Watch this short YouTube video by Common Craft which will explain in plain English how social networking tools work --->
You probably know of MySpace as the site most kids and teens are glued to after school. But what's the attraction? At MySpace, you can rediscover old friends, meet new people who share your interests, discover new music, watch videos, keep a blog, inform your friends of upcoming events, share photographs, send messages to others, join groups based on anything under the sun, fall in love, play games, search the classifieds, watch a film trailer, and be a groupie. It is a world within itself, with all the trials and treasure of real life.
Facebook is very similar to MySpace in concept. It originally was marketed to the college crowd and continues to draw in this older age group. Here's an article with a nice graphic that breaks down how Facebook users spent their time in August 2007. Facebook has a cleaner look to it overall than MySpace and seems a bit more private as well. With Facebook, you are often asked to confirm facts that someone posts about you, such as when and how you met someone. This certainly makes you feel a bit more connected to someone instead of just clicking a button that marks a person as a friend.
Regardless of which site you use, keep in mind that privacy and security options are available.
For MySpace users, click on your profile's "account settings" link.
For Facebook users, your security and privacy settings are under the link labeled "Settings" ---> "Privacy Settings":
For both MySpace and Facebook, it is at your discretion who you accept as a "friend" and who can view your site.*Note: In 2009, The Oxford American Dictionary made "Unfriend" the word of the year. To "unfriend" is the act of removing a "friend" from a social networking site.
Now let's turn our attention to a social networking service that has been in the new quite a bit lately; Twitter. By answering the simple question "What are you doing?" Twitter becomes a way to to update friends, family colleagues or other "followers" on what you are doing in 140 characters or less.
Watch this brief YouTube video by Common Craft for a description on how the Twitter service works --->
As you can see Twitter is an easy way to keep in touch and send updates. However, Twitter is not just used by individuals. Companies, government agencies, news services and many others also send "Tweets" to updates. Take a look at the article "10 Most Extraordinary Twitter Updates" by Ben Parr of Mashable.com
Discovery Exercise
1. Visit the Scottsdale Public Library's Facebook page (you do not need to create a Facebook account).
2. Explore MySpace or Facebook. (Optional: Make an account for yourself at MySpace and/or Facebook. Feel free to put in fake information if you're concerned about your privacy. You will need to give them a real email address, however, in order to verify the account(s). Many sites such as Yahoo and Gmail offer free email addresses.)
3. (Optional) Search for someone - in Facebook or MySpace; someone you know, a friend, author, library, band, etc. Even books and movies sometimes have their own pages. If you have a Facebook account you can even join in on our virtual book discussion group. Just go to the Scottsdale Public Library's Facebook page and click on the "discussion" tab.
4. Post in your blog about your experience using a social networking site. What did you like or not like about the site? How do you think these sites might be useful to libraries?
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