I'm still not entirely sure what the point of thing 11 is, given that it seems to replicate some of the questions that I have been trying to answer already. However, perhaps it is meant to be another pause and time for reflection about my use of social media. This is probably a useful thing, as I already feel the need to rejuvenate my motivation for the social networking aspect of the program. I have found it just too time consuming to try and keep up with some things like Twitter. It is not yet a natural part of my working/social life, and although it seems the 'worliday' will soon be upon us all (as the BBC reports), I like to keep some of my spare time switched off from both work and the Internet. And I still find it hard to justify to myself work-time spent on Twitter etc - there always seems to be plenty of other things that need doing first.
That's not to say that I can't see the benefits - I have discovered that there are so many professional networks out there -both formal and informal, and for current awareness, the immediacy of social media is astounding. The ease of approachability/connecting with people is also appealing, although as someone who doesn't automatically strike up conversations with strangers, this has also lead to me sometimes feeling strangely over-familiar in on-line conversations with others to whom I have no 'real' connection.
Before these Things, I probably did have a professional online presence but in just a static web 1.0 way - no interactivity, mainly just following blogs. I probably need to find more time to pursue the social side of things further. In the spirit of this, the one thing I did was to explore some of the Twitter accounts of other people who also follow tweeters that I do, and followed a few of those too. I deliberately chose a couple from non-cataloguing areas, just to see what happens in the rest of the (library) world too! Now I just need to join in a few more conversations and get things going again...
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