Week 9: Faceoff

Ahh, the joys of social networking. What used to be done in restaurants and bars can now be enjoyed in your pajamas from the privacy of your own computer. I did not graduate from JMU that long ago, but it seems like something happened to the world in May of 2004. I left college and ran away to Walt Disney World, and it would appear to me that in the Internet dark ages of my supposedly wireless apartment, MySpace and Facebook exploded. Back when I was in college we used things called telephones and AOL Instant Messenger to keep in touch.


Upon my exodus from Disney and the return to the real world my friends who were still in school begged me to get on MySpace or Facebook. I avoided them for almost two years and then when I decided to change my life's direction somehow Facebook became a part of it. Because of my heavy involvement with youth groups, I strive to keep my page as professional as possible. I ignore most applications and heavily monitor the content that I post. I also only 'Friend' people that I actually know. One of the things I love the most is the ability to stay connected with my friends, old coworkers, and my Fraternity brothers from college (yes, I said fraternity, check us out at www.apo.org or our chapter website www.apoiscool.com). I do utilize the picture sharing. I do love the groups on Facebook, ('When I was your age Pluto was a planet' and 'Grad students aren't bad people they just made poor life choices' are my two personal favorites) I belong to both the VLA and ALA groups.

I really enjoyed reading all of the Professional advice for Facebook that the Web 2.0 committee collected and the top Apps for Librarians. I started months ago using the iRead Application to keep track of my books, but switched over to Shelfari at the beginning of the Web 2.0 training. I find Shelfari to better suit my needs, and I am less distracted while using it since it is separate.