I haven’t blogged in a long time. It’s mostly work-related: I’m spending a lot of time online at work lately, investigating social networking (which I don’t know that much about) and getting ready to send out our institution’s first all-alumni email (which sounds easy, but it so isn’t).
I have to say, I’m not really into the whole social networking thing. I do belong to Ravelry, though I don’t participate in any groups. I like it because I can organize my stuff; and when they provide mobile access, I can check what I have from my cell phone and not buy yet another pair of size 13 needles (I think I have four pair now). I belong to LibraryThing, but again that’s mostly to catalog what I have. I’ve been invited to a few groups, but I’ve never participated. And in both cases, I have a user name which has nothing to do with my real name.
The younger alums at our institution are all into Facebook and MySpace, which means I have to pay attention to it. When I blog, it’s fairly anonymously. I try to keep the personal stuff somewhat to a minimum, so I can talk about anything I want to without worrying who’s going to see it. I have never told even my closest friends about my blog; it gives me a freedom that this introvert really covets. I can sort of be me and someone else at the same time — a little schizophrenic, I know.
I now have profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn for work purposes, but I don’t want to connect my blog with any of them. I can blog about my love/hate relationship with my job, but not if my boss might read it!
If I had a different job that had less to do with social networking, I think I’d be much more comfortable being the real me in social networks. But for now, I’m going to stick with keeping as much of my privacy as I can.
facebook gets better the more you connect to real friends (not work friends — unless they’re one and the same).
linked in is great for when you need to job searching but you have to stay up on it when you’re gainfully employed to make the best use of it.
i like good reads (goodreads.com) because it combines library thing with a social network. you can also import all the books you’ve already entered into library thing. which is nice.
but the very, very best one: flickr. hands down the best. you can SEE what your friends are up to rather than read a blog.
you can stalk me on any of these. i miss you susan.
Nice to see you. I am totally not into these networking sites either. Just email me for crying out loud! I also like to be anonymous.
Though, if things continue the way they are, I’ll eventually have to figure some of this stuff out as my child ages so I can keep track of her. My parents had it so easy - just listen to me on the central phone in the house!
And here’s the other thing: I don’t comment as much as I should. I read all my blogs through Google Reader, so I don’t always take the time to open the blog and make a comments. Bad commenter means bad blogger.