Social Networking Websites

Social Networking Websites have become one of the latest to do things in cyberspace. If you are like me and not 100% up on just what social network websites are, they’re places someone can go set up a profile telling just about any and everything about their self, include pictures and depending upon the actual website keep those you connect to updated with what is happening in your world. You can even have one line statement that informs the connected what you are doing at any given moment. For example; Wednesday February 4, 2009 @ 07:32 PM Scott is writing a post for his blog, or Scott is brushing his teeth, or Scott is telling the cats the stimulus package is a waste of taxpayer’s money (probably preparing for a future blog).

Anyway these social networks have a lot of people keeping everyone updated to the latest goings on in one’s life. MySpace has some 250+ million registered users. Facebook and Tagged have another 140 and 70 million respectively.

I originally hooked up with a site named Plaxo, not for social networking but for keeping contact info of people I knew up to date. When I first started using Plaxo, its purpose was to provide a contact update service. Registered users could have their contact software, in my case Outlook, be automatically updated with a fellow registered user’s contact info when ever it changed. I joined because it was very possible someone’s e-mail or phone number might change and if I was not on the “persons who must be contacted with my new contact info or else the world will end as we know it list”, the world can rest in peace and be assured of my being updated with their new info and thus saving the world as we know it. I think over a two year period my using Plaxo saved the world about two times.

Then in August 2007 Plaxo announced Plaxo Plus a social networking service. I didn’t fully understand the social network thing but since it was a freebie I upgraded. My hope was that I would be able to expand my personal network of people involved in prison ministry and in return be able to help others who had a prison ministry need by being ‘socially networked’ in prison ministry.

Sure enough I started getting lots of suggestions of people who I might want to connect to. These suggestions as I best understand it come from people who are connected to people I have in Outlook and are registered users of Plaxo. However there is one problem that I had with Plaxo. For me to see someone’s profile, to see if there is a common interest in some capacity in prison ministry, I have to connect to them. Though I’d like to think all the nice people in this world and even some not so nice know me just by name and my thumbnail picture, that is not the case.

So my quandary is how do I know if someone is worth connecting too if I don’t know squat about them and they don’t have a clue as to who the dude with the double chin smile is that wants to connect to them?

I recently in attempt to be cooler joined ‘Facebook’ in hopes I find some old friends from days gone by. So I created my profile, did a search on my high school and I get a bunch of matches, 67 to be exact. Oh boy I can’t wait to find a name from the past and say via a connect e-mail; Hey what’s happening? Remember me? Out of 67 just one name sounded remotely familiar. Bummer well what if I try looking for a name. I key in a name and get 100+ matches. That’s a lot of profiles to review but hey to find Dave it would be worth it. I click on one of the Dave names and Facebook tells me, like I am told in Plaxo, I must be connected to see the person’s profile. It is true some people went to the same social school as Alfred E Newman went to and say ‘What, me worry?” and will let any crazed person with web access see their profile, but most do worry and keep their profiles hidden.

Now I’m not ripping the social network sites, I’m actually trying to see if I’m just a totally dumb guy who needs to be enlightened on this social network phenomenon as to how to connect to a possible ministry network source or find that long lost friend from high school and tell them there is a God and he works miracles. Look what He did to me!

So if you have some helpful feedback and can express it in a kind manner (my feelings will be hurt and I may bark at my wife’s cats if you post in a rude way) on how I can use a social network like Plaxo to network for prison ministry or find a long lost friend on Facebook or know of a social website that could do what I’m expecting from Plaxo or Facebook please post your wisdom so I can be enlightened and be cool like the million other social network addicts.