Book Groups     Exhibits     Programs / Events

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Joys and Pitfalls of Social Networking


"Social software enables people to rendezvous, connect or collaborate through computer-mediated communication,
and to form online communities."
  -from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_software

**Entirely different from online dating websites**

Since most social networking websites started small, they were designed for a specific niche functionality. Below are different types of popular social networking websites, grouped by function, and examples of each:

Blogs
http://www.chelmsfordlibrary.org/blog Chelmsford Library's blog
http://googleblog.blogspot.com Google's official blog
http://www.boingboing.net "The most popular blog in the world," talk about cultural curiosities and interesting technologies


Media Sharing
http://www.youtube.com (ie: 1 | 2) Sharing movie files
http://www.flickr.com (ie: 1 | 2) Photo sharing, most popular overall, especially with adults and organizations
http://www.webshots.com Photo sharing, more popular with younger people
http://www.last.fm (ie: 1 | 2) Music interests & what you're listening to
http://www.librarything.com (ie: 1 | 2) Display your personal book library
http://www.allconsuming.net (ie: 1 | 2) Started as a book suggestion website, but has since moved on to "all" things - movies, music, foods, etc.


Personal Information
http://postsecret.blogspot.com (ie: 1 | 2 | 3) "Secrets" are mailed to website maintainer, and then posted for everyone to read
http://www.43things.com (ie: 1 | 2) Sharing what you'd like to do in your life


Instant Messaging (IM)
http://www.aim.com AOL's IM service
http://messenger.yahoo.com Yahoo's IM service
http://messenger.msn.com Microsoft's IM service
http://www.meebo.com Online IM tool - log into other services


All-In-One Websites
http://www.myspace.com (ie: 1 | 2 | 3) Open to everyone
http://www.facebook.com Targets colleges (students, professors, organizations, classes, etc)
http://www.teenspot.com Targets teens


 
   
 
©2006 Chelmsford Public Library