:: In.a.Mirror.Dimly ::

When myspace hit the scene as a place to blog and to keep up with friends, I passed. I’m not particularly concerned with the music scene, a primary use for myspace, and found the design difficult to navigate. It felt like an arduous journey through a maze just to update my profile–something that made updating my old TypePad blog look like a breeze.

Sticking with my wordpress blog, I had all of the online presence I would need until facebook came along. I actually signed on to facebook because of my freelance writing career. I didn’t really know that many people using it and just assumed it would be a neat way to connect with my readers. Facebook holds the promise of opening channels for two-way conversation in the one-way medium of the book industry. It’s a simple, non-committal way to be available without committing an e-mail address to someone who may forward me to distraction.

However, once I signed on, I quickly accumulated a list of friends, relatives, and old acquaintances, some I haven’t seen for years. Nevetheless, I resisted jumping into facebook too much. I already had a theology blog and a writing blog, not to mention flickr for my photos. I had del.icio.us to keep track of links. I didn’t need yet another place to mess around with on the web (see the icons in the “about” box if you’d like to check any of these out by the way).

The floodgates opened when I realized facebook had the capacity to synch across platforms. Photos on flickr could automatically upload onto facebook, blog posts could automatically show up as notes, and a simple toolbar button made it just as easy to post articles to facebook as del.icio.us. While facebook still requires a little time on site, I found some very simple ways to keep my content up to date without adding anything new to my web routines.

I put up similar resistance to Twitter until I learned that facebook and Twitter can be synched together as well. Updates on Twitter, made from the toolbar of my Firefox browser, are copied onto facebook as well. That helps me share ideas, information, promote by blog, and stay in touch with friends in a pretty simple way in multiple networks. Family members can find my pictures and potential blog readers are introduced to my posts on my facebook wall or twitter feed.

When it comes to social networking, I have a few rules to follow:

• Set specific goals for social networking and stick to them. Don’t download games and other distractions if you don’t want to be spend lots of time on facebook.
• Sync your networking sites together so they stay updated and fresh without demanding too much time.
• Take the time to find a few tools that will make social networking a breeze. I love the Twitter bar plug in for Firefox, and have facebook, Twitter, and del.icio.us boxes on my Google home page. In a matter of seconds I can check my e-mail, calendar, to-do list, and social networking sites. I end up using them more, while preventing them from taking up huge chunks of time.
• Take breaks, don’t check for updates constantly.

At this point in my life I think I have a decent balance between the online world and real life. Of course there still are moments when I wonder if I’ll cease to exist if facebook disappeared…