I'm probably the only one who likes Facebook, Ning, etc. here. I love email lists (I've started at least three around 1994 that are still going strong), but they're very different animals than social sites. I don't find things built for me on Facebook; what I do find is the possibility of a wide, loose organization, of people who don't have to subscribe or have a common goal/interest - and there are surprises as a result - the forwards are immediate, and it's easy to cross-fertilize. I think of Facebook as a basket in a sense; the fact that it's corporate doesn't bother me much - to be honest, so are email lists running on listserv, majordomo, whatever. As list-owner I have censorship controls at hand - it's not that different from Facebook in that way.
But when I log on to Fb, what's presented - everyone chatting - gives me a lot to go on. The very fact it's wide, not teleological as far as partici- pants are concerned, means I'm getting all sorts of unexpected info, and that's terrific. I feel more contained on MySpace of course, and don't use it. Twitter is more of a game; I follow Sara Silverman on it, for example. Ning - at least Odysseyart is a media community, and the results are always there - it's a 'face' of SL in a sense. Email lists are more directed, have tremendous depth, and I love them for that. But I also love Fb etc. By the way, most of my students no longer use email unless they have to - they're on Fb, etc., so there are demo- graphics at stake. And they talk about Chatroulette! - Alan == email archive: http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ webpage http://www.alansondheim.org music archive: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/ == _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
