Back in 2006 I wrote a post, Why worry about Myspace/Facebook?, which – after reading For students, can any social platform compete? - still seems to stand. It is true that more people are utilising social media today and it infiltrates deeper into our daily lives but I still believe it is not about going to Facebook because “that is where students are” but rather creating something/somewhere that adds real value for them in relation to their studies. This might well be on Facebook/Twitter/YouTube, or a combination of web service and custom build but let’s make sure that we keep pushing to find the best balance, it is certainly not all about Facebook.
The best example I can give is LinkedIn. Everyone I connect to on LinkedIn has a Facebook profile, however, for the most part, we don’t connect on Facebook. This is for one simple reason: it is a different strand of their life of which I am not a relevant part, even if our paths cross professionally.
And this is ok.
We all lead a complicated social existence with many intertwing components that overlap, shimmy past and remain completely separate; our formal education is one of those components that overlaps but is something in its own right.
Image released under creative commons by tyfn on Flickr.
Lives in Toronto Canada, loves food (especially pizza), beer, business, technology and music. 
