social networking and the photographer

Social networking seems to be the buzz and has been the buzz for some time now. When I was teaching at RMSP a couple years ago, I taught a class on the " new media" and spoke about SEO's, Keywording and Twitter and stated the importance in being aware of these tools to be competitive in the market. Unfortunately, which happens..it was an apathetic class and seemed more interested in texting their buddies or working on their other assignments, in class. That experienced soured my joy of sharing information but I still came to realize that social networking was a powerful tool for a photographer to get their name out cost effectively. One thing I did learn after teaching photography for over 14 years is that it forced me to research current trends, historical context and articulate the what I learned in a simple format. Sort of like mining for gold and sharing your wealth. Back to social networking..why bother? Well the media is digital, and a good portion of the market you are targeting will be looking at the web for "talent" in quotes to remind all visual artist they are the ones that provide content, concept and " the goods". Like all technology it has the capacity for " good and evil" take radiation for instance....please....in the " sort of "harmless world of the social media...we ( the artist) have an opportunity to reach a broad audience, whether they like or not. In the " old days" artist, if they were not huddled in their closet, smoking cigarettes, trying to come up with the next big thing, where making phone calls to make appointments to meet with actual people to show them what they were working on. Meeting actual people, now there is a concept. Actually meeting face to face, looking into their eyes, getting nervous while they look at your work and ask how your family is doing...ahhh sort of like Cream of Wheat...comfort...Before I ramble too much, I guess my question is "is all this social media, really social?" Do you ( me) really get work through social media? ( yes, sort of , well I think....) Is Facebook really a place to share all your personal info or to boast about your work life, ( which gets annoying if talked about too much) yes..sort of ... I think so... The truth is , It has arrived, just like the smartphone, e-mail, and marshmallows, it is here to stay and change... but does it really help the photographer create??? not really, but it is a vehicle the photographer can use to show the world what they are up to ....oh well a strange post, no pic...next post I will show you my photo of the Roomba..if you care to take a look...lol