Thing 19 - Other social networks

Dangit! I already did this in my Thing 18. See the last paragraph of the previous post.

Thing 18 - Social Networking

I have been hinting at the glory that is Facebook for some time now, and I finally get to talk about it! I joined facebook the summer before I started college - back then (in the good ol' days) it was only college students (or alumni, or employees) who were allowed on. Of course, there were ways of getting on without actually being a college student (i.e. using your professor dad's e-mail), but let's face it, that was cheating. Within a year, high schoolers were allowed to get a facebook, and soon after, it opened up to everyone. Now, I do have a lot of facebook friends who are not college students, so I kind of embraced the inclusion, but there are a lot of problems that come up when you let kids under 18 on a site like this, so it can get a bad rep because of it. I think high schoolers belong on MySpace, but that's just me (I also have -or have had- my fair share of high school friends).

Anyway, facebook. This is generally my first stop when I hop on the internet and a default for whenever I am bored. It really is a one-stop-shop. You can e-mail, post pictures (and see your friends'), get event notices, post links to your favorite sites or news articles, and of course, facebook stalk! Okay, I know what you're thinking, "Don't be creepy or anything, Katy." First, I will refer you to it's urbandictionary definition for a general understanding of the term. Now, facebook stalking is not really anything creepy, after all, it is just looking at the information that a person has chosen to post about themselves for others to see. Also, it sometimes takes talent to facebook stalk - you have to know how to find a person. You can make your profile private, so that only your friends can actually see it, or you can make it so that it doesn't show up when someone outside of your network searches for you (or you can be invisible to everyone but your friends, meaning that in order to gain friends, you must friend them). Facebook stalking is not analogous to obsessively following someone around in the real world (you know, the kind that leads to restraining orders). Like I said, you cannot find out anymore information about someone than he or she wants you to find. Also, facebook has it's own twitter-like application in the form of updates. Now, I think twitter itself is stupid, since it is a site dedicated to up-to-the-minute details about your life, but I think it works on facebook. You don't have to have a status update, and I just don't condemn it as much.

On to MySpace. I'm not gonna lie, I think myspace is lame. I have a profile (I got it before I had a facebook), but I don't really update it or check it ever. Every once in a while, I will get a friend request or message, but myspace has a lot more spam-like stuff on it. True, it is good for musicians - you can be friends with your favorite singer or band, and new musicians can try to recruit fans by suggesting that fans of a similar band listen to them (which means that if you like Jason Mraz, you get a lot of e-mails from Jason-Mraz-wannabes). Oh yea, and there are porn stars on there as well who will try to be your friend (ew). And, yes, it is generally easier to access a person's profile and information - if you can find them. Myspace's search kinda sucks. You can't actually refine/filter your search, even though it gives you the option, it just freaks out and says it can't find anyone with those parameters.

Facebook and myspace are not the only social networking sites out there, though. Search for a networking site based on your hobby or profession. I love Ravelry - a knit/crochet/fiber networking site (you have to ask to be invited in order to get on, so don't expect to explore the site unless you actually get on it - also, they don't let you upload photos directly from your computer, which is pretty much the only reason I have a flickr). LibraryThing could be considered a social networking site, too. Check out this list of social networking sites from my beloved Wikipedia.

Thing 17 - Podcasts

I've been really positive about the last few Things. Not so much for this one. I have gone and sat in class for an hour at a time for at least 3 days a week for the last, oh, I don't know, 16 years, listening to a teacher lecture about a topic. So I ask you this: What on earth makes you think I would want to come home and listen to some random other person talk for any length of time? I've never been a fan of talk radio, and that's pretty much all this is. Okay, so it's more accessible on both the making and receiving ends, but I don't see why I would listen to a podcast unless maybe it was done by someone I know - the same problem blogs have. I kinda get the comedy podcasts and if you were using your podcast for a lecture (say for a seminar), that's great, but I don't see why I would voluntarily listen to them or clog up my mp3 player with them. What happened to enjoying silence? Am I the only one who doesn't need to be listening to something every waking moment? I really only listen to music when I'm driving or working out and I never turn the TV on just for background noise.

That is all...sorry for my negativity....

Thing 16 - You Tube

Thing 15 - Rollyo

The other day, Alice came to me and asked about my thoughts on rollyo. Of course, I hadn't dont that Thing yet, but I had checked it out a bit. I thought it seemed kinda neat, but she said (and a few others agreed) that it was stupid. If you have been following my blog, you know that I am pretty critical about a lot of the Things. But this one I like. I could see how it would be of no help to the casual internet searcher, when google would be sufficienct. But, if you are like me with a bunch of neat-o sites, some of which are similar in topic, rollyo could be really useful. I haven't actually set up my own searchroll, but I plan to when I get home. I do really like the pre-created e-books search - a lot of times, professors will assign us readings for a book that isn't checked in at the library and it would be easier to just read online, the search would come in handy for such times. Also, this would filter out all the dumb extraneous links you can sometimes get when you google. Let's see...in the library this would be useful for the Great Links! available on our site, since a number of them are very similar. Also, it would be great for searching a bunch of databases at once (though ACLD and the UF libraries already have a search-all kinda thing).

