Blog: Social Networking

Being a Baruch student means that standing out in a professional setting requires having more than a good GPA and a few volunteer activities under my belt. I have to have a social network and be connected with individuals who I can help and who can help me. Social Networking is more than just updating our Facebook status now. It means connecting to people from various parts of our life. Whether it be work, family, school, or friends, social media has enabled us to expand our social network across the globe. When I update my LinkedIn and connect with my old boss, this allows anyone looking someone who has experienced in the field of accounting to see who I worked for, how long, and further investigate the company that I was with to see whether I am qualified for the position they want to fill. If I tweet a review of a book or movie, I might get a respond from a professional film reviewer/critic who is looking for insight on people's opinions of the piece. Even more simple, if I have a YouTube channel and posted a video with a brand of makeup, I might get a sponsorship from the company of the brand and get free products to review and further build a relationship with that company int he future. It is amazing how our mere social media presence makes us visible to recruiters, scouters, and marketing agencies that may find our something as small as an Instagram post to be held as our credentials.

As Virginia Heffernan states, "You [can] take a tiny story, which seemingly concerns only you and in which you play the role of hapless, bumbling protagonist, and you turn it into a haiku version of universal truth". The benefits of social networking technology are just like that. For example, 5 years ago, a YouTube channel called esto1121 posted a few childish videos that were edited together to be comedic and entertaining. The child, Eric, who made those videos had them go mostly unnoticed for 4 years until YouTube star Jenna Marbles discovered him in one of her "Google Deep Dive with Me" videos and he became internet famous in a night. Eric was now in college and didn't think he'd ever become a YouTube star but now has the support and backing of the 18.6 million of people who follow Jenna as well as her other YouTube star followers. That's how easy it is to increase ones network. Perhaps not at such a rate, but the concept still stands.

However, just as easily as a positive and professional can be found, every slip, every error, and every tag can be viewed by the public as well. This isn't necessarily the "dark side" to social media. Rather, it is the drawbacks that users just need to be conscious of whilst using these platforms. There is a difference between making a podcast about politics and making a podcast slandering people about their contrasting opinions. One can post a picture tagging a company at a company dinner and posting a picture whilst drunk at that same party. People need to realize that while we can be discovered in many ways, we need to make sure that what is being discovered shows us in our best light. Our posts aren't always as private as we might think. Even Mark Zuckerberg's own sister didn't understand this. According to Rebecca Greenfield, "Randi has indicated that she only wants her friends to see photos that she has posted. But the way Facebook works, friends of your friends tagged in a photo album also see the entire roll, unless you choose otherwise in the settings of the album posted." This displays the importance of having and understanding of our privacy settings, as well as showing how millions of people can get access to our information whether we know it or not. In the end, it is our responsibility to keep things we don't want shared off of public forums completely. In my opinion if you only want a certain group of people seeing a picture, keep everything private and tag who you want to tag.

Technology has already evolved to great extents but there is still much to be done int he future. 

What I see happening is not so much about the actual technology as much as the public's increased understanding of it. Technology is still a foreign subject to many adults and elderly but as time goes on, I believe elementary school children will be learning the basics of coding and software from a very young age. As technology becomes an increasingly enormous presence in our everyday lives, it will eventually become a necessity to have an in depth understanding of it's processes. Perhaps then we can have more laws and regulations surrounded this black and white world of privacy and free speech protection.

References:

Heffernan, Virginia. “Being There - The Subtle Art of the Facebook Update.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 10 Feb. 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15wwln-medium-t.html.

Greenfield, Rebecca. “Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 30 Oct. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/12/facebook-privacy-so-confusing-even-zuckerberg-family-photo-isnt-private/320164/.