Weaver, A.C., Morrison, B. B., Social Networking.Computer (February, 2008)
To be quite honest the first two paragraphs of this article took me by surprise. My whole thought process when it comes to "social networking" was rocked. When I hear networking anything I think along the lines of modern, technological, the internet. Not at all that it is simply "three or more entities communicating and sharing information." I mean that could have been my grandmother writing back and forth to two or three friends about quilting patterns or the latest in regards to their husbands farming equipment. Not at all what I had pictured in my mind. And the numbers of registered users for each website was staggering, it is almost unprecedented to know...or be someone who is not connected to a social network in some way-shape-or form! I must admit, I was one who held out as long as possible, resisting my friends' urges to join Facebook and MySpace. I finally gave in when my sister went to study in England for a year, making one of my only sure-fire ways of being in contact with her, Facebook. I have to admit I like being able to keep in semi contact with many friends old and new. I find it very true that if not for sites such as these, people from our lives would come and go quite steadily. By utilizing these networking sites we maintain some kind of communication or at least updates into the lives of our friends throughout the years. For that I am thankful.
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8 comments:
Well I have been attempting to leave a comment on your blog for 2 days but I have had some difficulties with my technological inexperience. I appreciate your analysis of the article and the approach you take in describing the long history of social networking in less complicated forms. I am one of the only people I know who does not have a site, until now, with the creation of my facebook account. I guess I will see how it goes. Good luck with this program.
I felt the same way about facebook and social newtorking sites. All my friends had them, but I didn't. I now realize, due to this class, that they do serve a purpose to professionals too.
The idea of social networking is definately new. I put off setting up an account for as long as I could. I would still prefer not to have a facebook log-in, but at least now I have a vaild reason-school.
Like all the others have mentioned, I have been very weary about setting up a Facebook or Myspace account because of all the horror stories with teachers involved. However, now that I have started my account, I have to admit I am super addicted. I have reconnected with about 10 classmates in only the past four days. I can now understand the benefits of social networking.
I enjoyed reading this article as well and I also learned just what exactly social networking could mean and examples from the past. But at least we are trying to keep up with our students!
Have you ever heard of skype?? Two of my really good friends live in Italy now and its the best thing ever!! Google it. Now. Good luck with keeping afloat in all this tech stuff!
I agree with you Danine, I held out for a long time on joining Facebook until I met you and saw that you were always on Facebook at work and that it was interesting. Now I will have to say that I certainly tried my best to con you into getting a MySpace account but luckily I opened up a Facebook and look at that it's apart of our homework. In college many people always seemed to argue whether friendster, myspace or facebook was better.
My theory is that whichever works best for you is the one to use. I typically like using Myspace and learning about the numbers of subscribers was a shocker, I didn't have a clue of how many people really were on the internet meeting new friends or staying in contact with old. And the history behind this article was amazing too. I really enjoyed your comments about this article.
I also held out for a while on Myspace but there were so many people from college and high school that I was wondering what they were doing it gave me a great way to find them. I think students who move one would like to know what teachers are doing and be able to find friends even when moving on from middle school to high school.
I have both a myspace and a facebook. I hate them both, but being able to talk to my old friends and share pictures, stories, and such is what keeps me on them. But trying to keep it somewhat "professional" can be tough because I have heard that many employers will look you up to see what you're like.
I have been amazed at how many alumni I have connected with through Facebook. I have other suggestions for a networking site with a better professional angle but I won't suggest that until next week.
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