The Triangle

Issue date: 12/5/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Last.fm

College students are well known for their impressive skills in the area of procrastination. Those students attending school in the 21st century have at their fingertips the procrastinator of yesteryears' dream - the Internet. It has never been easier for a student to distract him or herself from completing required work. There are a million different ways to waste time on the Internet, but it seems like everyone's favorite way to avoid writing papers and finishing projects is to explore the world of online social networking.

What is the appeal of online social networking? Different people will provide a range of answers. However, the basic answer is the human race is simply a social species and college students are extremely lazy. The most convenient way to be both social and lazy is to procrastinate away on social networking web sites. Myspace and Facebook are the biggest sensations in the social networking department, but there are other sites out there with unique attributes that are worth checking out. A few of those sites are Tumblr.com, Twitter.com, Last.fm, Goodreads.com and Flickr.com.

Tumblr.com and Twitter.com are two sites often used in conjunction with each other. Both allow the user to "follow" his or her friends. Tumblr lets users create and customize a tumblelog, a blog with shorter posts involving mixed media. It is an easy way to share a photo, a quote, a video, a link, and audio someone has stumbled across. The dashboard combines the posts of everyone the user follows, allowing an easy view of everything the person's friends are posting. It is a great tool for displaying online discoveries.

Twitter, a site often integrated with Tumblr, is a status update site. According to the Twitter company, the site was centered around creator Jack Dorsey's interest in "the simple idea of being able to know what his friends were doing."

Since that idea was initiated, Twitter has grown into a complete online service. Companies, newspapers, and public figures have found Twitter useful as well. Beyond being a way to check out what friends are up to, Twitter has become a way to find out news. Accounts can also be used with cell phones so individuals can send and receive updates when they are on the go.

While Tumblr and Twitter strive on their generality, Last.fm, Goodreads, and Flickr focus on the categories of music, books and photography.

Last.fm's basic premise is the ability to track the music someone listens to. A program allows the user to sync his or her Last.fm profile with iTunes, Windows Media Player and a few other players. Last.fm tracks the songs a person listens to, updating the person's profile with top artists, tracks, and albums. Like other social networking sites there is the ability to add friends, write comments, and join groups as well as many other features. Last.fm is great for any music lover to connect with others and discover new music.

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