Social Networking for Dummies

If you are going to stick with email only, regardless of what I tell you, please, do all of us a favor: stop whining to your friends at the dinner table, and let the rest of us, who plan to stay around for most of the century, enjoy the benefits of its technology.

If you are still telling your family and friends that you "don't do this or that" (meaning you don't subscribe to a social network and don't know what IM means), please, stop. You don't have to justify your choice. You are not being forced into browsing the internet. Keep it for yourself. It's embarrassing. It's like seating with a group race drivers and telling them that you would rather drive your ford Focus than a M3, because the Focus is plenty for your needs. It would be even more ridiculous if the BMW would cost 15K (Focus' MSRP) rather than 75k. If you have a computer and an Internet connection (required for email), you don't need to spend more money nor more time. Yes, you can drive a M3 for the same cost of a Focus.

Instead of trying to convince a race driver to go slower or your friends that Facebook, Orkut, and Twitter are the evil beasts from the Book of Revelation, try them for yourself. I suggest the following strategy to beginners:

1. Cut through the clutter: there are many social networks and free online services. Find out what your family or close friends are using (Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, etc.);
2. Start Small: spent 10 -15 minutes setting up an account with Facebook for instance; don't try everything at once. You also should consider sharing the photos you are accumulating on your hard drive. You have already spent money on a digital camera, go ahead and subscribe to a free online storage site (photobucket, flickr, etc.). Two accounts to begin.
   
3. Think Long-Term: stop using the email service from your internet provider. Create a free account with a major online email provider (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.). You don't have to change email address every time you take advantage of a new cable company offer.
4. Save Time: guess what? You do not have less time than I do. It's arrogant to tell your friends that you don't have time to browse the internet and check out their MySpace site. I bet you spend time reading jokes sent by email and forwarding them around. Nothing says "I'm old" more efficiently. You don't have to spent much time if any. Learn how to feed information automatically into your social network. Do you remember the photo website you created? Have that linked to your Facebook page. You can do that for just about every site. Some networks will allow you to read and write updates by phone (with or without internet connection);
   
5. Be Safe: If you are over 40, you probably hesitated about using emails back in the 90's too. If you sent money to Nigeria, following the email instructions, rejoice: this is relatively safer environment. Please, be aware of the safety guidelines and security features of your computer and websites you are joining.

You can do all that at home in front of your computer. Nobody needs to know about it. In that case, if all the hype proves to be another busted Bubble, you can tell your friends at the dinner table "I told you so."

Will