Facebook Spreads Like Fire

A friend of mine finally set up a Facebook account. She not a real techie and was one of the last hold-outs from my group of friends. She joined at 6:29 and already has 11 friends. Her list of friends includes family and friends in Canada, along with local friends here in Shanghai. In a matter of about 2 hours, she connected with people on 2 continents - writing posts on walls, chatting, adding friends. 

I bet she'll double or triple her friends in the next couple days. I'm sure she'll see loads photos of her nieces and nephews in Canada, her friend's wedding this summer, another friend's baby in Colorado, photos of a trip to Europe...the list will be endless. I wonder how many chats she'll have in the next week?

I didn't join Facebook right away because I was just too busy to add one more "thing", one more obligation to my life. I heard people at work talking about poking people or getting slapped with a fish and that didn't interest me at all. Actually, it still doesn't! I rarely do those gimicky apps on FB. I don't play super hero games and send people digital plants. I'm actually a Facebook dud, in that regard. (Although I did send my husband a Slurpee gift since we used to go on Slurpee dates when we were poor college students!) 

However, I'm a Facebook diehard now. For me, Facebook means connections. I login and quickly know what people are up to, just by looking at their status. I can view pix and comment on them quickly and easily. I recently became Facebook friends with a friend of mine from high school. We both graduated from The American School of the Hague. She's Australian and we hadn't been in touch in over 20 years. I just looked at her photos from her trip to Phuket where she put a snake around her neck! Now that I have time for!

(Hey, she just got another friend! That's 12 and counting. Not too shabby for a tech novice!)

Tweet me!

I recently got a Twitter account. Then, of course, I had to install Thwirl so I could get tweets all day long. I've entered the world of twittering, twirling, tweets. My mother would be so proud! She'd be totally confused, but proud nonetheless!

I started following people with similar interests - mostly librarians and tech people. I follow colleagues and friends, too. I love getting tweets from my peeps! People started following me. Most I know, some I don't. Twitter makes it really easy to network, in an almost creepy kind of way!

My tweets pop up with a gentle "bing" sound, alerting me that someone has something really important to say. Something they have to share with all their followers. If they've written it and sent it out, it must be worth my time. "Just had a cup of coffee. Needed the jolt." Hmmm. Not what I expected. 

Hence, I have a love-hate relationship with Twitter. I have to sift through a lot of useless messages to get a golden tweet that actually has good information. But they're there, if you're willing to sift through a little digital chit-chat.

I joined Diigo because of tweets. I watched a video about school reform and checked out a virtual library when people I followed sent informative tweets. Twitter was invaluable during the Learning 2.0 conference. When someone would create an "unconference", they would send a quick message with the details. "Librarians unconference at 11:30. Meet in front of the MS building." Twitter is the perfect tool for this situation. Excellent use of technology.

The golden tweets keep me coming back for more. I guess I'll keep sifting out the coffee talk!