Thing 27: Amo, Amas, Amat; Tweet, Twitter, Twat

Twitter, yet another social networking site. A short message about what you're doing and all your followers see it. You see all their short messages about what they're doing. Basically a longer version of the Facebook status. And that's all there is to it. Yes, there are bagillions of people, businesses and organizations on there as well. No, they aren't necessarily easy to find. I suppose they are if you know who or what you're looking for, but I didn't.

Love it or hate it? I don't know (although; if you know Latin, you may have thought I loved it with the title of this posting). I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. I did find 31 Twitterers to follow. And as of now, I have 12 followers. Ai, yi, yi. Only one of which do I know personally, so that makes me feel some pressure to be witty, sharp, and all around not-boring so that they will continue to follow me.

This would be a great thing for our library, and easy way to let our patrons know what is going on at the library. However, I don't know that our patrons know anything about Twitter. It's a handy dandy tool for people who are a bit more up on their Web 2.o than our community seems to be. Guess we need to gently push them into all these "new" sites!

Thing 26: The NING THING

Ning: a social networking site. There are different groups sharing different interests. What did I do on the 23 Things On A Stick Ning? I posted a video (the same Monty Python one I posted here some time ago,) I commented on a discussion or two, and it seems like I joined a group or two.

I joined Ning with Thing 22; and although I checked on it and commented a couple times over the summer, there wasn't a whole lot of activity going on so eventually it got put by the wayside. I would hope that others joining the ning would continue to use it. The more people commenting and sharing their ideas, the more it would prompt me to comment and share. The Ning is only as strong as it's weakest link.

Thing 20: Will you be my friend? aka feeling like a stalker

I am quite new to the world of online social networking. So, I joined both MySpace and Facebook. Jump in with both feet, right?

MySpace lets you set up your page with different themes and colors. Great! Now to look for people I know. Hmmm, type in their name, choose which one is the person you really know (as opposed to people you don't know with the same name as the person you're looking for,) go to their page, request that they add you to their friend list. (Anyone else feel like a stalker doing this?) Now wait for them to add you (hmmm, anyone else feel like a loser with no "friend"s here?) Now, at this point (waiting to be friended) it was time to search for some groups (hey, they'll let me join never having met me! Guess I'm not such a loser after all!) After all this, I don't really know what I will personally use MySpace for. I'm just too far removed from this modern form of networking, I guess.

I had an easier time with Facebook. Maybe my Facebook friends are just faster than my MySpace friends though. All comments seem to be on the one page, you don't have to click a bunch of times to find out what all your friends are doing. Nice. I also didn't feel ancient on facebook (I'm younger in attitude than in years!) This site is obviously geared to teens and up. MySpace is certainly geared more toward teens.

I looked at library sites on both and it gave me inspiration to set our teen patrons to work. Once our teen advisory board gets up and running, this is a job for them (okay, maybe it's a job for me--but I need some help from them!) We'll have to find out first which if any of these social networking sites they use. I know MySpace was quite popular with our teens back in the days when it was considered almost too seedy for teens to use. We've come a long way with these, I think our teens know more about what they can and cannot post than they did 5 years ago. Granted they're invincible teens, so what they know and what they do may be two separate things.

For anyone who has never gotten on these social networking sites (and is a little snoopy, like myself) be warned, these sites can be total time suckers! I can see where future employers will use these sites to check up on applicants. Another warning; watch what you post, it's out there for anyone and everyone to see (less so on facebook than myspace).

Being vacuumed up yet again..., originally uploaded by Mr. Flibble.