Social Networking

Social Networking, something that was unknown twenty years ago, plays now a major part in our everyday lives. Whether we want it or not, whether we like it or not, use it or not, it has become essential to us. Nowadays, we are becoming more and more dependent of social networking and it would not make sense to ignore social networking unless one lived under a rock, and even that is debatable. Everybody has at least a Facebook account and many use Tweeter even though I believe one has to be in the public eye for it to make sense. LinkedIn is the most important aspect of today’s professional and its benefits grow as one is getting older and getting more professional relations as pointed out by Frannk Langfit in “Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting”. LinkedIn is the best way to advertise oneself on a professional point of view and one great way to find a job without even searching for it if the account is well organized and key words used. And, let’s not forget about MySpace, one of the best environments where one can open up artistically.

Nicole Ellison in the Stephen J Dubner article “Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum” reports that Social Networking has “made us better off as a society and as individuals”, and points out that some of the more interesting evidences of the benefits of social networking such as political activities, social activities or job found through LinkedIn or Career Builder. We all know the huge success encountered by elect president Barack Obama using social media and how he was able to reach out to many groups and raise huge amount of money while the Republican Party who did not care so much in the power of social media missed out on the elections. And who can’t forget the revolution in Egypt practically organized through Facebook some time ago. People do get organized and know what’s going on via social networking.

But, as much as we’re reaping the benefits of social networking, we can’t forget the negative parts that make it not so attractive to many. Youths can bully (or be bullied) as easily inside the classroom or the neighborhood than on the virtual world.  These harassments lead to loss of lives weather it is through the organized suicide groups or the kid bullied who kills himself, or the craigslist monster who lies and silently kills or more recently the people whose lives through virtual worlds has gotten mixed up with the real world.

Sources

Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum by Stephen J. Dubner. NYT Feb 15, 2008 http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/is-myspace-good-for-society-a-freakonomics-quorum/

Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting by Frank Langfitt, NPR, March 16, 2008. available from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf