Thing 15 - Social Networking

Ok, I really wanted something positive to say about social networking sites since my gut reaction to these sites is a big “NO”!!! I did read one interesting article about these sites and their use in libraries and the one thing that did make sense was having information accessible to wherever the users are. So if they use these sites a lot, then having a portal there for them can be a valuable tool. But to have a presence JUST to have a presence makes absolutely no sense to me, and I suspect that is what many companies (libraries included) have done.

I also read that many kids use these sites for homework – I have a hard time believing it is for anything more than “Can you believe how much homework we got?” or “What did you put for question 4?” I don’t have kids in my life that would give me a more accurate picture of this so I may be way off base.

I was slightly alarmed at the presence of so many companies trying to imbed their product or name into the lives of the teens using these sites. Wow. We are bombarded in every way by merchandising so this shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it was, a little bit anyway.

I took a moment to look up my nieces and see if they had profiles on MySpace and facebook, and they did. I found it fascinating that my oldest niece, 19 years old, hasn’t been on one account for over 2 years! Maybe she uses the other account. It will be interesting to find out!