My Space & Facebook

I created accounts in both My Space and Facebook under an alias. I think it is an age thing. All my early teachers drilled into me the adage,"fool's names like fool's faces often appear in public places". I did enjoy exploring. I locate my daughter and some of her friends. I also tried to see if I could find some of my old school friends. My Space is definitely for a younger crowd; however, I did find one old acquaintance that I have not seen or heard from in over 30 years. I was amazed at how many things that we still had in common. It was certainly easy to reconnect. I think this demonstrates that more people of all ages will be experimenting with social networks to strengthen their connections with others or to rekindle old friendships.

Recently, we were able to use My Space to "ID" some young men who used the library. I think that My Space and Facebook can be a tool for libraries, police, or other organizations. In attending the Big Picture presentation on February 19, George Needham talked about surveys that were commissioned by OCLC that demonstrated that privacy is not as high on most people's priority list as librarians would imagine. Looking at the popularity and use of these site offers further testimony to that fact. Bold organizations have a presence on these sites and I feel that more will follow.