I have actually done it; I have joined the scariest part of the web 2.0 world -- a social networking site. And it is less scary in some ways, yet just as scary in others, as I thought it would be. I was happy with the controls I could put on my privacy and I found that it was easier than I thought to upload a picture of myself for the world...but within a couple of days I was contacted by people wanting to be my "friend." How did they know I was even on Facebook, I wondered? And now I am getting information on their friends (and I guess they see me as well). That is blowing my mind a little, still. I find it amazing and still somewhat intrusive to know that so-and-so is having a beer right now, especially if they are a friend of a friend. I am still an uptight Yankee at heart, I guess, and it is good for me to have these social connections broadened for me.
I joined the Library 2.0 group and already I have found some interesting stuff on it. And I have gotten completely distracted by fun apps like "flair." So there have been productive and totally non-productive aspects of Facebook for me.
But this is the best part of all; I just read that very few educators have Facebook or MySpace accounts; this is a problem if we want to be able to work with students who all do. We should know something and have tried some of these 2.0 tools, so that we can lend our opinions to our students with some kind of authority. How can I really talk about online safety if I haven't exposed myself to the risk and seen exactly how it feels to be online and whether it actually is risky?
It was the exercise I dreaded the most but it has turned out to be an excellent learning (and very real life) assignment.
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Welcome to the scariest part! It's actually a delightful source of fun. Maybe I say that because I've been a part of social networking for so long, but I just connected with a friend I lost track of about 5 years ago and if it had been in person, it would have been one of those squealing and jumping and overall scene making reunions. And I found her by looking a friends friend list...remember that term "citation jumping" for when we read an article, then look at the citations and read those articles and so on. I call the Facebook version "friend jumping." Plus the totally pointless fun things are well worth joining for, just to have another fun thing to do! Welcome!
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