Being an avid Facebook (and now Twitter) user makes me automatically a fan of social networking as such. However, although Twitter and Facebook are grouped together I find I use them very differently. Facebook is definitely my number one social tool; I use it to catch up with friends, explore common interests and for the voyeuristic appeal of scoping out the lives of old high school classmates. On the other hand I am a very passive user of Twitter, as I rarely make a post or 'tweet' and it is usually after great consideration. My use of Twitter is mainly in a Web 1.0 context in a way, I use it as a source of information. I follow people who provide numerous links to articles and sites that are entertaining, insightful, shocking and/or revelatory. Although, I choose where my information comes from and perhaps that is what makes it a Web 2.0 tool. How I value Twitter has determined what kind of user I am. I rarely tweet because I feel I have very little of use to say, but it might also be because my Twitter profile is public and my Facebook profile is private. Although I have no illusions that people out there are avidly following my tweets, I am aware of the possible audience.
I have a much more personal connection to Facebook as that is it's main use in my eyes. I can see the benefit of having class 'groups' to share information and messages from the lecturer/teacher but I don't think I would utilise it for this purpose. Twitter on the otherhand, could have other possibilities as users can share information with like-minded individuals without the necessity of a very personal profile. Tony Karrer has an interesting blog about e-Learning and in particular has blogged about the place of Twitter in education, by pooling articles from a variety of different sources. How did I learn of this blog? By following actress Alyssa Milano on Twitter.
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You're obviously an avid user of social media, and one of the lessons we learn by doing that is the one you imply here ... at some level, all these social media connect up with each other. It's true that Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc, have slighly different purposes and points of emphasis, but they are quite tighly interlinked as your story about finding the Twitter reference shows!
ReplyDeleteI'm the same on Twitter, I feel like I dont have anything to say on there, so I just read what other people say.... facebook on the other hand is a different story
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