My venture into the Web 2.0 world started with a MySpace account in November of 2006 to prepare for an Internet Safety training I was doing for the local community education. It was really quite fun, but also a bit anxiety-producing when I stumbled across old friends and ex-friends from high school. Should I read their profiles? Are they reading mine? I went right back to my own adolescence for about a month, and it was not fun. Got over it quick, though.
Professionally, I am more interested in LinkedIn (because the focus is professional connections), and Facebook (because businesses can create pages that are separated from your friends, unlike MySpace).
I have been on Facebook since (probably) August of 2007, and I like it quite a bit. The “one-stop shop” aspect of it (email, playful apps, photos, IM) is really key, plus most people who are on social networks are going to be there. Some of the groups I have joined include Reading is Sexy (because it is), I Love YA Books (because I do), The Minnesota Library Association (because I like the events updates), and of course, the group a teen volunteer created for our library (only, it didn’t turn out to be as active as we thought it would be). She and I created the page together, and she invited her friends who were on Facebook to join the group.
I like displaying things about myself (my visual bookshelf, being a fan of Al Franken, etc) and being playful online with connections that I wouldn’t maintain otherwise. Libraries can do the same with their pages.
