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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 01:52 PM
Original message
Poll question: What has your social network done for you lately?
Edited on Fri May-02-08 02:04 PM by BurtWorm
Are you a member of an online social network like MySpace or Facebook or a Ning network? Do you actively use it? Have you made real friends through it? Connected with someone romantically through it? Found support through it? Have you gotten leads for a job from it? Or found an employee through it? Or is it just an excuse to spend yet more time on the Internet?

How useful is your social network to you? Please vote in the poll, then tell me something about your relationship with your social network. Thanks!
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 02:28 PM
Response to Original message
1. Is no one responding because no one belongs to a social networking site?
*insert smiley sniffing under armpits and breathing into hand cupped over mouth*
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LynzM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 03:01 PM
Response to Original message
2. Mm... I'm going with "other"
It allows me to keep up with who's broken up with whom, who took all the skin off their knee, who's bored at work, who's overwhelmed with school, and to learn that virtually everyone I know kicks my ass at Scrabble! :rofl: Oh, and to find some music I'd never heard of, that too.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 03:11 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. I've been to only one MySpace page that was at all interesting
and it was used to feature obscure girl groups on vinyl. It was an unusually--maybe even uniquely--well designed page. Uncluttered. Sans bullshit. And extremely informative and useful. Most other ones I've seen take a million years to load and are as interesting to read and look at as a trash heap. No offense to MySpace people. ;)
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LeftyMom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 03:21 PM
Response to Original message
4. I'm on a couple of message boards for topics that interest me, but I never saw the point of social
networking. Honestly, I don't feel the need to collect so many friends that I can't keep track of their live in the usual ways. It just seems like an added complication (and myspace pages make my eyes bleed.)
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 03:47 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. There must be a point to them, mustn't there?
Edited on Fri May-02-08 03:55 PM by BurtWorm
I just was just invited to join an exclusive one :insert smiley huffing on fingers and rubbing chest: and it seems like it might be useful for moving on to some new position, if I can make connections there. Or it might just be another cul de sac off the digital highway.
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datasuspect Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-03-08 02:28 PM
Response to Reply #4
20. social networking is good for sociable people
i suppose antisocial people wouldn't find much usefulness in social networking.
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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 03:48 PM
Response to Original message
6. Mine gave me herpes and crabs.
x(

:yoiks:
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 05:00 PM
Response to Reply #6
9. That's *kind* of useful I suppose...
:crazy:
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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 05:17 PM
Response to Reply #9
11. The crabs didn't seem to mind...
:eek:
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Radical Activist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 04:00 PM
Response to Original message
7. It has been useful.
Calling it integral to my life is a bit much. I've made offline-world friends and arranged dates through it. I also use it to promote events.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 05:03 PM
Response to Reply #7
10. Is it a big site like Facebook?
Is it purely social, or is it based on something the members have in common, like work or an interest?
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Radical Activist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-03-08 12:10 PM
Response to Reply #10
16. myspace
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PassingFair Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 04:04 PM
Response to Original message
8. I never "network", but I kind of admire people who do....
I am in sales, so that's saying something.

I draw a line between work and play, and I
don't like suckering people into a friendship
and then have to deal friends....

Just. Won't. Do. It.
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bigwillq Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 05:18 PM
Response to Original message
12. I have both MySpace and Facebook
I am seldon on Myspace anymore..but I love facebook! :bounce:
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salvorhardin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 06:02 PM
Response to Original message
13. I'm on Facebook and MySpace
I use MySpace for exactly two things: 1) Finding indie bands/music artists and 2) As a placeholder for my web site name so no one can usurp it.

Facebook I'm fairly new to (PM me if you want to add me as a friend) and I can see where it would be very useful. If I had the time. I don't. Of course, I'm very poor at networking in real life so perhaps it just carries over to my online life.

