LIS S401- Proficiency Project 3C: Social Networking

I have to admit that I absolutely love social networking.  I really enjoy keeping up with my friends around the world, and as an aspiring librarian, I just really like to know things!  I crave information.   I even enjoy some of the misinformation that comes through as reposts of stories that are too good to be true or too bad to be true, as well.  It’s fun to use Snopes.com for rumor research.  I also occasionally enjoy Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and FourSquare, but Facebook, as cliché as it may be, is my favorite.  I even play some of the games. 

I have a group of friends that used to meet up virtually in a message board.  We came to know each other when we all ventured into those boards on a website related to our mutual interest in poker.  Now, ten years later, we interact with each other daily in a closed Facebook group, in addition to our annual Vegas gathering and other incidental meet ups that often coincide with vacations or business trips.  Moving the group to Facebook gave us the option of more easily sharing pictures, videos and music, in addition to our regular conversations.

In addition to Facebook, I have accounts with LinkedIn, Instagram, FourSquare, and Twitter.  I don’t use these accounts nearly as much as I do Facebook, but they definitely have their uses.  Instagram makes my terrible phone photography look cool and while I don’t tweet much, I like to follow the tweets of my favorite celebrities on Twitter.  LinkedIn is good for professional connections, but I do find it odd that one can endorse people professionally without having to prove they have real knowledge of the profession or the endorsee’s professional life.  Although, I like that there are professional associations with groups on LinkedIn.  I particularly enjoy the American Library Association group there.  Some interesting discussions have arisen in that group on a wide variety of library topics. 

Librarians are using LinkedIn to learn from each other and share their experiences in their own communities. Also, like many other users on the site, they use it to network in their own industry to keep abreast of job opportunities in librarianship.  

As I muse here in the virtual world about the virtues of Facebook and LinkedIn, an analogy comes to mind.  Facebook is dinner with friends and LinkedIn is a breakfast business meeting.