I have a facebook account, but only for communicating with my daughter.
I don't really see what all the hoopla is with facebook, or why people like it so much. I would never have joined except that my daughter wanted me to. I prefer the relative anonymity of message boards and blogging. But then, I don't text or twitter and I seem to have become a living fossil.
For all of the people that currently collaborate online in some limited format, you may find yourselves slowly evolving into using this media more and more. It is based around a network, so if none or very few of the "nodes" (your friends, family, social acquaintances, coworkers, peers, etc) are connected to the network, you probably won't find much benefit from connecting either. But as the network adds more nodes (more people), the individual benefit to you increases.
Many younger people use social media as a key method of communication, collaboration, planning, and sharing of information. Just sayin'... Hit me up on facebook!
We're all a bunch of dinosaurs.
Our kid got a pre-paid cell phone a year ago because she was missing out on the typical teen phone calls for "Hey, let's get together on no notice!" socializing.
Now she's getting torqued at the expense of texting and she's ready for a new [-]birthday present[/-] cell phone plan, or she's going to miss out on more [-]study groups[/-] socializing.
She spends an hour or two on Facebook every day socializing with
my cousins and aunts, a generation removed from her, who I see once or twice a decade and hear from via e-mail perhaps once a quarter. I hear more about my relatives from her than from them, and that's a very good thing on several levels.
Facebook is also a valuable intelligence tool, as the teens fire up the chat every night over homework [-]bitching[/-] questions. One of her teachers (AP English Lit) is even on Facebook nearly every evening for an hour or two of homework help. Instead of seeing the teacher next morning (along with 30 other kids) she fires off an e-mail and follows up with a Facebook check.
Ever do a Google search for yourself online? Interesting results...
Right now, all that seems to be available on a search of my name is a lot of work-related stuff.
You need to give Google a little more time to work on it:
Google Alerts
I recommend searching blogs as well as news sites. A daily summary e-mail is more than enough.
I have alerts set for all variations of my name (last name, full name) and my family's names. I also have alerts set for a few "special people" [-]anticipated obituaries[/-] who I feel it's interesting to keep track of. If you ever need a moderator reminder of why JG is banned, add his real name to your Google Alerts and watch the hits roll in.
I've learned that I share my surname with an internationally-recognized folk-rock group and a town. It's especially interesting to see your name end up in blogs along with the keyword "retire early".
