Thing 20 - Libraries and Social Networks

Which groups did you join and why?
I am a member of Facebook. I joined that social network back in 2005 in library school, because I had a college email address, (albeit a .ca email address,) and I wanted to keep up with the college crowd. I wanted to see what the college kids were doing these days, and keep up with my younger siblings and cousins at college in the States.

Shortly after joining Facebook, I started a group for the other students in my MLIS program and invited a few friends. Before long there were over 100 people in my online group. It felt great to have started a group in Facebook, though I realized that it was not the same as having a group in real life. I later joined and/or created Facebook groups that mirrored "real life" groups, such as a Facebook group for my book club.

I find Facebook groups as extensions of real-life groups to be helpful in organizing events, posting questions and opinions, and keeping up with the lives and interests of the other group members.

Reflect on why Facebook may be the fastest growing social network. Is that reputation deserved?
I think Facebook got a head start in the social network race by being exclusive and limited to college students with a .edu email address. The exclusivity of Facebook was part of its coolness factor, as well as the fact that it seemed like a "private" venue to socialize online.

I prefer Facebook over MySpace because of the uniform look of the profile and group pages. That uniform look has changed somewhat since Facebook made its code available to third-party application developers, and hundreds of new Facebook applications were developed and adopted by users.