Social Networks

I still think that it's funny that I think that all of this social network stuff sounds really interesting and is a great way to market people (which is part of my job), but I am not involved in any of the social networking sites! I think part of the reason is because I don't want people to know everything about me and that I don't want to appear vulnerable online, and I think another part of it is just laziness! I actually am involved in linkedin, but I don't really know how to use it and only accept friends when they promt me first.

Anyways...

I enjoyed The Fifth Link article the most - I actually had no idea how the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon game got started, and how IMDB.com got started either, which I go on everyday to check on the latest gossip. It was also interesting to see that that was one of the first examples and a great example of how a social network actually works and can be utilitized.

I liked the ideas behind why people are involved in these social networks with complete strangers - the "Public Displays of Connection" article touched on the points that perhaps that person wants the most links, they want to feel connected, or their profile is very attractive.
One phrase that I have never heard before was "She's not my friend, she's my Friendster," which I thought was really clever - it acknowledges that the meaning of friend and online friend can be completely separate identities, which is one of the concepts that I was most interested in during the beginning of the class.

In conjugation with identities, I also liked the part in the article about how sometimes people can be ruder online than they typically are in real life. I manage an online student feedback portal, and some of the comments that we get are quite rude! One of the managers told me that if someone is particularly irate, I should invite them to come to speak to me in person, where they will most likely be more polite and sensical.