Mark - very interesting to read your viewpoint and experience. Facebook can
be addictive (they have been extremely clever in the way in which it is
presented and the ways in which you interact with friends and colleagues for
example). Having said that, I managed to spend hours playing pool when I was
at college and this was also frowned upon, and I'm sure I should have spent
longer in the library. Students will always spend their time on things other
than their studies - it's what they do, and Facebook is merely the latest
incarnation of the pool table.

With regards to your point on developing skills valued by employers, I think
it depends very much on what the definition is here. My brother is spending
a lot of time at work in his organization seeing ways in which they can
sensibly and profitably use Facebook, so he's had to go through a large
learning curve playing around with it to see what it is and what it does. Of
course, if they had a student straight out of university who was already up
to speed... You can see where I'm going with this of course. What employers
need (in my experience) are people who are capable of playing around with
computers and resources to get the most out of them. When I'm teaching
people how to write webpages I encourage them to write them about things
that interest them, because that captures their interest and they learn new
stuff in a different way.

I think you're absolutely spot on with regards use of Facebook during the
day - would that all employees take that approach and all employers trust
them rather more! On the other hand building up a social network doesn't
necessarily mean hanging around with your mates - I meet a lot of people on
Facebook who have the same professional interests that I do, and learn a lot
as a result. Now, is that building a social network, or is that furthering
my professional knowledge and understanding? Semantics possibly, but
ultimately Facebook is a tool - the important point surely is how you use
it?

Wendy - yes, I can see where you're coming from with regards intellectual
property concerns, but if an employer is that paranoid they should probably
be engaging in extensive phonetapping as well! Anyone who wants to swop
secrets isn't going to be stupid enough to use Facebook to do it - or
probably the Internet at all.

You're right that corporates are often concerned about new technology. I can
remember back a decade or so when the discussion was all about getting
involved with the Internet, or thinking it was some new fangled nonsense
that would shortly go away. I was teaching some small business owners the
other night and one of them said 'I don't have time to do this. I need to
spend my time running my business'. Valid point on the surface, but the
plain fact of the matter is that if she doesn't, she's not keeping up. If a
company isn't keeping up with developments it actually says a lot about
their overall attitudes. I can generally gauge companies really quickly if
they get back to a weblog posting of mine inside a couple of hours. The
longer it takes, the less dynamic they are, and the less I want to have
anything to do with them.

It comes down to one thing really... people ARE using these systems. They
chat about companies, organisations, how good/bad/indifferent pharma.
Companies are. They talk about where to go on holiday, they make decisions
based on friends opinions, things that they read on these sites and so on.
Now, if companies choose not to get involved, that's entirely up to them.
It's not going to stop the conversations, the purchases, the exchange of
opinions and so on. It just means they're not involved. And if you're not
involved - what exactly are you doing? (Generic 'you' of course!)

Phil.

Internet Trainer, Web designer, SEO, Speaker, Author
Visit http://www.philb.com for free articles on many aspects of the
Internet.
My weblogs: http://www.philbradley.typepad.com/
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