My exploration with social networking sites

Though the concept of social networking sites has been there for quite some time, the notoriety of it being used by teenagers for aimless chatting and the lack of clarity of the real utility to a professional never enthused me to try them out.

But, today, social network sites have become common parlance, occupying glaring print space frequently. Organizations, religious heads, celebrities and others are quoted of harvesting the potential of these sites. Consequently, I decided to explore the world of social networking sites restricting myself to Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, hi5, Linkedin, and Mydailyflog.

It took me almost 10 days of dedicated time to work on this. Enthused with the marvel of technology, it was unending urge to be at the laptop exploring. At times it was frustrating, it interfered with normal commitments, even hampering my daily rituals and schedules. It reminded me of the early days of Internet, when we used to adapt to the erratic dial up connection, stay up late nights so that the connection speed would be better and uninterrupted.

It is frustrating with us because the closed medical fraternity is not that net savvy. There are hardly few people who have been harnessing the benefits of Internet. A simple, small step would keep you stumbled for agonisingly long periods. To overcome this, the approach of reading the Help manual of the site would be beneficial. That circumvents many basic apprehensions and provides keys to initial utility.

Actually, this is the reason; I thought it prudent to pen this short try-out of last fortnight.

Overview
For people who have well organised windows address book/Microsoft outlook/outlook express reaching out to friends would not be difficult. However, social network sites facilitate linking you to friend’s friends and people whom you have lost touch while chasing your dreams. They all can be searched, reached and connected on one single platform.

Twitter like platform where a message of where one is or what he is thinking or doing can be posted on the wall for all to see. Here there is no scope for individualized communication, unless one opts for the message mode, which connects one to the addressed individual only.

Group creation serves a small part of this function, but it lacks openness and additional features of a networking site.

Apart from these benefits, the professional productivity seems meagre for the amount of time you spend working on your site. Out of about 1000 odd email addresses I have, about 100 people were using this medium. That’s 10%.

The satisfaction of knowing the nuances of the happening place and the sense of elation for having harnessed the recent technology that keeps you in the conduit for next few years will be achieved.

Amateur opinion is jotted down for the sake of communication.

Facebook: Site visited and used by most elites across the globe. When enquired with friends who have been using it earlier, ‘It is a site for non-professionals, not so serious guys’. For professionals, Linkedin social network site might be better. I was able to find about 10 friends who were using this site.

Linkedin: Linkedin site is tailor made for professionals. There seems to be a business network angle to it also. A site, where sourcing and targeting can be contemplated. I found 78years old Dr. Shankar Patil, former Dean and present Director of MRMC registered here. This site had about 30 common contacts registered.

Hi5: Glaringly this site had the maximum common contacts registered. About 60 members were already registered. They were all belonging to my intimate group. Commercial merchandizing by the site appeared more here.

Orkut: I was told it is site for teenagers. Nothing kept me hooked to that site.

Mydailyflog: This is networking site, which facilitates posting photographs daily.

Twitter: ‘Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?’

‘If you aren't familiar with Twitter, it is one of those things, like MySpace, that sounds totally ridiculous and stupid when you first hear about it. But once you start using it, you realize how much fun it is.’

These are promotional quotes at the site. Having tried it, it is nothing but a site that facilitates messaging on the net or phone to the tune of 160 alphabets.

A journalist friend based in B’lore using Twitter for quite some time said, ‘It’s going to be technology of the future.’ On quizzing for real examples, he quoted his professional benefit. Within an hour of the swine flue outbreak, they were able to get a twitter alert. For me, being at this site was not practical.


Conclusion: As an initial professional response, it’s a tool worth working on one site alone. These sites facilitate communication rather than any professional indulgence. I have deleted my account at sites that I couldn’t pursue.

Soliciting your experiences.

Sharad

Acknowledgments: Inputs of Mr. Syed Khaja, Mr Sandeep Ratkal & Mr. Desai