Well, I’ve finally decided to join the 21st century, at least in one respect; I’ve decided to stick my toes in the social networking waters. I avoided the first round, including Friendster and the like, but for some reason feel it’s time. Part of it may be that I actually now know others who are using these services; two or three years ago no one I knew personally was much involved with social networking software.
So tonight I’ve joined both MySpace and Facebook (why yes, I did just scan apophenia’s recent post on the topic) and am considering joining others such as twitter and linked-in.
Speaking of the differences between MS and FB, on MySpace my username is glowrocks, and on Facebook it’s simply my real name, Mike Rodriquez. Another interesting difference is that anyone can view my MySpace page; one must be logged in to view my complete Facebook page, though a minimal public page is available.
Another reason that social networking is more compelling now is that there are so many more people using these services. With a larger number of users comes more opportunities for finding others with similar interests. While searching for users and groups from the Lindsborg area I found quite a wide variety, ranging from the “police are out to get me” folks to a group of people who used to work at the local retirement complex, Bethany Home. I checked, and there’s not yet an interest group for folks who collect fluorescent minerals; that’s likely to change.
If you’re reading this, I encourage you to try one (or more) of these services. There’s likely more there there than you would first anticipate and I look forward to “seeing” more and more of my friends, acquaintances and colleagues in my personal online social network.
I just this week signed on to Facebook. I rather like it. I am connected to a cousin who is going to college, another young man I am friends with, my grandson & his girlfriend, a freind in KY & one in Sweden. I will look for you there.