I know that my writing about social networking now is way late.   The MySpace’s, Facebook’s, and Twitter’s have been running a long time.   I have been using Facebook and Twitter for a good 6 months.  I started with MySpace to get the low-down in order to keep up with my pre-teen nieces.  I am the technical person of the family and it is my unwritten duty to be in the know.  I hung out on MySpace and got quickly annoyed.  There was nothing of interesting.  It was full of teen angst and “pimped out pages” with flashy screens and favorite songs streaming.   The kicker was the constant spamming from porny/dating/chat things.  Ultimately I moved on.

I started using Facebook after reading something about it.  It was a cleaner interface and once I got signed on, old friends started coming out of the woodwork.  The friend list grew and catching up with people was great.  Keeping up with photos and other goings on is fun too.  You will go to a store and run into someone and have something to say other than “how have you been?”.  You now have “I saw you had a good time at [blah blah]“.  It’s good.  It’s friendly.

Most adults sneer at Facebook.  They think it is for kids.  It can be, but it is really like your school cafeteria.  You have a bunch of friends and people you know.  You interact with a small sub group (‘your table’) of those friends and occasionally wander off to another table and chat or share some information.  You have the ability to avoid people and not share details with people.  Facebook allows you to setup groups and security to limit what people can say and do.  Ultimately you can unfriend or even block a person.  You can setup events and invite people to come.  You can share events that are going on so that people are informed.  It’s great for communicating to the masses.

To some this sounds like a time sink.  It can be, admittedly.  What is the value?  I would say the common value is keeping up with people and easily sharing photos.  It is great to share a photo and tag people so that the photo shows up on their page too.   Commercially, it is another online  way you can get your brand out for people to consume.  It is a great communication tool.  You can post your new products and sales events.

What are people really doing with Facebook?  Some people troll for lovers, others just lurk.  Most people express their emotion of the moment.  Status Updates can be funny, pitiful, self aggrandizing, sad, hopeful, a question, boring, etc.  Do we really need to know what people are doing every hour of the day?  No.  But it can be fun to read what people are up to and it is sometimes therapeutic to share your thoughts.

Twitter is similar but a much more minuscule communication tool.  Twitter is a 140 character micro blog.  Both Facebook and Twitter can be used on mobile devices which keeps the constant contact going.  Obviously people love it.  The to can be used in integrated fashion also where you tweet and it appears in both networks.

Other than the reasons above, why join?  Here is my thought.  Spam.  Annoying unsolicited email.  I don’t check my regular home email as often.  I have found that I communicate with my friends and family more commonly via Facebook.  Email boxes are getting hit with spam and you have to monitor and clean up.  Posts and tweets can go by without notice and you don’t need to do anything.  You can go back and check them if needed.  If someone needs to be sure you see their message, they can send something to your Facebook inbox.   Facebook has become my first place to check for messages.

I like it when people share links to interesting news stories or youtube videos that are funny or interesting.  It is a great way to consume news without going to websites and feeding on the mass message.  It’s the same as your office buddies saying, “did you see that story about the house fire” or “did you catch Conan last night”?

The dark side….  Facebook is no different that hanging out at a large party with diverse people.  There are some people that can get annoying.  That’s life right?  You get the good with the bad.   Facebook can also start debates and heated discussions.  Like any other venue, you have to maintain a certain level of decency in mixed company.  Opinions are like assholes and we all got ‘em.

I know it might sound ironic right now.  If you have read this far, you might have clicked over from facebook to read this since I posted it on my page.  I DO realize that I might be one of the annoying ones.  I know I have been unfriended for political talk in the past.  So be it.  Not everyone agrees.  I make no apology nor do I blame you for not agreeing.  It is perfectly American to do so.

I encourage anyone to try social networking.  Anytime someone new joins, they quickly find old friends and enjoy it immediately.

Other Resources:

10 Privacy Settings you should know about.

| Category Life Tips, Technology