Face to face on facebook!

Week 2!
Since I had an existing facebook already I took this time to review the introduction and social networking video as if I were a novice. I also checked out some of the alternative communities to see what they were all about. I had never even heard of Ning before, so I spent a bit of time looking it over. It was fun looking through my fellow 23-things peers' blogs and finding new friends and colleagues on facebook:) I can only hope that they find me as interesting! I left a comment on the wall of a friend but am still waiting to be accepted by another. I am excited to meet new friends on the world wide web.

My personal thoughts on social networking:
I cannot recall exactly how I discovered facebook but it was my Sophomore Year of College in '04 and I watched how far and how quickly it escalated. Soon after, I got a MySpace account. It was interesting to see how different the two sites were and the crowd to which they appealed. Originally, I felt my information was more secure on facebook since I knew that you had to be a college student to use it. Even now I feel comfortable using and controlling my privacy accounts and knowing my information is being viewed solely under my discretion. At its start I felt Myspace seemed to appeal more to the high school crowd. It seemed like an expanded version of an AIM profile or a chatroom....a space where people (primarily younger) would over share information in hopes to meet people or express their feelings. Eventually I had to shut my Myspace account down do to how uncomfortable I felt with what people were using the site for. I am glad, however, to see that good things have emerged from it, such as the discovery of musicians, artists and writers. Overall, I feel that if used correctly social networking sites can be an effective tool in communication.