Are Social Networks Useful?

Post Reply New Topic

For a wile now I've been on Facebook and Twitter (like an hour a day) but recently I've turned back and thought:

What's so good about this? If I can't make friends in real life, how could this help me?

What are you thinking about this?

Depends what for really. Making friends is still hard on them. Neither is really geared towards making new friends. I like Facebook for keeping in touch with the few people I do already know, and I find Twitter is good for getting info drops from interesting people.

Conceivably, each could be used as a tool for observing social interactions, so it might help you there.

I'd say there was a gap in the market for a social networking site that was geared towards meeting new people. Something like Omegle meets Facebook.

I don't care about the people in real life, I really really don't care about them digitally. Unless by digitally I mean sticking my finger in their eye.

All of my current real life friends (not very many, admittedly) are people I met via livejournal, blogs, and internet forums. I find that this gives me the space to make an impression before people meet me face to face, which seems to help to some extent. I don't really use facebook much, but I have met people via twitter (not face to face yet) who seem pretty cool.

I use FB as a form of therapy. It gives me time to think of an appropriate response & gives me an idea of how to understand what responses are good and which are, well, not so good.

I just use Twitter as an opportunity to find a job, which just might have worked.

For me it's great I have an Autism support service on my Facebook 'like' pages and I get to talk to parents with autistic children and give them pointers. And I learn a lot from them as well.
Today I wrote a note about Adult ADHD, either to help people know if they have it or so they can learn about it.
I usually post links to my blog so people know what's going on with me.
I've also got band members that I follow around so I know when they'll be playing gigs.
Got my real life friends and family on there.
I even got News pages that I comment their stories on.

My status updates are usually about what interests me and I get some interesting replies.

I make social networking work for me.

Twitter is just fun to say a lot of stupid stuff but I have the Epilepsy information service on there too so I can keep up to date with it.
Also, I harass band members on Twitter too.

Games!! The games are good Other than that, nope, not really...at least in my opinion...lol.

Actually, I have made some very good friends through some of the games that function as chat platforms Just have to watch out for the drama, cause it's still there, even on games.

That's just how I feel. Gives me a way to understand how people communicate and then can apply those skills to the real world. I also like having a number of different politics, news, and other sources all in one place on my News Feed instead of having to search all that out. (Although I'm told Google Reader can do the same thing, I haven't really looked into it.) There are probably only a few non-family people that I am friends with on FB and see in real life. But it keeps me from feeling totally isolated.

Use social networking sites sparingly (they archive everything you do and its all available to the FBI.) Connect with someone and then communicate with them on another medium.

I use FB all the time.....mostly for the games and keeping in contact with family.....but i've met some people on there i consider my "FB friends" that i enjoy talking to......but overall it's the games (one of my interests is video games of all types).....oddly enough i also play DOMO (dream of mirror online) which is set up to be very social in some areas....and i've made friends there too.....if anyone would like to add me on FB let me know......

I met a lot of accepting and interesting people when I used to use Myspace, including my current boyfriend. Facebook has been more a means to keep in touch with old friends and not really so good for forming new ones.

NOT TWITTER!! ! Sorry, I think it is stupid.

I like facebook, but I am scared to say anything because I know a lot of people will see it, and I don't want to be judged.

I LOVE experience project, it allows me to be free to be me.

Facebook was really just an index for me in case I ever wanted to contact friends about anything or vice versa.

Social networking has gotten too corrupted and ridiculous. I have no regrets about quitting it.

And I too think that Twitter is stupid. My life is nobody's business!

Personally I think you should drop Twitter. Facebook on the other hand is good in maintaining contact with close friends, however there's a whole lot of drama that can occur with it if you're not careful. Plus, there's the tendency for you to look at other people's fan pages to see what they like, and the addiction goes on. Try to keep a limit on your Facebook exposure. Note that lots of people also upload photos of themselves at parties and other social gatherings to make it look like they're social and having a great time, but please don't get jealous or depressed about that. It's just their way of flaunting their "sociability" and the fact that they go out just to look cool. I think it'd be best for you to spend more time on your special interests, and to try to make friends who have similar special interests as you.

I like facebook as I can talk to friends and other people without needing to worry so much about all the extra stuff that comes with socializing and having friends and as soon as I've had enough I can turn it off and everyone's gone so it's not overwhelming and I can just not use it if I don't want to. For the same reasons I am very careful who I give my mobile number too, I don't want people texting and phoning me all the time even if I do like them, I don't mean to but often I find it very invasive, especially phone calls. I can kinda drop into the social world as much as I feel comfortable and jump out as and when needed I guess.

Some people like sharing their lives!

Some people do seem to share rather too much.

I don't know about you guys, but I tend to under share, that seems to be a characteristic of autism.

I guess there's a balance to be struck.