Social networking

Facebook was interesting, it was an exploration to try and figure out where to go for what and how to do things. It was fairly intuitive, at least I managed to find friends okay, figured out how to find and add a network, how to post to an event and add applications. Once I got into it, I thought it was a fascinating look at how connections within connections could be made.

Linkedin was something I'd already created a profile on and had linked to others and responded to others asking to link to me. I had been invited by another colleague. It seems more professional than Facebook as its more work connections than friends

First impression of MySpace...Wow how much can you cram on a web page! I really didn’t like it compared to the other two. Too much on the page for me and I was a little overwhelmed by all the “stuff!”

I could see where the social networking could help MLA stay connected to its members and created a sense of community within a large organization. It could certainly work for committees, task forces, and perhaps even sections.

I’m not so sure about the need for a Facebook or MySpace page for a medical library. It seems less useful since most in healthcare are so busy and let’s be at least a little honest, most of them are NOT “digital natives” and are more comfortable with the “tried and true” methods of communicating with us.

Privacy could definitely be an issue, how on earth can you expect everyone to “read all the fine print” and look out for themselves. So much personal information is required just to get started and then people don’t understand they are “out there” for all to see and suddenly there’s someone else claiming to be you because there’s enough for them to become you! Not fun by a long shot and something we in healthcare need to be especially sensitive to.

I didn’t like the fact that Facebook required a birth date. That seemed a little intrusive to me, but since it was originally set up by college students for college students and there’s that wonderful clichéd age bias at work maybe that’s where it came from. MySpace was just too busy to me. I found I was overwhelmed by the amount of “stuff” crammed on a page and it wasn’t as intuitive to me as the Facebook seemed.