When I first heard about "Web 2.0" several years ago, I was so fascinated by the concept of user content, new ways of communication, high efficiency of information dissemination. However, now I'm more confused of the tools and the impact on people's real lives.
Appreciating the convenience of RSS readers to obtain information, I even believe that there is a digital divide between people who use RSS reader and who don't. The former ones are more likely to being updated with the outside world, with the cutting edge technologies, gain a better perception and have more opportunities. But, when you subscribe more than 100 feeds, you may receive hundreds of new posts everyday and have no patience of reading long but valuable posts. And you may even lose your own voice. Needless to mention that the time spent on RSS reader could be done with something more interesting.
Twitter provides a different way of exchanging "what is happening". The limitation of 140 words of every tweet encourages people to publish hot and real time information. The best thing about Twitter is that users are offering information in their professional fields, exchanging experiences, ideas and viewpoints, rather than posting stories about personal lives. If following the right people, you can get very valuable information in the desired fields. If have any questions, they could be answered instantly with enough followers after posted on Twitter. When combined with search engines, firsthand information could be retrieved only minutes after an incident happens. Last week, Google real-time search spotted earthquake in San Francisco 6 minutes after the earthquake.
Although Facebook is more likely to be used for personal interactions, the website could also be used in professional ways. Library digital branch and service manager, David Lee King asked why librarians use Facebook, and answers showed that librarians are using it for both personal connections and library work. Facebook is a powerful tool to reach out to the patrons. While your patrons are using Facebook, why don't you use it to let them know the recent activity of your library?
However, with such convenience of accessing information, some people also feel that their real lives have been destroyed by these applications. Spending time on virtual connections instead of talking to people in the real world. And do you really benefit from the information you get? or you just have gained lots of junk which will not make your life better? According to such concerns, Web 2.0 suicide machine is aiming to help you to get your actual life back by closing accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.
For me, the question is not to keep the account or delete them, I still believe they will do me good. But how to make the best use of the applications? To get useful information without being disorientated. Keep the subscriptions and followed Twitter users in a handle acceptable amount and make sure they all worth reading. Anyway, the sounded-simple strategy is not easy to accomplish.
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