Still wondering what kind of person gets on Facebook?  I’ve been telling this to my friends for a year, and now the data seems to be showing the same thing:  social network users are on social networks because their friends are!  And, I’ll bet that the reason more people don’t use these social media sites more often is because they are already connecting with those same friends in real-life or in other ways that suit them just fine. 

I don’t care what the experts say.  Nobody can have more best friends.  One person can only sustain a small number of close, deep friendships.  Social networking my be able to extend your number of acquaintances and people you have the potential to be really good friends with, but that’s about it.

• Who Uses Social Networks and What Are They Like? (Part 1) – Annotated

  tags: social media, networking, technology, facebook, twitter, communication

  • Social networkers are not as interested in friending strangers or creating "fake" friends to boost their ego. Out of the group, 45% connect only to family and friends and another 18% will connect only to people they’ve met in person.
    • This is what I tell people who are so cynical about social networking. They think that college students and teens are just on these sites looking for new friends, or friending anyone they make contact with. But nobody I know has ever done that. It’s much simpler than that. It’s a network — my friend told me about it, I told my friend, and she told her friend. – post by jarrodmartin1
  • Also interesting is that only 15% of social networkers say they log on at work, thus debunking another myth about how prevalent social network use is at the workplace.
    • I wonder if this included cell phone activity? SMS is now my "drug" of choice for Twitter updates and Facebook conversations. – post by jarrodmartin1

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Wallwisher.com :: Words that stick

  tags: web2.0, collaboration, notes, tools, socialnetworking, education, school

  • I’m intrigued by this site. Not sure why this one hasn’t caught on. It seems so simple and easy. Could it really be that easy to collaborate and leave ideas around one topic? – post by jarrodmartin1

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Any philosophers out there? I don’t know why this thought crossed my mind tonight, but it did. I couldn’t let go of it.

Man’s (and woman’s, of course) ability to reason is subject to his ability to identify truth.

Logic and reason begins with a premise–a statement of fact. And then you put that premise with another premise and you make a logical conclusion. But, if you begin with an “almost true” premise, logic cannot help you.

Can anyone help me flesh this idea out? Any good examples or metaphors?

Just wanted to let you know that I’ve begun a new blog that specifically addresses the education world.  If you’re a teacher or a concerned parent, I hope you’ll join me in this new conversation.  You can find it at http://fromwhereistand.wordpress.com.

Just signed up for Thomas Nelson Publishing Company’s BRB (book review blogger) program.  I pick a book from a list they give me, they send me a copy for free, and then I post a review on my blog and on a major bookseller’s website.

Hmm… I’ll be reading something anyway, why not get the scoop out on my blog about the latest books?

Either way, I hope it will be a way for me to write down the thoughts I’m having as I read and make a focused effort toward using the information I glean from books.  Something that has been bothering me lately is the way I continue to consume so many good ideas and information from a variety of sources, but I never take the time to stop and focus on those ideas to see how they might really change the way I teach, parent, love, live, or interact.

Focus is the key.  Slow down.  Focus.  I’m trying anyway.  I’m cutting some things out of my schedule to make room.  Not room for MORE.  Just room.  Room to focus and dive deep.

Whether face-to-face or thru technology, you have to put forth a lot of effort. You have to prioritize some people over others. Yes, someone (or many on Facebook) get left out so you can build and deepen.

Just think about this: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace can’t defeat the principle of relationships. You can’t have more friends because of the social networks. But you can use them to build better friendships.

Just realize time with people on Twitter means you’re spending less time with someone else somewhere else.

How do people…

• have time to blog every day?
• have time to read dozens of blogs every day?
• have time to contribute/comment on other people’s blogs every day?

Am I missing something?

What is the secret?

What would you do?  What would you change?  How would you live life differently?

My friend Matt has been throwing some interesting questions out.  If you’ve been confused about what to do with your life, or feel purposeless and out of it, then you need to give this 30 Days to Live blog a try.

My good friend, Jereme Rose, just bought a recycling business.  I was using the recycling service offered by the company already, and having Jereme and his brother-in-law take over the operation of this business was exciting for me.  Sarah and I have been trying to cut down on energy consumption, water usage, and waste for the past year.

So, when Jereme mentioned that he was wanting a website re-design, I was immediately interested.  A good website for a good company for a good cause.  So, after a little work, Jereme agreed to go with my idea — a cheap yet attractive website by using WordPress.

Check out http://www.greensolutionsrecycling.net sometime, and while you’re at it, go ahead and apply for their services.  Your kids will thank you someday that you made the world a little greener.

I just updated my WordPress blogging app for my ipod touch, and I’m very impressed. I was already really stoked by the ability to write drafts of blog posts and save them locally until I could get to an access point and publish to my blog. Buy now, WordPress has done what they improved another step to making their web app even more valuable.

They have added comment moderation. Wow! I don’t have to wait until I get home to my laptop to approve and respond to comments. That is super convenient because, frankly, I don’t have a lot of traffic or comments, but it’s easy to check and faster to respond from here. And that’s less time on the laptop later.

They have also added page editing. Beyond cool. I can basically manage a website from my iPod Touch. Plus, now I can add a few edits more often to my pages as those ideas come fresh.

I wonder if they’ll add theme change options and picture uploading? Inserting hyperlinks in pages and posts? Linking to YouTube?

Dreams do come true, it seems, in this modern age.