Social Networking

Social networking technology has been designed in a unique way that has allowed users to utilize the sites in a vast amount of ways. Due to substantial increases in social networking members, people have thought of new and unintentional ways of using the websites. Most users are using these sites in order to maintain and keep up with their social lives. As explained in the article "Brave New World of Digital Intimacy", people, especially young people, use social networks to find out where their friends are, what they are doing, who they are with, and if they are in a new relationship or have ended an existing one. Other users of these sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook, use the technology to conduct, promote, and maintain business relationships. People doing recruiting work for a company may use Facebook or LinkedIn to find people that may be fit for a particular job. Employers may search a new hire's Facebook, Twitter, or Myspace for anything that he/she would consider unacceptable for a representative of the company. Many businesses use these websites as advertising tools because they can easily create widespread consumer awareness of what their company offers for a very low cost. People have used these social networking sites in a manipulative and criminal way as well. There have been instances involving predators manipulating people into meeting up with them in person after they have met on Facebook, Myspace, or Craigslist in order to commit crimes such as theft, murder, and rape.

The many social websites that are available today have taken our traditional social engagements and turned them into an online virtual environment that enables users to communicate and socialize by means of sending text, photos, and video. These new possibilities offer benefits and opportunities that haven't existed prior to virtual social networking. Friends, family, employees, coworkers, and clients can now communicate and keep in touch with each other when their busy schedules allow them to do so. Instead of only face to face, telephone, and instant message communication, which involve two or more people communicating in real time, people can now send a message, reply, or comment on one's wall when time is available. Blogs have allowed complete strangers to discuss any topic that they are interested in, are having trouble with, or are studying. Websites such as chatroulette.com have allowed people from different parts of the world to communicate via video chatting. These individuals would never know the other existed if these new social networking technologies were not invented. Businesses have benefited greatly because of a new, inexpensive tool for communicating, externally to consumers and internally to coworkers, advertising, and recruiting. In the article "Is Myspace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quroum", Nicole Ellison says that people who utilize social networking sites will have more "social capital gains" than people that do not. These people will be more in touch with peers and the rest of society that uses these sites.

It is obvious that there can be a dark side to a society based on social networking. As explained above, there have been instances involving people using these sites to manipulate others in order to commit crimes. Another dark side of social networking websites is surveillance of society. Due to the large volume of active users of these sites, vast amounts of personal information of members can be sold, used by businesses for advertising, used by law officials during criminal investigations, and used by the government to keep a close eye on society. Facebook now displays the location of where someone posts a picture or a comment enabling one to use this feature as a tracking device. Many people perceive this utilization of personal information as invasive and unconstitutional.

I think membership to social networking sites will be required by many employers in the future in order for employees to keep in touch with coworkers and customers that they deal with. When conducting business many customers like to deal with the same employee of the company that is involved. Businesses can utilize these social networking sites in order to keep customers linked to a specific employee that has been involved in the previous transactions of the customer. I believe many companies can benefit from offering this form of customer relations and customer service. The quality of service by each employee may improve as a result of a closer relationship with customers. Customers will be able to ask questions, set up meetings in person or via telephone, or provide satisfaction reviews by posting to the page of the specific employee. These employees can react and respond to this live fed information in order to immediately adapt to each client or customer.

   

Blog vs. Wiki

Blogs and wikis are two software applications that have made significant contributions to the way people utilize computer technology. The main functions of blogs and wikis are to make vast amounts of information available to the users and anyone who would like to read them. Not only do they provide information, they have created a virtual or computer society that discusses ideas, topics, jobs, sports, electronics, and anything under the sun via a personal computer, mobile device, or tablet. The article Walmart Task-Makers Write Unfiltered Blog explains how blogs are used to make consumers aware of what products to buy and not buy. This technology has been a vital contributor to the convergence of people around the globe that allows anyone with access to a computer to publicize information and knowledge and create a well-informed, well-aware, and intelligent society.

Blogs and wikis are similar in many ways. They both allow people to collaborate and communicate with one another. For example, a blog can be used to collaborate and communicate for business purposes. If, say, a group of employees were assigned to a special project and must communicate and organize via the computer they can start a blog about the tasks that must be performed to complete the job. They can post about the tasks each will be performing, any problems they might want to bring to the attention of the group, or any findings that may hurt or help the group. Blogs would be very helpful for this type of use because the individuals in the group can always refer to the blog and remember what is required and any information that would help complete the job. 

With both blogs and wikis, users can all input information and make contributions to discussions that have been created. No one can feel left out because they are available to anyone, except for private blogs and wikis that can only be viewed and edited by selected individuals. The article An Internal Wiki That's Not Classified explains how that State Department uses the wiki Diplopedia to make information available to State Department officials. This is a private wiki that allows those with viewing and editing authorization to contribute to the articles, discussions, and biographies. If the government uses it, it must be a quality medium of discussion and information sharing.   

Blogs and wikis are also very different in many ways. If you have seen a blog and a wiki before you can immediately tell that the layouts are different. Blogs are designed more like a discussion board that allows users to post a comment and answer to previously posted comments of other users. Wikis are designed to be more informative than blogs. Each individual user can contribute to the wiki by adding to the information of the chosen topic. The contributions entail writing one's own thoughts or editing another users contributions. Blogs do not allow one user to edit another user's posts.

Wal-Mart Tastemakers Write a Blunt and Unfiltered Blog, NY Times, march 3, 2008, p. C1, at:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/business/03walmart.html

An Internal Wiki That’s Not Classified by Noam Cohen. The New York Times, August 4, 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/business/media/04link.html

Analysis of Social Networking: A Purposeful Loss of Privacy

For my term paper I will be doing an analysis on how social networking has made privacy a thing of the past. In my paper I will discuss how privacy has been eliminated by new technologies such as facebook, myspace, instagram, and twitter. Social networking sites are not the only culprits that have invaded people's privacy. The internet as a whole is generally the technology to blame. Sites such as whitepages.com allow people to search for other individuals in order to obtain personal information about them including, name, address, phone numbers, and names of relatives. This is frightening to a lot of people who desire privacy. Information on the internet is being used in ways that were not intended by creators of these new technologies. For example, businesses are using facebook during the hiring process to find out personal information about new employees. Also, craigslist.org has been used by criminals to deceive people and commit crimes. In my paper I will explain in depth how these new technologies have had positive and negative affects on the privacy of individuals in our society.

Michael Tesoro

New media has had a huge impact on our society. Society spends less time in front of the TV or outside playing sports. Forms of new media have attracted people's attention to the computer, especially internet. Social networking has captivated much of our global society and has become a worldwide obsession. Social networking websites such as facebook don't only involve socializing, but are also used for advertising, promoting, employment, data transfer, gaming, news, and research. Social networking websites are the epitome of modern media. Society has been linked by these sites giving members news and information at their finger tips. Blogging too, has become an important form of media. In the article Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid, it is explained how a local blog created awareness about a crack house in the neighborhood that was disturbing the town residents. Bloggers began to blog about the situation, police became aware of the situation because of the blog, and took action. This is proof that blogs and internet communication can be a powerful tool. New media can be used in an endless number of ways. People have thought of thousands of ways to utilize media's abilities and thousands of new ways, if not more, will be discovered in the future.