Social Networking

My Social Networking Experience...

Ok, my experience with social networking recently has been more work than social. I think (according to Wikipedia) that MySpace began around the summer of 2003, following Friendster and copying its more popular features. I never joined Friendster, and I think that I joined MySpace around the winter of 2005?..

It was addicting at first, especially for me because I've lived/worked around the world. So many of my friends I keep in touch with via email/phone because we don't live anywhere near each other. I would mean to only check MySpace, and then spend hours catching up with people, seeing what they were up to now, looking at photos, etc.. As a performer, my friends and I tend towards the nomadic.. It is hard to keep up with a group of friends that have new jobs in different continents every few months or so!! So MySpace was addicting because it wasn't stagnant like email, but I could look through their sites - at pictures, blogs, etc. (this was a little before video posts were common, I think) - and 'feel' like I was catching up with them.

But now, I have a hard time keeping up with everything! I use social networking (mostly Facebook) for marketing purposes in the various internships I've had and for communication on behalf of the TC student organization I'm president of. I'm interested in arts marketing, and my internships have primarily been involved with online media. So when all of this becomes work instead of 'catching up with friends', it makes it a little less fun..

That said, I do still think social networking sites are great marketing tools, and much more fun to build a 3D mailing list than just send postcards from a list of database-generated addresses. But I do participate in it less as myself, just for fun..
That could have something to do with being a graduate student, as well :)

http://www.myspace.com/shannonmariehouston
http://www.facebook.com/people/Shannon_Houston/1039613434