I’ve explored a couple of social networks, and I’m honestly not sure on my feelings for them as a whole. Individually, it depends on their purpose. I do wonder if this fad of networking sites will phase out.

Here’s some of the social networks I’ve checked out:

• Friendster - I found a bunch of my old middle, high school, and college friends on here, but I see it more as a fancy address book. I don’t really check this site much, but I know I could log in if I needed to find someone’s contact info.
• Flickr - In terms of social networking (not photo storage), this site has allowed me to easily keep in touch (visually) with friends. I have found interesting strangers whose photos I like and also some bloggers. I’ve joined some communities, but recently I haven’t posted to them as much…mostly because the comments are just things like “Nice photo” and not a lot of meaningful content.
• LinkedIn - This is one of my favorite sites because it has a specific purpose/audience - professional networking and connecting with past and present coworkers. I’ve noticed that some people worry about joining because they think their current employer will think they’re job searching, but then couldn’t you say socializing at conferences be the same thing?
• Facebook - This is my newest site. I wasn’t a fan of it at first, but Thomas convinced me to sign up, and surprisingly, I had a few friends locate me. It seems to be the hip site of the moment.

I checked out Twitter and MySpace and soon deleted my accounts. I really don’t see any point in Twitter and I don’t like MySpace’s reputation for being populated by teenagers and pedophiles. There is an exception for MySpace - it is good for looking up local bands and musicians.

What social networking sites are you on?