Thing #11 Social Media

I read 2 stories on the Washington Post site both were in the Faith section. Then I read the comments. I think that is where I went wrong. On things like faith and politics people believe what they believe and they are not going to be disuaded or educated in that forum. More times than not it becomes a shouting match. I don't enjoy being a witness.
I read Jacques Berlinerblau: Bible Not For Beginners
and Lisa Miller:Is It Immoral to be Rich now?

One woman said,
"God doesn't give a RAT's A. whether you're rich or not...IF you earned it in some decent way, hit the lottery or inherited from a good family who earned and sheparded it for generations, good manners flying.But if you're some greedy crooked Wall Street type with a $42M penthouse,strutting around and keeping only to your own, wearing $3000 t-shirts and eschewing anything not your ethnic clan...God hates you. And you should fall off the earth. That's the final word.And history, in a few years, will back that up, at least as evidenced here on earth. "

I thought it was funny that she said God would hate someone. Again - the comments are nothing I would WANT to share, but I often share news stories with people.

How do you think you can use these tools in your library or at home?
While I like to read comments by readers about some stories, many times I'm disappointed by the quality of discussion that takes place.

Also headlines like "The Herbs Which Can Help You Improve Your Sexual Health," will probably always receive more votes than a story on education or foreign affairs. Am I a news snob? I never thought about it. I guess I don't trust the anonymous masses to tell me what's important, although these are the same people that vote in my elected officials. Maybe I don't trust American education? A topic for another day.

Do these tools seem to be a productivity enhancer or a productivity detractor? I'm not sure if these tools are supposed to enhance productivity. If I'm looking for straight information I'll look for it in the sources I trust. However, if I want to see what is "hot" or "trendy" or "weird" I would look to one of these sites. It's like People Magazine. I don't buy it, but if I'm at the doctors office and it's there I'll pick it up and catch up on pop culture.

Have you ever read a story/item as a result of seeing it on one of these sites? I read a story about Clint Eastwood by accident because the headline that I could see on the homepage was
The Top 10 Awesome Things You Didn't Know About...
Well, of course I want to know what I don't know so I clicked on it and the full headline was The Top 10 Awesome Things You Didn't Know About...Clint Eastwood. I like Clint so I read it, but I wouldn't have ordinarily. The comments that followed were somewhat stupid. A back and forth about the misspelling of the word "lose." Discussion of being a vegan. Nothing worth my time.

I read another story on Amex offering $300 to people who pay off their balance. The comments were pretty bland aside from one reader who asked if that meant their slogan in the future would be, "Leave home without it." The article lead me to a poll which asked With the economy doing so poorly, will more people resort to crime to make ends meet? The majority (53%) of people voted "absolutely it will." which was bad enough, but then there were the 4% who voted "I already have." I'm not sure if they are funny or scary. This poll lead to a discussion on keeping your guns. All of this because Amex customers are not paying their bills!!!
Newsvine was full of a racial debate about apes and Obama. I didn't feel that I got any smarter there.
Reddit was so filled with profanity I didn't want to.