An example of a good use of Facebook: Several organizations I'm a part of, like CFI and NCSE, use Facebook effectively to get their message out and inform people of events, etc.
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harmonicon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 06:02 PM
Response to Original message
14. I do this thing...
where I know people, and they introduce me to other people, and suggest that maybe I should meet someone who I'd have something with common with, and then maybe I meet them... it's just like a social network website, except without the website part. It totally rules.
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auntAgonist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-02-08 06:04 PM
Response to Original message
15. I use facebook and myspace.
Edited on Fri May-02-08 06:06 PM by auntAgonist
Just a way to keep in touch with family.

aA


edited because I read the question wrong ... go figger.
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Lyric Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-03-08 12:15 PM
Response to Original message
17. I don't really socialize much outside of DU and home.
I mean, there's *some* social contact required for attending college, and I'm generally nice and pleasant to the people on campus who aren't rude to me, but if we're talking contact *outside* of what's required for school...I generally don't bother. DU, ThinkBlue1966, and the kidlet are enough for me--I'm a very introverted person, I guess.

(YES, that was a serial comma. Eat it Oedi! MLA! MLA :P )
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libodem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-03-08 12:30 PM
Response to Original message
18. my social network
is awesome. I get lots of call every week to go play cards or dominoes. I go to an acoustic jam session, that rotates to a different home, each week. Then another friend is in a rock band. We all went out to hear them play in a bar a couple of weeks ago. I'm very lucky to have so many good friends.
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Lorien Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-03-08 12:56 PM
Response to Original message
19. I use LinkedIn for professional networking
I only add people to my connections list who I know to be competent, dependable and professional in their dealings with others. It hasn't been a huge benefit to my career yet, but I have managed to make beneficial introductions between my connections.
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SarahB Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-03-08 05:12 PM
Response to Original message
21. In all honesty,
it's something I do when I don't have anything better to do (which isn't often). It's a good resource to keep in touch with people sometimes though. I'd prefer hanging out with family or real life friends over any online stuff anytime. Everyone on my "friends list" I'd love to hang with (or have hung with), but most are too far to do so regularly.
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Xipe Totec Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-03-08 05:29 PM
Response to Original message
22. Ask not what your social network can do for you... nt
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Fox Mulder Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-03-08 05:37 PM
Response to Original message
23. It really doesn't do anything for me.
Edited on Sat May-03-08 05:37 PM by Fox Mulder
I just have it and that's it. :shrug:

I wish it did more though.

Edit to add that I'm on Facebook.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-03-08 09:33 PM
Response to Original message
24. Thank you everyone for your input.
You're corroborating my suspicion that online networks are not currently living up to their potential. I wonder if they ever will.
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Kat45 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-03-08 11:10 PM
Response to Original message
25. I'm on MySpace, and there are 2 things it's done for me.
First, I've caught up with people I'd lost touch with. Second, a number of bands that I like are among my MySpace friends and because of this I find out about their shows in the area or about new music from them. It's nice to get the information effortlessly. There was one concert I heard about via MySpace that the band didn't even put on their own website. Friends of mine who frequently check the band's site were glad I told them about the show because they wanted to go but wouldn't have known about it otherwise.
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T_i_B Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-04-08 07:32 AM
Response to Original message
26. You want something useful?
Try the DU Facebook group!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2426871461

Besides that, within a week of joining facebook I got in contact with an old Uni friend and invited to a gig through the site so yes it can be very useful. However, it does depend on how you use it. Don't just send every rubbish application to everyone on your friend list for instance.
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crispini Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-04-08 07:43 AM
Response to Original message
27. How about "has been useful from time to time"
Linked In has been great. Got a job, got a friend a job, and it's VERY low-maintenance.
DFA has its own sort of social networking thingy and it hooked me up with a writer who will be in our city and we'll do an event for him.
I used to find new bands on MySpace, but I'm sick of that site.

I don't spend a lot of time on any of them, though. They bore me, to be honest. :D
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