Social Media and its Impacts on privacy

Social networking has both pros and cons, and it is up to the user how to use it for the better. Social networking is mostly popular among the teenagers. People use social networking websites to express themselves, more so under circumstances where expression in face to face communication is limited or difficult. In many cases people want to ask question or express themselves but want to hide his/her identity, writing blogs might be an option for them. Health related issues or issues that are awkward to discuss in public, can be sorted through internet information sources. One can find different blogs and files related to sexual health where he/she can discuss different problem without disclosing his/her identity. Sometimes blogs come up with really helpful results. There are blogs where one can discuss about symptoms of different diseases and come up with a decision. To those who are afraid of going to the doctor, blogs can be really helpful.

Companies use social networking website like twitter and blogs to motivate their employees. These social networking websites create a virtual world where employees can interact to each other outside the office. These websites help employees to bond, improving group work performance. Websites like LinkedIn are now even used by company’s Human Resources department to hire employees. Candidates can post their resume on the website where employers can directly search them.  Companies can also interact with the target market and make the consumer aware of their deals and promotion. Being in touch with consumers also increases public relation of the company, which will in turn have a good impact on the company’s turnover.

Where is the enemy? Not on facebook where you can only have ‘friends.’ The basic connection in facebook is referred to as “friendship” since there is no way for software to elegantly map the true dynamic nuances of social life. While “Friendship” feels more comfortable, its overuse is costing us richness of our social life. (What is Collaboration Anyway? Pg: 59 Adam Hyde et al) Social networking websites like facebook and twitter, where we add our friends and family, help us stay in touch with them regardless of the distance. Through these websites we can share our experience with friends and family via photos, videos and posts.  Education system nowadays is internet based. Professors recommend reading/writing blogs. Articles found on the web can be used by students to do research while in school and look at different perspective on a topic they are studying.  Professors and colleges use social networking websites to interact with students. Colleges use an interactive platform on the web (like Blackboard for CUNY) in order to interact with students. For group assignments students can use blogs or wikis over emails because they are more effective and convenient. The invisible barrier between a teacher and a student has become less and less prominent with the help of social networking, were students can see that a teacher has a life outside of school, and usually as a young kid in school this can be pretty fascinating.

People can share innovative ideas and discuss development through social networking websites. We can stay at home and watch videos of a live event in another part of the world. Youtube provides a lot of videos not only for entertainment but also for practical purpose, for example one can learn how to repair an electronic device. Social networking has evolved in the recent years. Apart from just typing blogs, posting videos and pictures, people have started “living” in the web in the virtual world. Many games such as the SIMS, FIFA13, Second Life, etc. have given people the opportunity to live life in their computer screens away from the stress and responsibilities of the real world. Users can make their profile, create an avatar, and also add a personality to the virtual image of the user.

Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia based on the unlikely notion  that an entry can be added by any web user and edited by any other, is radical experiment in trust, applying Eric Raymond’s dictum (originally coined in the context of open-source software) that “with enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow” to content creation. Wikipedia is already in the top one hundred websites, and many people think it will be in the top ten before long. This is a profound change in the dynamics of content creation. (What is Web 2.0, Pg 38. Tim O’Reilly) Wikipedia is like an interactive information channel; one posts information and others edit it. The information on every topic is double checked and edited as a whole by authors of Wikipedia who have professional experience in that particular field. Marshal Poe in “The Hive” explains how we have started to collect information from wikipedia. Wikipedia has made the world smaller. Gathering information from around the world has been made simpler. Now, we can easily get informed about anything we want with one click. Marshal poe says, “while you are there, you may just add or change a little something, and thereby feel the pride of authorship shared by the tens of thousands of Wikipedians” (The Hive). Wikipedia has transformed the whole world into a community where we can share information worldwide. Before the existence of internet, to get any information we had to rely on books, local newspapers, encyclopedias or the people around us. Innovation of internet has made the resource wider.