[Air-l] A verb for using social networking sites

[Lauren M. Squires]

I'm with Mark - although I hear these terms (both "facebook" and
"myspace" as verbs) mostly as transitive verbs, describing the action
of either looking at someone else's page or requesting someone else's
friendship - as in "I facebooked him, he looks cool" or "She myspaced
me, it was weird."  So as for a verb that describes just the act of
just being signed on and using the sites for whatever general
purposes, I don't hear people saying "I was sittting around
facebooking yesterday" or "I myspaced for a few minutes this morning."
 (I hear this activity described as "...so then I was on
Myspace/Facebook for a while, and then...")

I'm not sure why this distinction should be, other than that
Myspace/Facebook are perceived as more like "places" where more
specific things (messaging, friending, commenting) are done, whereas
emailing and IMing are activities in their own right -- but I'm
curious to hear if this is a common usage that I just don't ever hear.

Lauren

On 6/16/07, Mark D. Johns <mjohns at luther.edu> wrote:
> richard.ling at telenor.com wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I am wondering if there is a verb describing the use of social
> > networking sites such as My Space, Facebook etc.
> >
> > With the use of email, there is mailing
> > With the use of IM there is IMing or chatting
> > With just looking at stuff on the net there is surfing
> >
> > However, I don't know what the verb describing the use of social
> > networking sites might be.
> >
> > You might say social networking, but you also do that at cocktail
> > parties etc.  Is it virtual networking?
> >
> > Any help would be appreciated.
> >
> > Rich Ling
>
>
> Among undergrads on our campus, at least, "facebooking" has definitely
> become part of the lexicon.
> --
> Mark D. Johns, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor and Head of the
>   Department of Communication Studies
> Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA
> http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/
> -----------------------------------------------
> "Get the facts first. You can distort them later."
>      ---Mark Twain
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-- 
lauren m. squires
  lx: http://polyglotconspiracy.net
  cmc: http://sociocmc.blogspot.com