Thing #22

Facebook is my social network of choice. I've had a Facebook account for a while now. It has been an excellent way to find people I knew in high school and college. Here's how I feel about three particular sites: MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. MySpace is the more "childish" of the three. It's target audience are teenagers who want their own personal site to goof off with friends. All the ways it can be formatted and shared have a more juvenile feel. Facebook is more adult. It was started on college campuses; therefore, it's targeting an older set of social networkers. Finally there is LinkedIn. This site is for business professionals, or grown-ups. It has little in the way of frills and is not meant to be used for endless hours of chatting and photosharing...at least as far as I can tell.

For me, the main reason I should be familiar with these is to make sure I don't end up on fabricated pages due to someone's poor practical joking skills. Even with my Facebook, I am extremely careful about what I, or my husband, post in way of photos and comments. I allow my students to be my friends with a limited profile. If there is something that might be questionable, like being at a grown up party where certain beverages end up in pictures, I limit those photos where my students cannot see them.

Most of my students due use social networks daily, and it would just show my naivete if I refused to figure out how they worked myself. Just because I ignore them, doesn't mean they would go away. Kids are going to use them, and I should be aware of that.

As mentioned above, Facebook is my site of choice. I like that I have some control over the applications, but I don't bog myself down with choosing backgrounds and music and pictures, etc. I don't need to lose all my time to social networking. It is more casual than LinkedIn and a little more adult than MySpace.

Personally, I wouldn't want to use these types of social networking sites for the classroom. It is good to know how my students spend their time online, but I don't want to take away the entertainment and relaxation behind these sites for them by tying something educational to them.