Social Net'g

Social networking plays a huge role in today's global connectivity. Social networking technologies connects people in many ways. If you're traveling to a new place, like I am this week to a new town (Santa Barbara, CA), social networking can notify your friends about your adventures and also receive suggestions on where to eat and where to visit. Social networking is also used to see and listen to other people's advice and opinions. If a user had a bad experience shopping at a particular store, they will more than likely post and share their experience and can help people stay away from the store. In the same way it can bring more people to the store if there was a positive review. Another big thing about social networking, especially now more than ever, is exposing people to controversial issues and exposing unjust actions through posts, pictures, or videos.

Corporates have been trying to utilize social networking. This is especially prevalent in their recruiting strategies, which is the focus for my term project. Employers are finding that through social networking sites, they are exposed to a more wide variety of candidates. As Frank Langfitt describes in his article " Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting", an online social networking platform such as LinkedIn can help an employer find a candidate who isn't even necessarily applying for the position. These social networking sites allows people to be aware of more position openings but also allows employers to reach out to potential candidates on their own.

There is definitely a dark side to social networking. There have been many issues of cyber bullying as well as privacy controversies. Social networking opens up a platform for people to communicate with each other, but like every good thing, some people can turn it into a weapon for inflicting pain. Through social networking, bullies have a way easier time to inflict hurt on their victims. Social networking also has issues on privacy. Even Mark Zuckerberg's family, creator of Facebook, have complications regarding their privacy on the site as seen in this Wire story, "Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even The Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private".

I think that social networking has the potential to completely connect us. I think that it can potentially replace all other forms of news. People can get real time reactions on events such as the recent presidential debates. If there is a disaster on the other side of the world, people will be able to learn about it through social networking. It is a huge part of the news in today's times, but social networking has the capacity to completely replace the news in the future.