly conducive to Twitter, which is my best-developed and best-organized network. Buzz and Friendfeed are essentially asynchronous. You can pump several items in at a time, and they’ll keep rising to the top of your followers’ queues as people comment. The conversations which form around items can go on for days.

That’s not the case with Twitter. Sure, people who maintain very small lists or check their friends’ profiles may reply to older tweets. Generally, though, Twitter is as perishable as it is synchronous. Most conversations happen when you’re present. Jumping on for short, regularly spaced sessions will likely improve my engagement — without creating productivity roadblocks.

More exercise

My most important social networks are actually email and my sites. These are where I interact online with the people who mean the most to me: my family, closest friends, professional associates — and my readers.

So that’s where I’ll invest my time. There are more social destinations and services than one person could ever serve without extensive automation and duplication. I’d rather prioritize and put the essential first. This isn’t just a digital diet — it’s an exercise in minimalism, something I write about quite a bit these days.

If I were writing this in the practical manner of More Minimal or Lighter Footstep, my Social Media Diet would boil down to these things:

Look at where you’re spending your time. Set aside services consuming the most attention.

Establish limits. I’ll be splitting my social media time into 10-minutes blocks, six times a day. Your numbers may be different, and mine are certainly subject to revision.

Concentrate on what’s important to you. In my case, that’s Twitter and Facebook. I’m hoping all this will give me more time for writing, answering reader comments on my sites, and keeping my inbox clear.

Like all diet plans, monitor the results. For me, the bathroom scale will be the successful launch of my next site, The Minimalist Century, and an uptick in the number of articles I publish each month.

Be prepared to cheat. What’s the point of a diet if you can’t have a slice of pecan pie now and then? If you’ve got some extra time, indulge. Don’t forget the ice cream on top.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. And Google Buzz, for that matter. I’ll be back as soon as I can fit into my skinny jeans again.

Post image by Lee Carson, distributed under a Creative Common license.

Tagged as: Facebook, Google Buzz, Minimalism, Social Media Diet, Twitter