Blog Social Networking

Social Networking has expanded tremendously over the past decade. Social networks bring users "closer" to their friends, family, and colleagues while also acting as a medium for spreading messages, entertainment, and building fame. Users might use a social network such as Instagram and Facebook to share updates about their lives through the stories feature or post photos on a recent trip. A company might use social media to connect with their stakeholders and share any new updates a company is looking to pursue. Although social networking brings the world closer together, there is also a "dark side."

In a podcast published by the National Public Radio, Frank Langfitt reports on how social networking technology has revolutionized the job recruiting process for both corporate recruiters and job hunters. The professional network, LinkedIn, allows users to list their work experiences, skills, and certifications. This allows them to highlight their professional career in one place, making it much easier for corporate recruiters to find them by simply typing in the qualifications they are looking for. Recruiters now have access to a huge database to find potential job candidates while professionals have a place to display their talent. 

Posting on social networking has become such a norm that sometimes users are not aware that the material they are posting can be seen by an unintended audience or be potentially detrimental. We may believe no one other than our followers can see our Instagram posts and stories because our profiles are private or that only our friends and "friends of friends" can see our Facebook posts because we set our privacy setting to Friends Only. Truth is, whatever we post on our social networks has the potential of living on forever on the internet. Not even the sister of the founder of the two biggest social networks in the world could control who sees her post. Randi Zuckerberg's family Christmas photo was at the center of attention when Vox Media marketing director Callie Schweitzer saw it and posted it on her twitter. Schweitzer, who was not a friend of Zuckerberg, saw the photo even though it was set to Friends Only. 

Turns out, friends of friends who were tagged in the photo can also see it. The confusion over the social network privacy can potentially expose our posts, statuses, and personal information to an unintended audience. If we revisit the ease of job recruiting social networking has made, it has also made learning about candidates much easier. Companies will not offer candidates job offers if they see inappropriate photos, vulgar language/posts, etc. Keep in mind that whatever you post on social networks has the potential to be seen by everyone for an indefinite period of time.

 http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/12/facebook-privacy-so-confusing-even-zuckerberg-family-photo-isnt-private/60313/

 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog: Privacy

New Media can improve many aspects of the college. Let us start with social media accounts. Baruch College is on most, if not on all of the social networking services. In order for social media to be effective in improving Baruch College, it must have a large audience to display it to. The Baruch College Facebook page has roughly 25,000 followers which is a healthy number. However, Baruch College’s Instagram page could do better as it has just under 6,000 followers. In order to increase to gain more social media attention, Baruch College must post content that entices viewers to view the page. Social media is one of the most used communication tools between organizations and people. The college should update its Facebook and Instagram page with more content that connects with students. For example, the college can post about future projects on campus. The college could have posted updates on Facebook and Instagram informing students about the drastic appearance changes they would be
Read more

Creativity and New Media

Image
When I previously served as the Membership Director for the Association of Latino Professionals For America, I designed and created a sign-in platform using the survey software Qualtrics to track the students who would attend our events. Additionally, I would also use Qualtrics to create surveys to send out to the attendees as a way to review the event. We would use the reviews as a means to improve our future events and what we can offer students. I attached screenshots below on what our sign-in log looks like: This is the back-end of the survey where the design of the survey is created as well as where the data is analyzed and extracted: And here is the front-end where users are able to see the finished product and also the place where students sign in at the beginning of every event:
Read more

HW Creativity

New Media fosters creativity from both the producer-end and the user-end. For example, Twitter monitors its own users to see what features they like and what they want to be changed or added. Then the company’s engineers turn the ideas into new features. In a 2009 New York Times Article, when Twitter was still in its early years, Twitter only offered a 140 character post. However, the company decided to outsource some of its idea generations to its users and the list and retweet features were born.      Technology companies now offer beta testing for its employees and its users. It could be a special developer program within the app where a user who is savvy in software engineering and/or design can create and test new features for an app with other developers. The company can release some of these features to a test market of a limited number of participants to see how well it performs. If it performs well, the developers can be rewarded handsomely. This establishes a platform for o
Read more