Thursday, March 17, 2011
Social Networking @ Libraries: a good idea or not?
Some examples of so-called "social networking:" Skype, Second Life, Flickr, Twitter, and so forth. I know this is supposed to be about the advantages as such, but frankly I see more disadvantages... I mean, aren't kids already doing this too much as it is? I sat next to a girl in my French class last year who spent the entire semester texting- and in the front row! Rude & disrespectful to the teacher, I thought... Also, this chapter in the textbook brought up the situation of some students using the library computers to play games, tieing up computers the rest of us were waiting for for schoolwork. (This actually happened to me while waiting for a library computer to register for classes-I couldn't get on because there was a girl gaming and taking her time about it!) I think the idea might be that students might be using the library more if they could check their facebook, etc., but if you spend any time in the computer lab downstairs, you can see that that's ALL many of them are doing. Sorry, but I'm not excited about this particular trend. Many of these kids live with their parents, don't have jobs, have plenty of time on their hands, PCs @ home and laptops already. They already are spending too much time on this nonsense.
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I agree that there needs to be more responsibility for people using public computers to use common sense and have some manners.
ReplyDeleteI agree that people may spend too much time interacting with other people virtually instead of face to face. I don't feel the need to be constantly communicating via a phone or text messaging. Not every library needs a Facebook page, a blog or a twitter account. It is up to the staff at the individual libraries to figure what works best for their situation. I also believe that libraries should try and keep up with popular social trends and technology to meet the needs and expectations of their increasingly information savvy patrons. I don’t blog, twitter or utilize social networking sites. I don’t blame libraries for trying to go where the next generation of tax payers are congregating.
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