Rhode Island State Law requires that all real estate licensees take 18 hours of continuing education every two years. The current renewal period ends April 30, 2008. Anyone who does not have the continuing education hours will not be able to continue working in real estate. While the approved courses are required of all licensees, Realtors are required to take additional courses including Ethics. The best agents take more courses to be at the top of their game. The challenging market demands continuing training.
Some of the course help to teach the average Realtor, typically a 50 something female, how to work with x and y generation sellers and buyers. In one of the courses offered recently it was suggested that one of the things we should do is join one of the ‘social utilities:’ facebook or myspace. As a baby boomer, we tend to pride ourselves in our use of programs like: www.pandora.com. www.goodreads.com , and www.linkedin.com
Each of these communities engages a specific community. Furthermore, the amount of information exchanged tends to be professional in nature and is by choice and by situation limited. That is not the case with facebook. After joining several days ago, I have 12 friends. Several of them are my friends, but a good number are friends of my adult children. It is very kind of them to share their ‘faces’ with me, but there is by any definition a degree of awkwardness. The nature of social utilities is to be forth coming, but it makes me a bit uncomfortable to know all of the personal details about my friends much less my children. It is also very apparent that this is a great tool for background checks for employment. Yes, it is also true that you can place a privacy setting to limit the viewers of your face to just that your face and your name.
Maybe it is my age that is the problem, not the vehicle. How old is too old to be on facebook? Is the entry of baby boomers some form of generational voyeurism or is it some sort of generational envy? Truth be told, I am too much of a newbie to make any real conclusions, but the questions require response. What is really amazing is the breath of information on the site. Not merely friends, but pictures of friends of friends. Relationship status, orientation, religion, travel experience, steams of consciousness, video, thoughts, statements, gifts, pokes, et al. If you can dream, it can be experienced, at least vicariously through www.facebook.com.
One obviously conclusion, facebook has simply too much information. Not yet sure, how accurate all of it is, but one absolute truth is there is simply too much information TMI. If you are on facebook and find there are lots of new older Realtors joining it, do not be surprised. A lot of us took the same course. Not yet sure, how to ‘use’ this new social utility, but a least we are entering the area. If on the other hand you are a long time facebook devotee, and you want to have a laugh, check out some the new continuing education Realtors who are trying to engage a totally new curriculum. Lol.
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