First there was Napster. Then there was that darn fashion over-statement that I like to call the “Che” effect, which is also known as the over-worn Che Guevara t-shirt movement. It was everywhere: Che Guevara at fashion week, Che Guevara at the “Hills” premiere, Che Guevara on a posing, peace-besmirched Paris Hilton—you get the picture… And what next you ask? What other life-altering innovation have the kiddies grandchilded into our youth obsessed world? One word: Facebook.

The brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg (24) who later enlisted his roommate at Harvard University Dustin Moskovitz (24), Facebook in its infancy was more of a dating “Who’s Who” for the Ivy League scene around the country, enjoyed by college students from Stanford to Columbia to Yale, and then to, well, you get the picture… It later expanded into what it is now the social-networking mammoth that the 60 million of us on the site, have all come to know and compulsively check behind our bosses backs (I’m 23—I’m not above it)…That’s why I was shocked when my boss, my publisher, sent me a link to none other than, dare I say, Facebook. Was this a setup? Was he trying to catch me in the act? Run for cover, the sky is falling!

After I got over my initial paranoia by walking past my publisher’s office several times with a “Yes, I’m doing my work smirk,” and receiving the “Yes you still only have a thirty-minute lunch break” return smile, I went back to my desk and opened the link. To my surprised relief, I uncovered that, well, Facebook isn’t just for shameless, self-indulgent stalking purposes anymore, and is in fact a pretty good way to connect with people within our own industry.

Profile after profile of photographers linking to their websites; retailers promoting their companies; and manufacturers plugging their products are just some of the findings I happened upon. When I asked my publisher, Ian Littauer why we—the imaging group—are on Facebook in the first place, he answered that it’s to expose Studio Photography, PTN, and imaginginfo.com to “photographers that might not be familiar with our brand,” which also includes younger photographers and retailers new to the industry scene, and who surely have a Facebook account. Indeed, the site has grown in the four years since it became a regular face on most of our computer screens, evolving from guilty pleasure to green light for new businesses and industries like our own, to expand our presence and influence in a community of likeminded people.

So in the end, I’’m happy to say that my music-file sharing, Che Guevara t-shirt wearing, Facebook surfing cohort got something right the only way we know how: without moving a muscle, just a couple of fingers…

Check out our Studio Photography, PTN and imaginginfo.com groups on Facebook!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 8:07 am and is filed under Tara Propper. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.