Get Out of My Facebook
I did it. I joined Facebook.
The question now is how, as someone who covers health IT, am I going to use my social network in my everyday work? I'm not sure, but would welcome your suggestions.
I'm struggling with grasping the value of social networks. It's social content, right? This should be easy, but it raises so many questions for me on so many levels that there seem to be no answers.
I "friended" a ton of people the other day after I joined (most of them here at work), and others have "friended" me, so we'll see what happens. I did locate a guy I went to high school with, though we weren't close then, and seeing he still lives in Connecticut and I in Pennsylvania, I'm sure we won't be getting in touch with each other anytime soon.
What about most of my other friends from high school...three are police officers, one a vice president at a financial institution, another the CEO of a company he founded and another is an airline pilot...so I'm sure they're readily on Facebook (the police officers may actually be doing surveillance of online activity, who knows), right?
Wrong. Couldn't locate one of them on Facebook.
Even the one guy who I thought might be on Facebook, my college roommate who is a sports columnist at The Detroit News isn't listed in Facebook. Neither are my college journalism professors. Hmmm, now that's interesting.
I've read several articles about Facebook and social networking sites and how they can benefit journalists. The Association of Health Care Journalists, of which I am a member, had content on how an editor at Scientific American.com and his team of reporters broke a story and how I could do the same. There's also some advice for journalists at Poynter Online about how journalists can best use the information they find on Facebook?
I found it interesting in my reading about Facebook that some journalists use it as a reporting tool to dig deeper, though some of this "armchair reporting" (kind of like what your local TV station's anchor does) backfired, as is often the case when a shooting occurs at a school or other public place. Often much of what is reported is done so without all of the facts to backup the reporter's on-air statements.
I guess in viewing Facebook the other day, I came away with the same feeling I did after watching videos on Youtube, if you're looking for something useful on Facebook, Youtube or other site, you'll probably find it. But if you just go there to mindlessly poke around, you probably won't find much of use, and will probably observe just how "dumb" our society has become. The amount of "stupid human and pet tricks" on Youtube could fill The Late Show with David Letterman with idiotic antics for the next 10 years (I'm especially disturbed by the two young guys fist-fighting beside their in-ground pool). It's sure to become a classic on Youtube.
Facebook has the same feel about it. I'm not sure how the things I read there are social.
Seeing that I'm a Boston Red Sox fan, I typed in a search on Facebook for "Red Sox Nation." I couldn't believe the amount of hatred people have toward the Red Sox, their fans, people who live in Boston, people who have lived in Boston, and the amount of people who despise people who just like "New England clam chowda"...sorry, that last part isn't true, there was no one claiming to hate clam chowder eaters.
The words of hate were unbelievable against anything that resembled the Red Sox.
After joining Facebook, I saw that one of my colleagues was suggesting that everyone go to Chic-fil-A for a 4 o'clock meal, and another "friend" was drinking coffee, though she shouldn't be, she reported.
Why not? Drink up, I say.
Is this all really necessary, though?
Facebook = social networking.
Explain to me how this is social networking.