A Case Study

As part of my inquiry into Facebook uses by non-collegiates, I plan to present a few cases studies on this blog. These case studies are by no means authoritative, broadly representative, or scientifically selected. They are drawn from my contacts list and presented for illustrative (aka qualitative) purposes.

This week I’ll share a Facebook-mail exchange I had with Michael Giarlo, a former colleague at the Rutgers University Libraries who is now a software developer and librarian at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.



HG: Have you used Facebook for work - either job related tasks or networking/job-seeking? If so, how?

MG: The majority of my "friends" on Facebook are work-related folks, so in some sense I have used Facebook for work. Since sites such as Facebook or Twitter -- where short, quasi-public messages may be jotted off at any time -- have become available and widely used, other media start to seem more formal, somehow. And so rather than sending out the periodical "hey, how ya doing?" e-mail to dozens of colleagues, you can stay in touch by commenting on new photos they've posted, or status updates that catch your eye. It's a bit serendipitous.

Additionally I've been somewhat involved with some Facebook groups that have led to meeting more people than I would have had I not joined said groups. More than half of the groups I belong to are job-related, such as "Libertine Librarians," a silly group I started a year or two ago that now has almost 200 members (to the best of my memory).

Facebook has thus been a very useful tool for networking. While most of my contacts here are people I have met elsewhere, a few of them are folks I've met on Facebook via other contacts.


HG: Do you find that Facebook helps you stay close to good friends? If yes, how?

MG: To an extent, yes. The alternative to seeing a close friend's photos or status updates or saved links or blog posts pop up in my friends' feed would be, in a Facebookless world, a mass e-mail. For some strange reason, mass e-mail seems impersonal where Facebook updates do not. I suppose because one does not see the zillion other people who've been included in the e-mail? It seems less intrusive and more personal to get updates via Facebook feeds.


HG: What other functions of Facebook do you use (games, groups, events, etc.)? Have any of these been particularly helpful, useful, or pleasant/fun? If yes, please explain.

MG: I have installed a very small number of applications because I do find that they're rather "cluttersome." But I have found groups and events somewhat useful. I've used events -- public, private, and group-based -- to plan real-world events, and I found that it worked quite well.