It completely depends on how you're using them, just like email, phone calls, and face-to-face communication. They can be a highly effective tool for keeping in touch with friends, family, and customers, or they can wrap you up in time- and energy-draining activities.

Great topic, hamishB! I agree with csreed in that it depends on if you use social-networking sites as a priority when they're not. If you're constantly checking these sites then yes, I think it would belong in Quadrant 4.

Any other thoughts?

I know lots of people who use them to play games and silly stuff.  I like it because it is a very quick way to check in on what my family and friends are doing, make a quick contact to say hello and also find a lot of long lost friends.  It lets me instantly connect with my best friend who is in a different time zone.  If she's on and I'm on we can chat briefly or be able to tell if we can get in a phone chat.  It's really good for her because she never knows if it's safe to call me without interruupting my daughters' bedtimes or waking them with a ringing phone.

I am actually looking at the use of Social Networking (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.) as a way to promote my massage therapy practice.  So I would have to say it's a little more important to me than using it for just checking on friends, although I'm sure I'll use it for that too. :)

OK: I think Facebook and Twitter can fit into quadrant 2: relationship building and opportunity seeking. They can fit into quadrant 1: for example the use of Twitter during the Iran elections recently, urgent and important.

But ... Sadly, I suspect most Facebook and Twitter use falls into quadrant 4: not important/not urgent. Why?

How many online 'friendships' turn into real relationships ... and therefore new opportunities. I suspect very few.

I mentioned to an associate recently that I knew someone who had 200 Facebook 'friends'. His response: "No, that's someone who has pushed the 'friend' button 200 times." I rest my case. :)

I have been able to catch up with old school mates and most importantly family.  When my parents divorced I lost touch with most of my dad's side of the family...I am able to talk to cousins that I spent a good amount of my childhood with, but haven't seen in years.
Also, my hubby's family had business gone wrong and we were left out of contact with his young cousins that we adored.  I recently found them on facebook and was able to talk to them for the first time in 3 years...we were able to see how grown they were and they were able to see pictures of our two little girls they never met!  That falls into Q2 as far as I'm concerned!

Great topic and one I've been struggling with!  I keep thinking I should ditch facebook because I seem to lack the discipline to set a time limit and sign off.  I'll find myself looking at someone's pictures and before I know it, I've lost time I should have been using for something more productive. 

Yet I've re-connected with family and friends, and even my college professors.  And for those reasons I hesitate to leave.  I need to start using the timer that needs me to press Off to stop beeping and then logout before walking across the room to quiet the timer.

Thanks for all of the postings.  I really enjoy seeing how other people manage their use of these sites!

Great topic.  I used to be a heavy Twitter user, but then I asked myself why.  It wasn't helping to move me towards any of my goals and was consuming a huge amount of my time.  So I dropped it.  I still use Facebook to keep up with family and close friends but I block all of those silly quiz and game applications.  They are also time stealers!

Yeah, I hate all those stupid little add ons and games on FB!  I stick to checking on what people are doing checking photos and sending messages!  I also add photos whenever I can of my little girls so my mom and sister in GA are able to keep up with their activities!

Time is what you make it. I never schedule social networking time; it's what I do in my downtime and to structure it more would be defeating the purpose.

However, I'd put it in quadrant 1; definitely quadrant two. I have, not 200+, 2,000+ "friends" on FB (all disorganized). I started my account when it first began in order to be accessible to students as well as recruit grad students. Now that I'm no longer teaching (or married) and it's a "social-networking" site, I use it to play silly games and stuff. Why not? It's my down-time, it helps me de-stress, I keep my IMs on, and when I send silly things to random and not-so-random people on my friends-list, I make surprising connections.

Lately, all of my business has been coming through Facebook; and it's all mixed in as only the internet can mix us. Yes, valuable connections and real life friends have been generated via the minutes or hours I spend there in "Riverworld" (the science-fiction/fantasy writer, Phillip Jose Farmer wrote about a world where everyone wakes up with nothing beside this long river and everyone who was ever alive is alive again -- and interacting.)

As with most things human, it's all individual. Hey, some people love opera and reality shows. It's like a virtual golf course or Bohemian Grove.

My biggest problem was organizing and archiving all the important messages from Facebook. Now I have the messages emailed to my main account where I put them in mail folders. Some I print out to size and use a whole punch to put them in my binder, especially when I travel.