Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Social Networking -- Does It Work for You?


I haven't posted much to "And So Forth" lately. But the platform carries on -- I'm not going to let go of it so quickly! And I expect to post here quite a bit this summer, from the USA, when La France Profonde and Cuisine Quotidienne won't be so relevant.

Also, I must admit that one of the reasons I haven't had much to say on this blog is that I've been playing with social networking sites.

I've held off on going there for quite a while, telling myself that if I started getting into social networking, blogging could go down the drain.

But yet these sites have tempted me. MySpace? Facebook? Linkedin? All of the above? I have reasonably lame sites on all of them. Should I just choose one?

Where do you social network online? And what do you get out of it?

5 comments:

spacedlaw said...

LiveJournal.
I like the friending and the communities there and the fact that you can reply to one person instead of to all (and that person receives a notificaton of your reply).
I do have a MySpace account because the editor of a book I contributed to thought to use that service to promote the book but I quite hate the place. Seems like an ego fair rather than a network.

Ksam said...

I like Facebook - you can share pictures, send people virtual gifts, join groups, play Scrabble, etc!

Anonymous said...

We've talked a bit about this. I have accounts at all three places, but I never go to MySpace. I hate it. It's ugly and obnoxious. However, it's allowed me to get back in touch with a couple of old friends, so I haven't deleted my account.

Facebook is fun, although it's becoming overrun with silly apps (I do love me some Scrabulous, though). I use it to keep up with friends. And I've gotten back in touch with people that way, as well.

I keep LinkedIn more professional, not that I have used it for much networking. But the possibility is there, and I like that.

I also use Twitter. This is kind of a fun way to see what people are doing throughout the day. I think someone referred to it as "microblogging," because there's a 140-character limit per "tweet."

I also use Flickr in a social manner.

Gee, think that's enough? ;-)

Betty Carlson said...

Spacedlaw -- That's interesting, but isn't LiveJournal first and foremost a blogging platform? I've never really figured it out. As you know, I can't even seem to manage to leave comments on your blog there!

Samanthat and Alison -- Play Scrabble? Scrabulous? I need to get in shape for my summer tournament with my mom, so I'll check that out.

Thanks for the comments so far.

Tinsie said...

I'm on Facebook and it's OK. I've got in touch with people that I'd lost touch with and seen their photos, played a few quizzes etc. but I find it a bit too high maintenance on a daily basis so now I only log on once or twice a week.

I find Twitter a lot more user-friendly for keeping in touch with my friends on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis "twitting" about things that seem too unimportant to Facebook, blog or even email about.