I have a personal facebook account- Lena Wolf, and a separate one for the YA librarians at TSCPL to interact with local teens- Lena YALib. It has been a successful way to reach teens and I’ve found a lot of music performers for our Open Mic Night programs through facebook. It is by far the fastest way to reach the teens and they respond to messages more quickly than email.
Since I work with teens, I’m very interested in the ways that they use social networking tools. The immediacy and magnitude of facebook reshapes traditional teen experiences in a lot of ways. When I was in high school, I remember looking at pictures of the boy I had a crush on in the yearbook and imagining what his life was like. Now a teen can add their crush as a friend and see hundreds of pictures and a vast amount of information with a click of the mouse. Instead of doodling “me + dreamy boy” on a personal notebook, teens can declare their love online for everyone to see. There is also extra pressure to make your profile look good and look cute in all posted pictures. I hear teens going to myspace or facebook profiles and making fun of the person all the time. Cyber-bullying is a problem that is much harder to detect and stop than name calling in person, which is one of the reasons that it's important for parents and educators to become familiar with the tools that kids use.
