These methods of sharing and communicating content and ideas are much more personal than just messaging on Twitter and Facebook – you are not at the mercy of any “settings” page on the social networks out there. If you remove something from your site, it is gone. You can set your site to ignore Google’s software robots from indexing your site to avoid it being listed there if you want even more privacy.
Facebook is Prone to Reckless Posting
You may just think that you could use Facebook to achieve the same thing but Facebook and similar social networking sites are limited in style and the type of interaction and functionality you can enjoy. There is also the lack of control over your privacy there, which is one of the major reasons that older people are reluctant to use these types of site. There is also the added problem of people outside your family posting things on your wall that all your family can see; this is not an issue until someone uses bad language, posts offensive material on your cellphone as a “joke”. The problem is that once the damage is done in Facebook, there is no going back and exposing a grandparent to abusive language or imagery may have a life-long effect on your relationship, no matter how much you apologize!
Do It Yourself – Keep Control
Having your own personal site with the same type of shared functionality as a social network site, but completely within your control, is an attractive alternative to maintain an interactive online relationship with other family members. This means that you could arrange private family gatherings or events, keep in better touch with distant relatives and have an ongoing conversation through the messaging you provide rather than trying to keep track of all the emails you send back and forth. When you create a website for personal networking, you can start a family photo album that contains everyone’s photos and create an environment where everyone invited can all share as much or as little as they like. This central repository of family photos and videos can be a great way to keep in touch with your youngsters who have left home to go to college or work away from home. Maintained over time, this can now replace the traditional family album too. You would be able to make complete backups of all your photos without having to make individual saves. In addition, the picture resolutions can be stored at different depths to allow a quick browse through the pictures in a carousel display for instance, and then when a selection is made, a good quality picture (like the one your camera actually took) can be displayed, printed and kept looking the way it should. When others start to realize how simple it is to share their pictures, a great album can be built up, maintained and enjoyed by for generations to come. Because it can all be backed up (and yes, you will need to remember to make backups or schedule software to do this for you) to DVD’s or an external hard drive, your whole collection will always be safe!
Run Your Own Private Social Network
You might think that it is a lot of effort to create an interactive digital photo album, but you can actually create a free website with this functionality in under an hour and it can contain all the latest in networking widgets such as chat windows, Flash-based interfaces, picture carousels and thumbnail menus. Some of the better website builders will allow you to include HTML widgets too; these are available in their thousands online free of charge and are easy to incorporate into your site. Even if your knowledge of website building is minimal, there is still a great opportunity here to create a website that is personal and will help your family stay in touch. The world is such a busy place that we don’t have time to paste photographs (even if we had time to develop them!) in an album anymore and Facebook can be so face-less and full of advertising these days, so maybe a personal website that you share with your family without intrusion is the solution!