Thing 14 - Online productivity tools

Okay, a lot of the Things are kinda neat, but are really just another way to waste time on the internet. These are super cool, though. Yeah, you can get caught up and end up wasting some time, but they are just so handy that it is forgivable. A lot of them are cool and certainly useful for numerous people the world over, but some I just can't really use. The calendars are neat-o, but I don't really have enough appointments or anything to keep one - and I like my good, ol' fashioned wall calendar with it's color-coded ink. The to-do list that you could send to your phone would be really handy, too... except that my phone doesn't even have a camera, it's so old-school. And if you have the sticky notes, you don't really need the to-do list applications also.

Here are some suggested ones that I liked and a few I found on my own (and with the help of my beloved StumbleUpon):
Sticky Notes - dude, these are super cool. It took me a bit of fiddling around with it to figure out how to make them do what I wanted them to, but I really look forward to using this (though I'm sure I will use classic Post-Its often as well).
HassleMe - I know what you're thinking, "How could an application called 'HassleMe' be used for productivity?" Just check it out - it can be used for relatively unproductive reminders (like working out) or I could use it to send myself an e-mail every week so I never forget to do my weekly Religions of Asia homework (seriously, I swear, one of these weeks I will forget to do it).
PDF Converter - in all of my seemingly infinite computer/internet wisdom, I have never really figured out/learned about PDFs. Don't get me wrong, I use them all the time, but I'm still not really sure how they work. But no matter, PDF converter to the rescue!
DropSend - this is a neat place to store documents and whatnot online and send really big files that some e-mail providers wouldn't let you due to size limitations. I know a lot of people are all about GoogleDocs, and storing stuff online is sweet, but just be careful, because there have been many a times when there has been no internet, but you can still get stuff done because you have everything backed up on your flashdrive and don't need the interweb.

Again, I am a child of the digital age and I know that I probably rely on computers and the internet too much, but I must caution again about wholly depending on these wonderful devices. Sometimes, paper and pencil is just as good, if not better, for certain things - and many times more reliable, too.

Thing 13 - LibraryThing

I read about LibraryThing a few months ago when flipping through a library journal at the reference desk and decided that I needed to check it out. I really like it! I think it is super neat. I have entered the books I have read and own and want to read. Okay, it's not all the books I've ever read, but just those since I've been in college and have come to value my breaks in between semesters as times when I can squeeze in as many books for pleasure as I possibly can (I'm a religion major and about each semester, I have one class that demands I read a book a week ... and at least 3 other classes with a good amount of required reading, so I don't have time for my own reading during the semester). Also, I only added the novels I read, not any of my reference books, though I am considering adding them. I have played around with the site, but I don't think I've ever read something because another user reccommends it - though I'm not saying that I wouldn't. In Thing 9, one of the reccommended database subjects was books that I want to read - I thought it would be silly to create a database for something that already has a whole website dedicated to just that (and more!).

In the (real-life) library this could be a neat tool to display reccommended books, best sellers, or new books (mmm...I love new books...). It would also be a good tool for finding other books with the same subject or those rated well - this could be helpful at the reference desk (especially when the library catalog is being a pain).

Thing 12 - Wikis

I love, Love, LOVE Wikipedia. No, seriously, I really do love it. I know that if my mom, the library media specialist/copyright fanatic, is reading this, she is shaking her head in slight embarassment for this statement. When I discovered Wikipedia, it was like angels started singing and a light shone from behind the computer monitor. It was glorious. But anyway, my mom is not a fan of my favorite website because she believes it to be almost wholly unreliable because of the face that anyone can edit it. Understandable, which is why if I read something that sounds a bit crazy (and even some things that don't sound very wild), I take it with a grain of salt. But it really is an amazing resource. I have learned so much from Wikipedia-ing things. I mean, say you want to know a little bit about the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism or read a brief history of chewing gum - Wikipedia's got it. And, it's great for libraries, not just as a random resource for almost anything you ever wanted to know about, but you can look up authors and see the order of a series they have written (like James Patterson's Maximum Ride series). Amazing. I do understand, however, teachers not wanting kids to use Wikipedia as an official source for research projects. On the other hand, it is a great jumping off point. I mean, how many kids have come to the reference desk asking for information for a project about the Iroquois? Kids may not know where to start (hell, in my papers on religious iconography and whatnot, I don't always know where to start), but Wikipedia can send them in the right direction. I know what you're thinking, "But Katy, this is what books and databases are for!" Do you know how may middle schoolers even know what a database is? And not everyone has the book they need or can get to the library when possible, but, I ask again, How many 4th graders do you know who use the internet daily? I rest my case.

On to wikis other than the grandaddy of them all.... As great as they are, some things are just not meant to be wiki'd. For example, floating material and who needs what and who wants to get rid of items (huh? ACLDers know what I'm talking about). I get wanting to jump on the bandwagon that is wikis, but don't make more work for people. Where wikis do come in useful is when they are used to get customized information to people. Anyone who watches Lost, for example, would love Lostpedia. However, some things are better suited for blogs or good, ol' fashioned e-mail.

Hey, check it out, you can even Wikipedia "Wikipedia"!

Thing 11 - Social Media

Ugh, didn't we just do this? And in the RSS feeds Thing, too. How many times do I need to say how much of a time waster this is? Like, I'm not wasting my time by talking about it, but getting addicted to Digg and everything will suck up all your time. Seriously, it will. Yes, it would be helpful for a library to share news about the district and the library/information world in general. But, okay, so you know how some of these are all "compile all of your favorite sites here!"? FACEBOOK, PEOPLE! Facebook has like all of these things and then some. Okay, I am going to move on before I get stuck on my soapbox.