As a 19-year-old college student, I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that I’m new to the whole online social networking thing. Until recently, blogging was a very foreign concept. I couldn’t (well I kind of still can’t) understand why anyone would want to MySpace or Facebook all his or her random thoughts and photos (now I’m puzzled even more at Twitter). So while reading this, a lot of you out there in cyberspace will utter “well duh” as I recount my metamorphosis from skeptic to true believer. But, I feel compelled to voice my new appreciation for social media in case I’m not the only one who isn’t all the way hip to the idea.
It’s not that I’m technologically disinclined; I’m as computer literate as the next teenager. It’s just that for me, the Internet has always existed for instant messaging, sporadic email checks, “reading the news” (Reuters Oddly Enough, The Onion, daily comics, etc.), iTunes, occasional shopping and most of all, Netflix. Get on, get off. But last year I begrudgingly opened a Facebook account after a coworker annoyed me into it. I only had nine friends. I never logged on. Ever.
And then Tonic’s Positively Good Writers Program came into my life and changed my concept of the Internet. In order to promote my articles, I had to become a social media-tor. I had to become a Facebooker. Ugh. I didn’t know how to start.
Fortunately, one of my friends — who just so happens to be a fellow linguistics nerd — had recently presented a research project called “Face-Work on Facebook: Intimate Conversations in Public Space.” Conversation analysis and linguistic explanation of social networking on the interwebz was exactly what I needed to help me accept the concept. (And a shout out to Sarah Lowry — Sarah gave me additional networking tips and I was well on my way).
After a while, I realized that Facebook can be used for good. For one thing, it’s improving my character. Not that I don’t already ooze with character, but I’m so the type to keep all the cookies for myself. With Facebook, sharing is kinda fun. When I dig a link, I post it, and other people can enjoy it, too. Also, I’d like to eventually become an activist of … something. Facebook is helping me take baby steps towards that goal. See, initially I found its news feed annoying, but, as my list of friends grows, so grows my awareness of the good going on in my locale. Like, unless you’re incredibly connected, you don’t usually know what’s going on until you read about it in the paper after it’s happened. The randomness in my highlights bar is my connection to causes I can support before they’re over.
My point? Faceboook enables you to do good while you muck about the interwebz. This effortless social responsibility is way worth putting my random thoughts out there.