Face(book)ing Up to Social Networking

I have a Facebook account, with lots of friends [looks] [tired of counting] - close to 100! I find Facebook frustrating - they're always making changes and moving things around, it's very aggressive with trying to make me do things I don't want to do, and all the gifts and goofy games drive me nuts - but it sure is a good way to stay aware of what my friends are doing. Actually many of my friends are relatives, especially younger relatives, and they keep my Wall and NewsFeed (wait, where did this come from?) very busy. It's fun to see what people are up to, occasionally follow a picture link into someone's photo albums, add a snarky comment here or there. I do make contacts with old friends every now and then. Just the other night, at the suggestion of the class agent from my prep school, I went looking for prep school classmates, and linked to several. I have friends from many corners - church, politics, relatives, neighbors, old classmates, and it's amusing to see the mix of cultures, though I wonder what visitors conclude about me from what they see. I don't post many updates of my own. My daughter spends huge amounts of time cultivating her Facebook, and I like to see what she's up to, but I can't imagine spending too much time with it myself. But I don't really have to - everyone else contributes my content!

I'm also on LinkedIn. My wife has used this application fairly productively in her job search over the past year, but it's nothing I need right now and I don't put any time into it. I did link to a few old college classmates in the run up to last spring's reunion, and that was convenient; and just last week I connected with the editor of Skirt!, with whom I'd like to talk about a program next year. But I actually wound up getting her email from another source - I couldn't get it from LinkedIn without upgrading my service plan or playing more wasteful back-and-forth games. No points for LinkedIn here!

I liked the "12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally" article - I plan to spend more time studying this. But I may need to create a second, cleaner Facebook!