Social Networking

        Social networking sites have become embed within today’s society, culture, politics, and businesses. Also, most people flock to sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, forums and others for different reasons.

For some people, they use social networking sites to check up on family and friends by reading their posts, seeing what they are doing and where they have gone or sharing their own stories and places they’ve visited and even reconnect with a long lost childhood friend or make new friends. Additionally, people on social networking sites can create online support groups, communities, connect with like-minded individuals or construct niche groups. But also, users can get updates, read news articles, check on local and current world affairs, discover information on diverse topics of interest such as cooking, fashion, sports stats, and hobbies or celebrity gossip and users can even follow and interact with their favorite celebrities. Furthermore, social networking sites allow users to share products and services recommendations, read reviews, rank favorite products or similarly air dislikes, problems with services, products or companies. Likewise, social networking sites are beneficial for helping job seekers to promote and advertise themselves, and social networking sites also allow employees to connect with work colleagues and peers and stay informed with what their employer is up to and share official new product updates and shows, launched parties and reveal events. Moreover, individuals are also using social networking sites to advocate for causes that are close to them or to bring to light social injustices, inequalities, and discrimination. All these benefits have created connectivity that reaches across the globe and has connected different people, with common interests who live and work in remote parts of the world. 

However, there are also concerns with regard to privacy issues, scams, data breaches and also growing censorship anxieties. In the article, ‘NBC2 Investigators: Multi-million dollar scam being used on Facebook’ by Rachel Polansky (2018), she had stated that “Facebook Marketplace, and even closed Facebook groups have become a breeding ground for scammers” (para. 2). However, she also quoted eBay and Facebook spokespersons responses to this social networking challenge and she even shared tips on how to spot and avoid getting scammed (Polansky, 2018). However, Facebook had explained that they also have a dedicated team and automated systems to help detect and block scams because they have a strong incentive to aggressively prevent scammers from damaging the company’s reputation and with their abuse-fighting team they build and constantly update a combination of automated and manual systems that help them catch suspicious activity at various points of interaction on the site and when they do catch spam or scams they work hard to counter and prevent it from effective their users (Polansky, 2018).

Moreover, social networking sites have become a breeding ground for hate and dangerous fringe groups and also an increase in online bullying and cyber-harassment. In the article ‘They're Back, and They're Bad: Campus-Gossip Websites’ by Jeffrey R. Young (2009), had stated that;

“Students have more ways than ever to post anonymous attacks on classmates, thanks (or rather, no thanks) to new and expanded online forums promising to be bigger and juicier than the infamous JuicyCampus, which drew fierce protests from harassed students before it shut down earlier this year.” (para. 1)

As Jeffery (2009) had pointed out, some of the contents posted on these sites can have lifelong negative repercussions and can cause harm to individuals reputations or have serious consequences on students careers if the messages are seen by future employers or potential suitors (para. 13). There is also a psychological and sociological cost to social networking such as increased isolation, addiction, loneliness, stress, anxiety, depression, fear of missing out and loss of reality.

       Corporations are also using social networking sites for recruiting new talent, such as LinkedIn a professional networking site where employer’s setup up corporate profiles and post jobs and job seekers create their own personal profile, add work history, specific skills, upload a resume and connect with college alma mater, coworkers and associates or recruiters. Moreover, it’s also become a valuable tool used by professional recruiters to acquire new job candidates or poach employees from other companies, as was demonstrated in the article titled, ‘Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting’ by Frank Langfitt (2006), where he demonstrated how Maureen Crawford-Hentz, a professional recruiter, used LinkedIn as a tool for trolling a product marketing manager and had discovered Alfred LaSpina on the social networking site, who was already doing a related job for another company but she contacted him and was able to convince him to leave his current employer and instead join Osram Sylvania, the company she worked for (para. 4). Langfitt (2006) had also quoted Crawford-Hentz as saying, “Social networking technology is absolutely the best thing to happen to recruiting – ever,” (para. 3). Additionally, Langfitt (2006) had mentioned that professional recruiters have also started hunting for job candidates by using other popular social networking sites such as Facebook (para. 1). Corporations are also now using social networking technology to gauge customer satisfaction, engage customer feedback and connect with suppliers and vendors, to grow sales or for press and public relations purposes. However, some issues that come up is that many corporations also use social networking technology for vetting job candidates by requesting access to candidate’s social networking profiles or to check on employee’s behaviors and activities outside of the company and firing anyone who might post things that don’t align with company policies or culture. But employees are also using social networking sites to air grievances, complaints, and concerns or for whistleblowing activities when a company is acting unethically. However, social networking sites have also created a problem with product, service or private company information being leaked and shared that can derail product launch and can even cost companies millions of dollars.

