Thing 4: Online Communities - Facebook Tidbits

After looking at a number of teens' Facebook pages for determining a proper approach to Internet safety programs, I was feeling negatively about the value of Facebook.  Even if 96% of kids are using social media, like the video I discussed in my previous post implies, they appear to be using it mainly for the following sorts of banter: 
"Justin Bieber ROXXX!" 
"No, he Sux, like you."
and
"Letsxz kutt dha storie short."
"Yhu ghot dhat rittee."  
along with tons of comments about this is poppin and that is poppin.  (Now I feel really old.  I have no idea what poppin is.  According to the Urban Dictionary, it is a type of dance done to funk music.  According to the Slang Dictionary, it is used in the phrase, "What's poppin'" to mean "What's going on?"  Neither of these definitions seem to fit in the context of the Facebook comments I've been reading. Anyone more with it than I am care to fill me in?  Just remember, though, this is a work blog, so if it's obscene, forget it!)   Although I use Facebook a bit myself, these sorts of posts were making me feel like it is mainly a big time waster.

Then this morning I read some posts on my own page that once again flipped my opinion on Facebook back to the positive side.  First of all, there were a number of posts from an archivist-friend in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  Whenever she saw or heard from someone she knew in the area, she would post it in her Facebook status line.  Because electricity and phone and Internet connectivity are very spotty down there right now, this is a good way to update people outside of Tuscaloosa.  Folks in Tuscaloosa may not be able to get emails or phone calls out to individual people, but when they can sporadically get on the Internet, they can post so that loved ones know they are OK even though they can't be reached.

Another tornado-related post was from the Library of Congress's National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program.  In this post, they link to an article in the New York Times about a Facebook page that has been created by a woman to reunite people with their lost photographs and documents that have shown up in people's yards and parking lots all over the Southeast.  I don't know how long the article will remain live, but you can view the Facebook page, "Pictures and Documents found after the April 27, 2011 Tornadoes."  This is an amazing page that has posts added to it every few minutes.  Just while I was looking at it brieflly this morning, a reader connected someone who found a class photo with the teacher from that class, someone posted a sepia photo they found in Tennessee, and someone else in Tennessee posted that they found an ordination certificate for someone in Alabama.  This is clearly a great way to use social media.  Besides reuniting people with the few scraps that may remain of their belongings, it helps those who are suffering realize that people all over are thinking about them.