A Summary of Advantages of Facebook

When I needed to best describe why Extension professionals might want to join Facebook, John Dorner suggested that I looked at Harvard Professor Andrew McAfee's post on the benefits of Facebook. From Professor McAfee's article, I found these aspects that would be useful to Extension professionals:

1. Facebook is social software. Of course, it is, which is the reason Facebook and Myspace is so attractive to teens and college students. These students constantly communicate openly about their lives, their opinions, their interests, and their academics. Although most of us working adults are uncomfortable sharing information in open environments, the social aspect of Facebook is what makes it fun and speeds the learning process.

2. Facebook gives you the opportunity to decide what you want to share, what you don't want to share, and what you want to share with selected friends.

My daughter "friended" me in Facebook. She allowed me to see her status and photos, but she does not want me to see what her friends have to say....hmmm that makes me wonder. But, the point here is that she controls what I see on her space. Likewise, I can control how much information I give out about myself and I can limit certain portions of information to certain friends.

3. The structure of Facebook emerges over time. Users can create groups and discussion topics. These groups can grow, or be left alone to die, depending on the users and their participation. Kevin Gamble created a Cooperative Extension group. If you create a Facebook account and you work for Cooperative Extension, "friend" me and I'll make sure you are invited into the Cooperative Extension group (Kevin and others can do this, too).

4. From the teenagers' and college students' perspectives, not using Facebook is a "social liability". For some professionals, not having an online presence can also be a professional or career liability.

5. Facebook is a one-stop shop for sharing media, blogging, calendaring, communicating, sharing information, etc. Facebook can give Cooperative Extension capabilities to collaborate and build our networks in one place by providing one place to easily share information and discuss topics of interest.

6. Facebook brings together several online tools. In addition to being able to share information and photos, you can add applications (some examples are: Twitter, Flickr, del.icio.us, your blog, news feeds) to your Facebook home.

7. Facebook is mobile. Having facebook on your phone keeps you up-to-date with statuses, posts, and discussions. This feature, like many others, is optional.

8. After you get a feel for the layout and what is where in Facebook, using Facebook is easy. If you don't know how to do something, ask a teenager.

So what is the downside of social tools, like Facebook and MySpace? Sharing too much information could become a problem so share only what you are comfortable with sharing. Remember, you can control what you share.

Some say that social networking wastes time. It can be, but it does not have to be. And, it does not have to be perceived as a time-waster. Facebook allows us to learn from each other and build relationships with each other which takes time. If you are working on building relationships locally or maintaining relationships locally, you must take time to do that. You talk with folks and you have coffee or lunch with them. You maintain those relationships by continuing to talk with, catch up on news about them, check on them, etc.

Facebook is an online activity that will take some time. In doing so, we will learn about each other, learn from each other, discuss issues and methodologies, and challenge each other.

To Multitask or To Not Multitask

John Dorner contrasted two articles: IT multitasking productivity and the problems of multitasking. His post made me also wonder about the conflicting results from these two different research approaches.

If we believe that multitasking diminishes our ability to stay on thinking-kinds of tasks, what are we going to do about it? Multitasking is the way teenagers (and younger), college students and some adults go about their day-to-day lives. My attempts to convince my teenager to do his schoolwork differently has resulted in zero change. Are these multitasking youngsters and college students less intelligent than we were when we were young? Certainly not, in fact, I believe my kids are much smarter than I ever was.

They are exposed to so many more environments, cultures, technologies, and ideas. This exposure helps them to be receptive, tolerant, and question differing viewpoints, ideas, and concepts.

Definitely, they are learning differently than we learned. So the question again is what do we do about working and educating in multitasking environments? In the education arena, we should rethink how we teach these kids. Terry Sale gives a good example of how we should change the way we teach language arts.

The IT multitasking productivity research provided evidence that multitasking is productive in the long run, not in the short-term. The researchers also found that diversity of social networks is important.

While our kids are multitasking, they are also expanding their social contacts and exposure multi-fold. Kids are communicating with multiple friends (friends of friends) at any given time. Our kids are constantly communicating, communicating, and communicating.

They may never see some of these friends face-to-face. As my son plays virtual games with kids from across the world, he socializes with and learns from them. The other night I asked him why he did not come downstairs when I wanted him to. His reply was “I was on my way down, but my friend from Australia got online (Xbox 360) and we just started talking (for about 15 minutes).” They weren’t playing a virtual game; they were just talking (through their headsets--real, live voices). Talking with a friend who lives where it is daytime when it is nighttime at our house was an acceptable excuse. What opportunities! What exposure! What fun!

The Aral and Van Alstyne research tells us that diversity of information from diverse social networks produces more revenues, more completed projects, etc. See Sinal Aral’s comment and the research article abstract.

What does the research suggest? Multitask by seeking diverse information from diverse sources while using a variety of communications methods.

So what about the other research that says multitasking can be bad? My approach is to take periodic breaks from multitasking. When I have those tasks that need concentrated attention—like reviewing a research journal article—I leave the office and find a place that has no Internet access (yes, a few restaurants in this small Southern university town do not have free wireless access).

I am also glad to report that the two older kids are able to remove themselves for a short time (albeit, much shorter time period than I would like) to concentrate on their more serious school subjects during crunch times.

I will continue to seek diverse information and communications while multitasking. Periodically, I will interrupt the multitasking for concentrated thought—I know no other way to do my job.

IT Multitasking and Productivity

Kathleen Melymuka, Computerworld, reports how IT multitasking affects individual productivity. She describes a five-year study where the researchers (Sinan Aral, Erik Brynjolfsson, Marshall Van Alstyne) analyzed 1,300 projects and 125,000 e-mails. Heavy IT users multitask, working on projects in parallel. Lower IT users work on projects serially. The researchers found that heavy IT users were associated with slower productivity speed in short term periods because multitasking slows project completion in the short run. However, because heavy IT users took on more projects, overall they had greater productivity, thus bringing in more money to firms over time.

They also studied communications within social networks (social networks may have been defined email communications—this is not entirely clear in the Computerworld article). The researchers measured “betweenness” which is an indicator of being in the “thick of the information flow”. They also measured the “reach” an individual had by counting the number of people an individual talked to and the number of people they “talked” to (subtracting for duplications), and then counting the number of hops. The researchers’ assertion is the more people one "reaches" the more diverse the information is.

Their suggestion is to "invest in IT skills” because those who are capable of multitasking can complete more over time. The researchers also suggest that individuals should create information diversity by making their social networks diverse. In other words, don't build social networks by talking to people only like yourself.