Facebook
I have to admit that I am on Facebook. I resisted for a while, but ended up getting an account as a sneaky way to get in touch with my cousin's friends to invite them to a surprise party I was planning for her 30th birthday. I do check it fairly regularly, and it's kind of fun to read people's updates and see their vacation pictures and stuff; what can I say, it's the lurker in me.
As far as libraries making use of facebook, I really don't think there's much point; what student is going to "friend" the library?
I signed up for Friendster a million years ago, but never really used it... I also have an account on LinkedIn, but I never check it either. I think that the problem is that it's too much like work to keep up on everything.
Twitter
I think I can say with certainty that I won't be using twitter any time in the near future. I know becuase I signed up for an account etc.* to be able to write the instructions for this week's post and I've never been back to check the feeds. I mean tweets.
Why not?
I like my RSS feeds and it seems a bit too much like the same thing, but less convenient because I have to go one more place to check on things.
In Summary
It's good to know about the social networking tools, but they aren't for everyone and you have to pick and choose or you'll become overwhelmed.
*if you're curious, I signed up to follow "The Onion" and Guy Fieri from Diners, Drive-ins & Dives
I have to admit that I too was a Facebook resister back in the day, but I finally gave in due to my curiosity. And now I can say I'm very grateful for how it has helped me re-connect with friends from childhood, etc. I also don't know what I would do without Facebook Event invites. I'm way more connected and involved now as a result.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about your analysis of libraries connecting with students via Facebook. It's interesting that University/College library pages seem to have far fewer fans than, say, public libraries. So you could have a point. But setting up a Page is still a pretty good way for libraries to go. Students will be much more likely to "like" a library page than to "friend" a library profile.