        Furthermore, governments, politicians, lobbyist, special-interest group and activist have all embraced the power of social networking to further a cause, an agenda or to increase awareness, community activities, and concerns or for elections purposes such as endorsement, donation solicitation and to increase voter attendance. For example, in the article ‘How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power’ by David Carr (2008), he had stated that during the 2008 presidential elections of Barack Obama, his campaign had “bolting together social networking applications under the banner of a movement, they created an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote that helped them topple the Clinton machine and then John McCain and the Republicans” (para. 5). He further went on to say that Obama’s digital outreach and influence would also have a profound impact and implication for future elections by going outside the traditional ties and relationships that the political parties have with unions, party faithful and Hollywood elites, to now also encompass a network of online supporters who use a distributed model of phone banking to organize and get out the vote, use social networking to help increase youth voter turnout, raise a record-breaking $600 million, and created all kinds of unique media clips that were viewed millions of times and because of the online presence and movement, they were able to go beyond offline behavior (Carr, 2008). Additionally, Obama’s campaign used the web to lower the cost of building a political brand, create a sense of connection and engagement, and dispense with the command and control method of governing to allow people to self-organize to do the work (Carr, 2008). 

How effective is social media in politics?

It's also important to add that regardless of how people feel about our current President, Trump is a prolific Twitter user and even a social media influencer who has been able to use social networking sites effectively to inspire and rouse his political base. Unfortunately, social networking platforms have also increased the spread of fake news, junk news, pseudo-news, hoax news, and misinformation which has led in recent years to elections being negatively influenced and impacted by foreign countries meddling and Super PACs online smear campaigns.

        In the future only those social networking companies that are profitable, are transparent with their business models, utilize stress-free and clear to understand terms and conditions of use agreements, take into consideration users privacy concerns and protect individual’s data, will be able to weather any foreseeable challenges or obstacles. Additionally, social networking companies will need to adapt to changing users tastes and preference as seen with the demise of MySpace and the rise of Facebook. This will also mean they need to be user-friendly, allow easy and nontechnical interface connection among different technology tools and offer flexibility so that social networking systems are better able to be customized around different communities, are more suited to enhance demographic needs and experiences and are able to serve diverse geographic locations across the world. I also believe that social networking companies will start buying or merging with each other to create larger, newer, and more centralized social networking platforms and develop different kinds of social networking technologies where there will be a convergence of tools that users will not only be able to use social networking technology as a search engine like google, surf the internet through social media apps, or perform research but users will also be able to include their friends and family members in the process and get feedback on their online activities which would be visible for them to see and respond in a news feed type interface, like Facebook’s current news feed.

Reference

Carr, D. (2008, November 10). How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks' Power.

Retrieved September 29, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/business/media/10carr.html?auth=login-email.

Langfitt, F. (2006, November 22). Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting.

Retrieved September 29, 2019, from https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523.

Polansky, R. (2018, April 27). NBC2 Investigators: Multi-million dollar scam being used on

Facebook. Retrieved September 30, 2019, from https://www.nbc-2.com/story/38062070/nbc2-investigators-multi-million-dollar-scam-being-used-on-facebook.

Young, J. R. (2009, August 31). They're Back, and They're Bad: Campus Gossip Web Sites.

Retrieved September 30, 2019, from https://www.chronicle.com/article/theyre-backtheyre-bad-/48220.

Blog v Wiki

Blogs first developed from online diaries and journals and were first known as “web log” and then “weblog” and finally to just “blogs” (Balkhi, 2019). However, the very first blog can be traced back to the ’90s on Links.net with the first blog post being created by Justin Hall, but back then it wasn’t referred to as a blog, instead, his posts were called a personal homepage (Balkhi, 2019). In the article, “Blogs and Wikis in the Business World Definition and Solutions” by John K. Waters (2007), he had stated, “Blog is a contraction of Web log, which is a website where users post journal-like entries that are displayed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent posting at the top of the page” (para. 1). Blogs can in some ways be considered online journals but the activity of updating a blog is called blogging and those who publish blogs are commonly known as bloggers and they usually publish regular updates about their personal lives, opinions, views, thoughts, news reports, and social commentary. Additionally, Blogs typically cover a particular topic or issue and it's run by one individual or sometimes by a small group, but they are written in an informal or conversational style. However, now more corporations are using blogs, also known as ‘corporate blogs,’ to share product reviews, company information, and events by employees who share their thoughts and knowledge in order to connect with customers, suppliers, and readers. This is effectively illustrated by the articles we read for class on blogs titled, “Wal-Mart Tastemakers Write Unfiltered Blog” by Michael Barbaro (2008). Blogs can also be used for collaboration among like-minded people and groups such as academic professors who can share parts of their research papers and information or areas they are struggling with in order to get feedback from their colleagues, but without their notes being changed or altered. It can also be used by college students to connect with professors and classmates when creating group projects or asking for help with finding information or feedback on research topics and papers.

