Social Networking

Social Networking is almost hard to avoid these days. Things like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter keep you in touch with friends and co-workers. The list of sites is endless, when new sites develped daily. You can choose what to share and what not to share. Perhaps having one social media for home life and another for your work life.

I choose to use Facebook for my home life. I typically have friends, past co-workers and family on that site. I share photos, jokes, random thoughts as well as news. On the other hand I use LinkedIN for my work life.  I do not post much of anything to LinkedIN, unless it is some how career related. That is how I control what I share, but social networking can also be used to get information as well. When it comes to getting information, I use BOTH social networking sites. I am then able to keep updated on events, professional items and news.

I am learning about many other social networking sites during this class. I can see the need to have multiple, but I think too much could make your life transparent. I think you need to have a purpose for the sites you are using and make sure it is worth the time you put into it. For example the new Google+ seems to be a great social networking site that allows you to control access by using circles of friends. The problem is that many people are still not using it, making very little content or old content. A way to fix this problem would be to use an application that synced your social media websites into one so that you are not wasting your time updating sites that perhaps might never be seen. I have started to use Tweet Deck which does just that, but I still have a lot to learn about how to use it.

For the career of Education and Technology I can see how social networking can be a valuable tool for learning and keeping up on technologies. If I was a tool and die repairman, social networking might not be as valuable of a tool. But with any profession the ability to keep in touch with other people that do what you do is a valuable asset.