Social Networks

Have I droned on about this enough? That’s what I had to say four months ago. My view hasn’t changed much. But I’ll see if I can expand on those thoughts a little:

So yeah. I’m on Facebook. I’m on Myspace. Linkedin. Last.fm. Goodreads. Librarything. Now I’m following a bunch of folks on Twitter. These Tweets, that’s social networking too, right? Talk about value? I just read some of Michael’s notes from the ILI 2008 Conference. Still, I’m trying to wrestle with exactly what it is I GET out of all of this. I really do enjoy making these connections with people. But It can definitely get complicated and muddled. Am I really friends with Alastiar Galbraith and Aaron Schmidt? Not exactly. But as Kyle says, these social networks open doors. As for Alastair and Aaron, I admire their work (in music and in libraryland, respectively) and I like being connected to them vis-a-vis their Internet presence. If there’s actually someone behind that presence, and they are responding, I can get in touch with ‘em and we can have a conversation. I can walk through that door. I can offer to buy ‘em a beer next time they’re in Chicago. And If they look at my profile, they’ll certainly (now) know a little about me (and my daughter) as well.

Another part of it is RE-connecting with old friends. I don’t know if other folks on Facebook have noticed this trend, but I am finding that people are joining Facebook in droves. OK. That might be stating the obvious. Sure they are. But I’m talking about people THAT I ACTUALLY KNOW are joining in droves. People that have—up until now—categorically repudiated or avoided social networking sites. People that I would have never imagined participating in social networking are participating. Are attitudes chaning again? It’s kinda cool. So, yea, I’ve reconnected with old friends that I don’t think I would have found ANY other way. Now, I’ve got them all sorted—kinda—in one place.

One example:

I have a friend that I went to high school with and his Mom passed away earlier this year after a long bought with cancer. I worked with her in a library in Gainesville, Florida five years ago, before moving to Chicago. I’d long since mislaid lost my friend’s phone number. So I sent him an email yesterday, to the only address I had for him (but one he never seemed to reply from) with little expectation of hearing back from him. Then, outta nowhere, on the same day, I find a mutual (high school) friend on Facebook, we trade messages about Chris’s Mom, and she sends me his cell phone number this morning. I’m pretty happy about that.

Of course, there are other valuable connections to be made as well, but these are a just couple quick examples of why I enjoy, and find great value in, social networks. And I do sometimes reach out to folks I don’t know to expand my network. But I also respect that they may have a different view of who their ‘friends’ are…so I make the connections when I can.

There are some other issues that go along with this that I find very interesting. I’m wondering how this transparency—putting oneself out there and making connections—impacts notions of privacy and identity. I think that’s where I’d like to go with my paper topic. If anyone has thoughts or links to articles or suggestions for books, I’m all ears.

Lastly, if you’ve not read danah boyd, she writes eloquently about social neworks and social networks and teens.

~ by whitesnk on October 17, 2008.