Social Networking

At the core of the many forms of social media is the social networking aspect. News can be shared, opinions can be debated, anything can really happen. There are some poor areas of social networking, especially privacy. In the article posted by The Wire, “Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn’t Private”, it explains how muffled the privacy settings on the platform can be. In fact when one posts photos on social media there is very little control on those pictures. The key is as illustrated in the article “don’t expect to hide something if you do everything can be share and re-shared these days”.

Social Media is also a vital part of many corporations. For starters social media is an easy way to learn about ones audience. One method that companies use to maximize revenue, utilizes social media and the details it gives about those connected. Companies can even target certain audiences through social media platforms such as Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook. Social networks like LinkedIn link the corporate and social media aspects to create a new way for potential employees to be recruited.

So the question is what does the future hold for social networking? Although social media has a bright future for society I want to focus on the negative it could continue to have moving forward and way into future. One of Social medias biggest problems is that it is decreasing real, live social experiences in society. As the New York Times article “Anti-Social Networking?” states, children, more often than not, communicated with their friends in person. However, nowadays children are consumed by their usage of mobile devices and applications. The problem is people aren’t connecting as much with one individual and are often involved in online chats. The pew research center found that “ages 12 through 17 send 50 or more text messages a day and that one third send more than 100 a day.” The data is troubling, and hopefully this downward trend doesn’t continue!

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

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/fashion/02BEST.html