Thing 13 focuses on the world of Facebook. I became a member of the site early last year, just to stay in touch with a couple of friends, including my husband. I did not have any intention of using it extensively. Needless to say, I too got drawn into the facebook bubble and am now using it frequently. Not necessarily a good thing! But I still have (until now) managed to maintain the ‘healthy’ balance of the online world and the ‘REAL’ world.

As a tool used in the working world, I would say that Facebook is a good way of getting through to a much wider network of people and in a much quicker way too. It also depends on which field of work you’re involved in. It would be useful in a business sense, for the advertising and promotion of your product. Or in the field of education, it would be helpful as a means of spreading useful information. For example, in my field of work, a facebook page would be useful to show opening hours of certain libraries, their locations, education/library related links to other websites and references to specific resources etc. One can argue that that’s what the library’s own website is for. But by adding this information to facebook, it would be another way of creating awareness and promoting the Library. The chances of prospectives students or people/visitors generally interested in this field would find the relevant information through a networking site such as Facebook rather than by a search for the particular industry. Especially when considering people connecting on a global scale. Also, it would be far more interactive this way and you can connect with people who share a similar interest, which isn’t necessarily the case with a formal website. This way ideas can be shared on how we can make the most of the resources available to us.

Here is a link to my facebook account: 
http://www.facebook.com/henna.mirza