Thing 6: Social Networks - Facebook & More

Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, among others, are all social networking spaces.

Social networking spaces are characterized by:

Profile pages, which commonly include name, contact information, interests, and a photograph of yourself. Some allow customization, and others are more vanilla in look and feel.

“Friending”, which allows you to add another person/profile as a “friend” or a “contact.” The “friending” aspect of an online social network often accounts for why some social networking sites are popular with specific groups. For example, Facebook began as a social network for college and university students; it has since opened up to allow anyone to join the network, but it still remains most popular with students.

Groups, which form around common interests, therefore most online social networks allow users to start a group or join a group based on their interests or common goals. Depending on the social networking site, you will probably find a group that represents your interests, regardless of what that interest might be.

Facebook was started by students at Harvard and has included non-education members since late 2006.

MySpace began as a place for independent bands to promote their concerts and music.

LinkedIn responds mostly to the interests of private sector professionals.

We will be using Facebook

Exercise

* Join

* Create a profile (you don’t need a picture, but you could use something from Flickr)

* Search for a friend

* Add a friend

* Look at a friend's friends to find friends

* Accept friendship

* View a friend's' profile

*Join a Facebook group (How about UCI Libraries for one)

*Write on a friend's wall

*Add a Facebook Application (e.g. Search for the Antpac application)

*Try to add, then remove an application

*Blog this!


Further Reading:
Landis, C. (2007). Social networking sites: Getting friendly with our users. C&RL News, 68(11). Retrieved December 19, 2007 http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2007/december07/ALA_print_layout_1_448349_448349.cfm

Tutorial
From Murdoch University’s Kathryn Greenhill. Retrieved December 20, 2007 in swf format. This is fast, so go through it, then try the activity after pausing. A few Facebook details have changed since this was made.
http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/let/Facebook23things.swf