Social Networking Tools--Impressions and Observations

I have varying impressions of MySpace, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

MySpace: I've always shied away from MySpace because it seems too unbounded and limitless. Any page can look like anything, which is disorienting. So I've never used it.

For a while I thought that Facebook would be a strong but distant second to MySpace, like Macs are to Windows machines. Lately, though, it seems that there is much more buzz about Facebook than MySpace.

LinkedIn: This feels like a site you must be on to be "professional." But it is the anti-MySpace, with too much of a snob quotient for its own good. So I accept whatever LinkedIn invitations come my way, but never do anything more with it.

Facebook: Here is where I bide my time, sometimes in excessive quantities. Compared to MySpace, Facebook is orderly. But compared to LinkedIn, it is accessible and friendly. My main uses of the site are to see the status of friends and to lose at games of Scrabulous. There are sometimes new pleasing features--just this weekend I encountered a "you might know" feature, based on the friends of my friends. And it was fun to get lots of birthday greetings a few weeks ago, because Facebook friends saw that it was my special day. While Facebook properly received ridicule for its Beacon campaign a few months ago--which would have alerted your friends about your recent online purchases--overall it is a well-designed site.

I think libraries should have pages on social networking sites, as should individual librarians. My only caution is that there should be some kind of purpose for this presence--not a tightly sketched, exhaustively vetted purpose, just a reason for being. A spirit of experimentation and playfulness is important in Web 2.o-land, but some old-fashioned introspection before leaping after every new tool is also vital.

MLA does not need to do anything in particular to support social networking among members. I have many MLA friends on Facebook, and we all found each other on our own. MLA provides the glue on which Facebook relationships can thrive, and that's a service in and of itself.

How you should present yourself on any social networking site, especially those that blend personal and professional aspects of one's life, is an open question. It's easy to become too cautious and present totally bland versions of yourself, just to make sure you don't shock or offend. The other extreme--of blatant shock and offense--is easy enough to pull off too, and just as troubling. I'm not sure where the proper balance lies.