Social Networking

Social networking… When I first saw out class assignment I had no idea what to write about, but the more articles I read the more I realized that we are literally surrounded by social networks. I am pretty sure that each and everyone one of us has at least one social networking account such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and etc. It is amazing to realize what a big role social networking plays in our life. Not only does it help us stay in touch with our friends and family, it can also land us a job of a lifetime. In the article Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting by Frank Ligfit , the author made a good point by quoting Maureen Crawford-Hentz , "Social networking technology is absolutely the best thing to happen to recruiting — ever." I have been in the situations when I didn’t have a job and what was the first thing that I turned to ? Social networking websites. I asked my friends on Facebook if they knew any companies that were hiring and made a post to see if people would comment and recommend something. I also created a profile on Linkedin to stay in touch with my previous co-workers in hopes that other companies would take a look at my profile and become interested. In the article “What’s next? Your future in social networking” by Chuck Hamilton , the author talks about “virtual worlds” that are created every day. One cannot deny that many of us spend more time in front of the computer, phone or tablet than anything else that we do during the day. The amount of time that is spent on our electronical devices does seem like we all live in a virtual world more than in the real one. A great example is Obama’s campaign which targeted online users and created database of supporters. Not only did Obama campaign save money by not wasting paper on mail cards, they also saved time for themselves and voters by allowing supporters to organize themselves online however they choose. Quote from “How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power by David Carr pinpoints the idea behind the campaign that won many votes for Obama “Senator Barack Obama understood that you could use 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.” This is just one of the cases that shows how powerful social networking can be in our society. It is also something to think about because some of the information that we see in the “virtual world” can be very deceiving. In the future more people will join social networking; the question is what will happen when people get tired of it? Is there a next big think on its way?!?