If you'd like a little overview, try out this quick 2 minute "Social Networking in Plain English" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc
Visit one or more of the following social networking websites. If you already belong to one or more social networking sites, try visiting one you're not familiar with.
MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/): The most popular social networking site on the planet, frequented by millions of teens and twentysomethings, and used by bands as a marketing tool. Madeline maintains a GEPL page on MySpace.
Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/): Originally designed for use on college campuses, skews to a slightly older audience, and features a cleaner, more customizable interface.
LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/): Designed for professionals to post resumes and build contacts.
Eons (http://www.eons.com/): Social networking and activity sharing geared toward ages 50+ (they bill themselves as the online community for BOOMers).
Answer these 2 questions: What features do you like or dislike about the site(s) you visited? What do you think makes them so popular?
NOTE: This is assignment 4 of 8 assignments. At this rate, we'll be done with all 8 assignments by the time spring storytimes end! Be sure to post your comments for all assignments.
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If you want a re-cap of Blogs/RSS feeds, watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU “RSS in Plain English” and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI "Blogs in Plain English".
For an expansion of the "Library Thing/Good Reads/Shelfari" potential, watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x66lV7GOcNU&NR=1 “Social Bookmarking in Plain English”.
I love these little home-made videos! I think the fella is ambidextrous.
hi - this is neighbor cirque clerque (not really carrie) paying a visit to y.s.
thanks for the links. those leelefever common crafts videos on youtube are fabulous - concise, clear, creative, cool!
I tried LinkedIn just to see what it was. Tried to search by college, but I couldn't figure out how to do it, even after having to join. Ssearched by name - there are tons of David Weinbergs in this country, but not the best one!
Searched a few people from Knox and high school - no matches. I did find Kate on there, though. Turns out she went to Cornell College, which is in the same conference as Knox! If I were serious about finding a job, it appears this may be helpful, but not any better than general job search engines that are already out there. I did find it annoying that it kept shutting down on me and didn't like my password for some reason. I have no idea why this site would be popular, unless it was because it is geared to professionals and you can limit by industry. have other things to get to now, so that's it for my comments.
I finally had success getting onto the blog! Now I have to read postings and catch up.
Jeanne Dresser
After resisting this assignment I finally looked at the My Face page Madeline maintains for the library. It was interesting to see so many authors as "friends." I also looked at the EON site (since I am over 50). There were several groups on the Eon site that looked interesting. I'd like to be an observer, not a participant, in these groups and I'm not sure that is possible. I briefly looked at the LinkedIn site. My friends' daughter who was recently killed is listed in LinkedIn and I wanted to read about her. I found the site very difficult to maneuver.
I think the attraction of social networking is that it provides a type of community that you as the user can control. There is a type of connection with people; you can be close in one way and distant in another. You don’t even need to be yourself. You can try on different personas and present yourself as something other than you really are.
I'll need to spend more time exploring to see if this is something I will find valuable.
I was already familiar with both MySpace and Facebook and actually have accounts with both. I have never developed my MySpace page at all, only signed up so I could view friend’s photos. I do browse that site often since a lot of my friends have pages. I find them fun to look at and it's a way to learn more about people. MySpace can be very busy if people add a lot of videos and such to their pages.
Facebook, my page is a little more developed. It was another site I just signed up for and did nothing with, but several months after finally did something since my cousin found me on there. I have added my Shelfari to it also! I find this site more pleasing to look at because as the layout is simple and not as cluttered. I don't really use it very much but my 2nd cousin that is in High School seems to be on it all the time with her friends.
I also looked at LinkedIn which was new to me. I didn't find it all that exciting but if I were looking for a job I might find it more useful. I searched both Dominican and NIU for people that I knew but didn't recognize anyone.
I skipped looking at Eons since I am not 50+ and don't really help patrons with that sort of thing.
