Reflections, Take #5:
I’ve been on Facebook a while now. Cindi mentioned in one of her blog posts that poking each other into oblivion can get a little boring and that apps are an extra spice to Facebook and I agree. It is kinda cool to be able to find out extra bits of info about the interests of your friends that may never come up in random conversation. It gives you a way to enhance shared experience that you would almost never get. Almost all of my friends on Facebook are friends or at least acquaintances in RL.
I’ve tried MySpace, and it left me pretty cold. Too many ads, too much junk, the search engine stinks, and it just seems like a big mish-mash of profiles. Maybe I didn’t give it enough of a chance, but if a web app doesn’t grab me immediately, I usually move on pretty quickly. To be honest, I am a little weirded out by Facebook and MySpace, especially MySpace, when it comes to librarians and students and providing library services. I am just unable to shake this feeling of being the too-desperate to help, creepy “old person” trying too hard to jump in the middle of the students and “be cool”. Maybe that's my failing, but it is the truth. I’m all about having a presence, or portal, if you will, but going beyond that is too much, imo. That said, I like “playing” with Facebook, and think it is a tool that has a lot of potential for professional uses, and like any tool we just have to be careful in how we use it.
I'll step off my soapbox now... I welcome any comments, and am willing to debate the issue. :-)
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Did you ever see "Kids in the Hall?" There was a sketch called, "He's Hip, He's Cool, He's 45." He would do odd things to "keep his cool" despite his somewhat uncool age. In one sketch he interviews a man for a job, first asking if the man wants to smoke a joint. Sometimes acting your age is good. We still need to keep an inner-child, without being childish. OK, this rambled on ...
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