I have used a couple of messenger programs (Yahoo and AIM) for several years to keep track of a few friends and family. I always have them set so I don't get invitations to join conversations, etc. My kids can see when I'm online, that's what matters.

I don't consider YouTube social networking in the same way as Mudcat or other sites. I couldn't care less about ratings or the remarks people leave. They're unmoderated, and they're mostly unreadable. It's like the remarks left at the local newspaper below articles--most of what is posted isn't worth reading and I'm not convinced it is there for any other reason than to lull people into thinking that the local paper cares or is responsive to their thoughts. I don't think this is the case at all.

A couple of years ago a co-worker asked me to join Facebook to research and the possibly advertise a special event on our university campus. I didn't use it much, but in the last 12-18 months there has been an explosion of stuff going on and I regularly go in to dumb down the features. I don't want email telling me when someone posts on my wall. I'll find it when I go there. I never respond to invitations--they pile up and after a while I go in and "ignore" all of them. By virtue of this being a forum that began in a campus environment, a lot of my campus co-workers are on Facebook and have linked to my page as friends, as have a lot of Mudcatters. I ignore most of it because there is so little of the apps stuff that interests me. I read it when my kids are on, or when someone I know who actually has something to say there says something. I don't post much there.

This is why I find Twitter to be an absolute English major's delight. No pictures, no ads, and you have to say what you want to say in 140 characters, including links. "Brevity is truly the soul of wit," and to play with the rest of the quote, this web site is not mad or inconsequential. I don't follow more than about 3 dozen folks right now, and of course, it's my choice who I follow. News outlets, modern philosophers, technology and science folks, a few of the panelists from Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, some of my local newspaper journalists, and only one person from work. We joined about the same time and have been figuring out some of the features, but I haven't gone looking for other co-workers, and though I had an inkling that Max was probably on Twitter, when I looked I couldn't find him. I monitor my "followers" and regularly block the ones that are simply trying to add numbers of followers and those who are clearly hoping I'll visit their sites and buy their products. I don't automatically follow anyone who follows me, and I don't post often.

I was following NPR radio journalist Farai Chideya, who I like on the radio, but who has not figured out that one does not write an entire essay on Twitter, sending out 20 140-character sentences to do it. If you fill up my screen to try to make your point, you haven't got the point of Twitter. Tom Bodett, Paula Poundstone, Peter Sagal, they post a remark or the title of a blog essay, and include a compressed link to the blog. This is what Chideya needs to learn to do. The news outlets post a few words about a story, and add a tinyurl to the page where it unfolds. I scan the Tweets and follow the links I want. There are a few I actively converse with via direct message, and there is some charm in this, especially if this is someone famous or well-connected who you normally would only cross paths with at a public program, but not stay in touch with.

Frankly, I don't want to carry on the same conversations with the same people on all sorts of different networking sites. I like the variety in different areas. My Mudcatter friends on Facebook are for those times when Mudcat goes down. I don't know who most of them are with their real names. :) I figure if we ever have to reconstruct the linkages after a huge crash or Max's house is vaporized, I'll do my part and have a few names and addresses I can reach. (Post apocalypse, mind you!)

My co-workers on facebook don't need to be reading what I'm talking about on Mudcat, or on Twitter, or in AIM or Messenger. They don't need to see what I view or post on YouTube. Mudcatters don't need to see what library chat we get to on Facebook. I think it will soon reach a point where this interconnectivity is too much of a good thing.

I use Google alerts for news items, I don't use RSS. I've started a blog recently, two of them, actually, one for work and one for me. I find that there are blog amalgamators that pick up posts and paste them in new sites unattributed and without a back link to the site. I'm going to have to block that feature--I don't write at that blog to throw my words out there anonymously or for someone else to take the credit.

I'm still learning, and we all have our limits. I don't Twitter on my phone, it would drive me nuts. There is some improved functionality I'd like to see at Mudcat--like easier access to profiles, improved chat, and I'd like to see a safe way to embed images in posts at Mudcat. I'd like the choice to trace a particular thread to receive a notification of new posts.

After looking back at all of this, I think I need to go read a book. Words in ink on regular old paper.

SRS