I think social networking is popular because it's easy. You can write a message on your site and all of your friends can read it without you sending it to each of them or having to call them. I think these sites are far more popular with teens and those in their 20's because they have grown up with it and tend to not care about being so private. The reason I was actually did a little more with Facebook is because people have to be your friend to look at your profile. I know you can set it up like that in MySpace as well but I just wasn't interested at the time in picking a background, song...I do have friends that have used the music portion of MySpace to promote their band or music.
Cant wait until im 50 so I too can join the EON network! I believe in social networks on many levels. If used with discretion, they offer a service that is unmatched in any venue.
I already have both MySpace and Facebook, but MySpace gets on my nerves because of the high level of spam. More of my friends use Facebook anyway, so it's a better social tool for me.
I did take a look at LinkIn, as I wasn't familiar with it.
As I said, i dislike the spam you get through Myspace, but I do like the bulletin function, since you can send out announcements to everyone on your friends list at once. I prefer Facebook, but I think it's attempt to be more like MySpace has messed it up a little bit. I get really annoyed at all the quizzes and games and things that get sent my way. They have it set up so that in order to get your reults for a lot of those things, you have to forward the application to 10-15 other people, which results in a really high level of annoying things in my inbox.
LinkedIn, since it's a professional site, luckily seems devoid of things like that, which is nice, but in searching around there, I found the job postings to be pretty slim, and couldn't find an account for anyone I know. So it seemed pretty useless to me.
I think the popularity of these sites lies in the fact that it allows people to make a personal website that will actually get visited (unlike the old school personal websites with pictures of people's cats that never got any hits), and all the sites are really user friendly. You don't have to know HTML to design your site, the format is basically the same for everyone, so when looking at friends' sites, you know exactly where to go to find pictures or blogs, unlike the old days where navigating personal websites could be really difficult.
They offer a good way for people to stay in contact and keep up with each other's lives (a lot of old college and even high school friends would be entirely out of my life if it weren't for Facebook.)
I was already familiar with youtube. I've used it to follow links from other sites to gain more information on a topic, or just to be entertained. (Though I still can't find a video of the Smothers Brothers perfoming "Chocolate.")
I signed up on the old fogey site - Eons. So far my favoite part is the games, but I haven't had a chance to play any yet. I'm sure I'll go back and cruise some more.
I looked at all of the sites a little bit. Austin uses Facebook a ton and I did not want to sign up there because of his comments about how weird it is when he has seen that his friends' parents are on. If I thought it would be useful with my friends I'd reconsider, but right now it's not. Stephanie thinks it's a waste of time. I have a LinkedIn account because a friend asked me to join her "network of professionals". At the time she said it was valuable for people when they were looking for individuals with expertise in a specific field. So I guess she wanted my book "expertise". I don't use it at all. I looked at Eons and it seemed too...self-helpy.
That said, I think having a library Myspace or facebook page for the teens to connect on is a great idea. The high schoolers I know use facebook a lot!
Regarding what makes them popular: when Stephanie first went off to college the sites were the best way to stay in touch with friends. They also were able to quickly exchange information (at all hours of the day and night!) and support one another. It definitely helped the kids stay connected. I think it can provide a great support network during transitions.
I got an invitation, from the same person who asked me to connect on LinkedIn, to sign up on "Plaxo". The footprint for this looks very similar to "Facebook". It got some negative press when it first came out because of spamming but now it looks like they've worked those bugs out. It appears to be geared toward older and business users. If I decide to sign up I'll let you know what I think.
I got an invitation, from the same person who asked me to connect on LinkedIn, to sign up on "Plaxo". The footprint for this looks very similar to "Facebook". It got some negative press when it first came out because of spamming but now it looks like they've worked those bugs out. It appears to be geared toward older and business users. If I decide to sign up I'll let you know what I think.
I used to have a myspace before facebook was open to high schoolers. Once I began using facebook, however, I deleted my myspace account because I did not like how bogged down myspace was with backgrounds and music and such. It made my computer run slower and I found it less convenient than facebook. I like facebook because it allows me to keep in touch with high school classmates who I was not necessarily great friends with. Also, it is really convenient for pictures - if you forget your camera at an event, someone else will post their pictures on facebook.
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