When most people hear, see or think about the word 'Wiki' usually the first thing that might come to their minds are the more popular Wiki known as ‘Wikipedia,’ the online encyclopedia or more recently ‘WikiLeaks’ which has been in the news repeatedly due to the controversies created by Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder (LeBar, 2017). However, the word Wiki comes from the Hawaiian word that means “Quick” and was first used by a computer programmer named Ward Cunningham who created a new software called WikiWikiWeb (Dennis, 2018). In the article, ‘Wiki Inventor Ward Cunningham Dishes on the Future of His Creation’ by Fredric Paul (2016), he had asked Cunningham what a wiki was? in which he replied, “It’s basically a way of writing where you’re reading. On the Web before that, you would read something in one place but if you wanted to write more, you would have to go through a completely different mechanism. You couldn’t author through the Web before that” (para. 9). In other words, a Wiki is a website containing text-based content that can be edited collectively by different users at will and unlike a blog, in which the authored posts remain unaltered, with a Wiki, documents can be modified by anyone with access to the website (Waters, 2007, para. 2).

Some of the main differences that set a blog and a Wiki apart are that most blogs are controlled by the blogger who created the content and the posts can’t be changed, altered or modified. But, because blogs are posted online and in public spaces, anyone can view them and add their own comments to the blog. Additionally, because most blogs are individually personal by nature and unique in style they are considered historical content because they depicture people in a particular time and are a snapshot of what’s occurring at that moment (Baruch New Media Wiki contributors, n.d.). Furthermore, you can add graphics, pictures, and even music and video clips to blogs and also link one blog to another blog or website. Wiki’s, on the other hand, is a software that allows multiple users to freely create, edit, modify, change, update and organize web page content in a collaborated approach that can be accessed through different web browsers. Wiki’s are perfect for coordination and partnership since everyone is working together as a team and because Wiki’s are accessible to all, people can combine their ideas, knowledge, and thoughts in one single location that anyone can see and improve on and even create connections with other wiki users and groups. Unlike blogs, you don’t need to ask for permission to make any changes on a Wiki page and they don’t have one person who controls the page or content but there are different jobs and roles that those working within the wiki can do, such as Layout editors, Contributors, Page Editors, Graphic Editors and Content Auditors (Baruch New Media Wiki contributors, n.d.). However, within corporation run Wiki’s, there can be a manager who can control the content. Both Blogs and Wiki’s are mostly free or low cost to use and easy to work with and anyone with little or non-technical experiences can operate them. They are great tools for anyone who wants to express their creative side and also want to create something new to freely share with the public and the world.

In the future, Wiki’s and Blogs will eventually merge together to create a new kind of collaborated hybrid that will utilize the best tools from both. However, I think that there will also be a convergence between blogs, Wiki's and other forms of new media technology such as social media networkers (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and vlogs (YouTube) and video conference technology that would create a global collaboration that is more influential, powerful and robust and it will allow people across the world to collaborate in new and different ways. However, It would be interesting to see what would happen if Facebook or Instagram offered a Wiki type service to its users for collaboration among their friends, family and colleagues and where they can change, edit and manipulate the contents on the pages to create something distinct and even more personal.

Citation

Balkhi, S. (Ed.). (2019, March 1). What is a Blog and How is it Different from a Website?

(Explained). Retrieved from https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/what-is-a-blog-and-how-is-it-different-from-a-website-explained/

Baruch New Media Wiki contributors (n.d.). New media. Retrieved from

http://newmedia.shoutwiki.com/wiki/New_media

Dennis, M. A. (2018, August 1). Wiki. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/wiki

LeBar, Z. (2017, April 3). What Are Wikis, and Why Should You Use Them? Retrieved from

https://business.tutsplus.com/tutorials/what-are-wikis-and-why-should-you-use-them--cms-19540

Paul, F. (2016, February 11). Ward Cunningham on the Future of the Wiki. Retrieved from

https://blog.newrelic.com/technology/ward-cunningham-wiki/

Waters, J. K. (2007, July 6). Blogs and Wikis in the Business World Definition and Solutions. 

Retrieved from https://www.cio.com/article/2438542/blogs-and-wikis-in-the-business-world-definition-and-solutions.html

The Digital Divide.

The topic I have chosen is on the "Digital Divide" because of the negative impact it has on individuals, households, businesses, communities, countries, socioeconomic, demographic and geographic areas. The Digital Divide has created and continues to generate huge gaps of inequality between different groups of people based on race, age, income, disabilities and education and also among those who have limited or no access to modern information, communication technology, and the infrastructures that support easy access to the internet. The Digital Divide isn't a phenomenon that affects only developing or underdeveloped countries but also industrialized or developed countries as well. Unfortunately, the Digital Divide leaves many people without the resources to engage in the economic, political, and social aspects in their communities and country's, but it also leaves them at a disadvantage globally due to the power of globalization. The Digital Divide could be contributed to different factors such as the high cost to access internet services, outdated technology, low-performing computers, slow speed wireless connections or the inability to obtain access to technology, support, tools, and infrastructure, including not having access to educational training in the STEM professions. However, I will explore the current state of the Digital Divide, its related causes, its effect on education, race, and income, its impact on globalization, and how we could find solutions to overcome and combat the Digital Divide. This is just a brief summary of what my project encompasses and I will continue to focus and expand on these questions and also explore more areas in greater detail.