Acting Your Age...NOT!!!!

Before this semester, I had heard of Twitter, but never knew exactly what it was, or how to use it. Linkedin.....huh? Facebook...it's the same thing as Myspace right? Wiki-wiki....what? Blogs...okay, now we are getting into familiar territory. So, why am I telling you about my lack of networking/social network knowledge? The answer is simple... I am not alone!

I know that a lot of people are in the dark about many of the websites/applications that I've mentioned thus far; but if they don't know about these sites yet, it's time for them to play catch-up. Being techno-savvy is extremely important, not only because you'll know what cool websites and gadgets are taking the world by storm, but also because having this type of knowledge is becoming a necessity in today's workforce. Take Yammer, for example...I actually introduced this site at work, and spread the word around to my coworkers. We are inviting each other to join, and soon we'll have our own Yammer network(which is the workplace equivalent to Twitter) up and running in no time. Since I work in an IT dept, we can use this application on our cell phones when we're out of the office, or simply use it to converse in-house. I can see it being a very useful tool for our dept, and potentially the entire company.

I mentioned earlier that I'm not the only one who was once in the dark about many of the new technologies that are available online. I decided to discuss this topic because I was inspired by an article I read this week on CNNmoney. The article discusses older employees in the workplace, and how they need to keep themselves valuable in the workforce by staying abreast of the newest, latest, and greatest technologies available. I found it very interesting that the author of this article discusses Twitter and Wiki's, in particular, and tells the reader that these are sites one should be very comfortable using; by expanding their knowledge, older workers can become a greater asset to their companies. Very good advice indeed!