New tools

A month after Face.book allowed people with non-college email addresses to join, I joined.  I did this mainly because my sister was on it, and it was the easiest way to be in contact with her.  There was no one my age on it.  The feel of it was very different.  Very young.  As it has gone "mainstream", I've watched it evolve.  When there is a new series of changes, I somewhat chuckle at the posts that rail against the "new Face.book" that want the "old" one back (when the reality of it the "old" FB was "new" in a rememberable past).  Some of the changes work, some don't.  I've watched it go from an amusing way to interacting with my sister and a handful of other people that I knew that were in college and on it, to a major way I get everything from news to communicating with the majority of people I know from many aspects of my life.  I have "friends" that were friends from childhood, high school, college, different points of my work life, and family.  I have purposely never mixed current work with FB.  I might make an occasionally comment that if you know me well enough, you know I'm referring to work, but I never directly comment.  I don't have my employer listed.  I don't write messages to co-workers about work issues.  I use my work email for that.  I'm amazed at how I look at FB and Twitt.er has effected the world around me.  I look at how they are used overseas, in particular, but here as well to organize movements in a way that was previously impossible to do.

Recently, I got a message on FB the contents basically said that a co-worker was home sick and she was thinking about how I document at work and told me that I should do it a different way.  I was annoyed on many sides.  I decided to keep my "do not mix work onto FB" rule, and ignored it altogether.  But it got me thinking about the appropriate and inappropriate use of social media.  I know a couple people personally that have been fired over things they have done in social media that was mixing work with the media.  I know a countless number of people that have been reprimanded of how they have used social media and how it ties in with work.

I have also got to thinking about the etiquette that social media requires.  Jet has recently got his own account, and finds it confusing at times.  He doesn't pick up on social rules easily, and he finds it all mind boggling at times.

I ask myself what are the "rules" and how did I or others learn them?  Do the rules change in the light of particular situations?  How are these new tools going to continue to evolve and effect my life?  What role is going to play in my kids lives?

I guess it is something that I will just continue to watch, participate, and learn as it continues to grow and mature.