Social networking: what is it to me?

Social networking: what is it to me?

Social networking (SN) is a new way of making friends and creating connections that has moved beyond the scope of what was once possible. Once upon a time social networking involved going the prestigious school, sitting in the 'right' pew in church, being invited to join groups with secret handshakes or even greasing the right palms to ensure the essential meeting took place. In the Information Age however social networking deploys the power & reach of web2.0 technologies to widen those horizons.

Web 2.0 is a phrase coined to express the move from the locked down operator driven origins of the internet to the interactive user contribution/creation 21st century web, which opened a Pandora’s box of possibilities. Everyone with the right tools can now engage online. We can record our lives and opinions on blogs; we can comment, create a buzz even brings down governments by microblogging; we can learn & share our knowledge via media sharing sites; we can bookmark our interests instead of pinning them to our notice boards.

My experience
When I first started blogging and I was astounded by the rich virtual world of relationships literally at my fingertips. For a long time I maintained two blogs, reading & craft-related with a third for when I was travelling. No blogging for me right now, but I enjoy friendships all over the world with the bloggers I read.  I still blog when I travel because it allows my family to see some of what I'm seeing & for me, is a wonderful enhancement to the trip itself - a way to remember the little things that get lost as the holiday days merge together.
 

Now Instagram & Pinterest are my playgrounds. I have a whole community of friends I have never met in real life (IRL) & who I value as highly a my IRL friends. As complete strangers meeting in the virtual world we 'do friendship' in a new way but the sharing of triumphs & struggles remains the same. We share our lives, learn about culture & life in way that I never experienced on Facebook or Twitter, but everyone has their own preference, their own mediums with which they just click. I am on Facebook, but only to keep in touch with OS family and Twitter, but I never really took to it.  I am on ravelry and flickr too but on any given day you'll always find my on IG.

We are engaged with social media in the uni library where I work, Twitter & Pinterest, I'm lucky enough to have been on the Twitter team from the get-go & it has been an amazing experience to see how libraries can engage in SN. 

What do I wan to learn?

Once upon a time, in the world of secret society networking & church pews, the library's importance as a storehouse of knowledge was unequalled; we cannot say that today.  In completing INF506 I hope to gain some expertise in an area which will certainly become essential if libraries are going to stay relevant. I am passionate about libraries engaging with their clients and broadcasting themselves to the world, libraries and librarians are an awesome resource in the Information Age. We can help make sense of that vast world-sized web but we must meet our clients at their point of need, I want be there - social networking up a storm meeting them in their playgrounds. I hope INF506 can help me with that.