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.