It is with great happiness that I introduce my soul mate....

Let it be declared that I have found my soul mate…well, my social bookmarking soul mate at least. After searching the Delicious user base high and low for my perfect match, I have found him: joannesjabcobs. Like myself, joannesjacobs (now on referred to as JJ) is utilizing social bookmarking tools to explore information regarding social networking tools, present interpersonal communication trends and the new technologies that are facilitating these changes. JJ’s top five bookmark tags are web 2.0, social media, trends, business, and social networking; all very pertinent to what I am exploring on this blog. And even though this is going to be a long distance relationship (as I have come to the conclusion that he is bookmarking somewhere in the UK), I think JJ and I are going to be a match made in social bookmarking heaven.

I would consider JJ to be the wiser, more experienced mate in this relationship as he has been using Delicious for his bookmarking needs since April of 2006. From that time, he has accumulated 533 bookmarks that he has labeled with 449 tags. Pretty impressive. I myself just joined the Delicious community last week and have about twenty bookmarks so far. Looks like I have a lot to learn!

It appears that JJ adds new bookmarks to his list about every one or two days, which attests to the usefulness that social bookmarking provides for its users. JJ has used Delicious and tagging to create a database of resources regarding social media trends that spans from 2006 to today. Although he does not comment on each individual tag, he does utilize a wide variety of descriptive tags to organize his findings. With this multitude of web resources organized and filed by unique and deliberate tags, all of his research and important finds are easy to find and can be accessed from any computer.

Speaking of JJ’s “finds,” I was very impressed with the articles that he had found regarding social bookmarking news and research. His bookmarks are unique and full of substance. In fact, the overall brilliant gem that I discovered in JJ’s list was on the first page of his bookmarks. Two weeks ago, on June 3rd to be exact, JJ bookmarked an article from the UK’s Channel4 “Platform 4” blog titled, “Technology, kids, and telly.” The article reports on some astonishing statistics that the channel found while conducting a research study titled “A Beta Life.” This study focused on the relationship young adults, ages 12-24, have with technology and produced some very remarkable statistics. Here are some stats the article reports:

• They personally own 8 devices (including MP3 player, PC, TV, DVD player, mobile phone, stereo, games console, and digital camera).
  
• They frequently conduct over 5 activities whilst watching TV. 25% of them agree that “I’d rather stay at home than go on a holiday with no internet or phone access.”
  
• A quarter of young people interviewed text or IM (instant message) friends they are physically with at the time.
  
• They have on average 123 friends on their social network spaces.
  
• And the first thing the majority of them do when they get home is turn on their PC.

While these figures did not surprise me in the least, they do provide some enlightenment for older generations regarding the intense relationship young adults have with their technology. The statistics reported from this study support the very arguments and observations that I have been making on this blog; that a large portion of my generation’s interpersonal interactions revolve around the social networking sphere. I guess you could say that my generation’s soul mate is our iPhone that provide us access to our Facebook accounts, since we seem to nurture that relationship more over any other.

With the ability to discover interesting article’s such as the “Technology, kids and telly” on JJ’s bookmark list, I would definitely consider JJ’s resource collection to be a valuable resource for myself and my blog’s readers. Seeing as I can use JJ’s finds as sources for my blog, I feel that I have the ability to find an even greater amount of web resources. As we know, two heads searching for information can find more resources than one can alone. Ahhh...this looks to be a beginning of a beautiful relationship.

-Status