Social Networking

Social Networking

What are some ways (corporate and otherwise) that these technologies can be used? 

It is well known today that many social network web sites are not used for entertainment purposes only. Facebook became a huge virtual market place where people promote their "new-born" businesses. Social network called Linkedin is one of the highly used websites by millions of employers representing not only small businesses but many world wide companies which shows how reliable the network has become with years. Frank Langfitt in his article called Social Networking Technologies Boosts Job Recruiting says that "Linkedin says users include executives from all of the Fortune 500 companies. Typing keywords into a search engine, Crawford can scrape the entire network to dig out high-quality candidates that she can't find elsewhere... Professional recruiters have started hunting for job candidates using social networking technology — like the kind found on the popular sites MySpace and Facebook... Social networking technology is absolutely the best thing to happen to recruiting — ever."

Chick Hamillton, the author of the article called What's next? Your Future in Social Networking, names these technologies "key tools for business innovation." He says that "Social networks allow businesses to collaborate with all kind of people, with diverse backgrounds and different levels of expertise, from locations from all over the world." Many companies taking their new designs and put them on the Internet allowing their potential clients to get familiar with it. 

It is needless to say that social networks are widely used by the corporate world. But most of them started as small Intranets, for example, Facebook was created within the walls of Harvard with a limited access. Now Facebook is used all over the world as a mean of communication. People create not only friendships but romantic relationships as well. They use it as a hobby or take it as serious as their carriers.

What are the benefits of these technologies to society?

The benefits of networks are countless. As was mentioned before, social networks bring millions of people together. It could gather groups of people sharing the same ideas or professionals exchanging different experiences, teaching it to the others and learning something new at the same time. It made much cheaper for companies to do businesses; advertising became more affordable and a much greater amount of customers is reached in no time with the help of these technologies.

And how about those who could never make a single friend and now he/she has a 150 on Facebook. The network puts its users in whole communities that would be almost impossible to create in reality. But of course there is a dark side to it. No matter how advanced those networks are nowadays, their privacy is still too far from being perfect. It is good when a top-ten-company employer notices a qualified professional on Facebook. But what if he digs deeper and sees the pictures that are ok to be seen by his/her friends but are not appropriate for the potential employer. Cyber bullying is becoming one of the most serious concerns of social networks. "Students have more ways than ever to post anonymous attacks on classmates, thanks (or rather, no thanks) to new and expanded online forums promising to be bigger and juicier than the infamous JuicyCampus, which drew fierce protests from harassed students before it shut down earlier this year."- Jeffry R. Young writes in his article They Are Back and They are Bad: Campus-Gossip Websites. 

Social Networks continue growing and developing. They take businesses processes to the next level faster while making it much easier and, I believe, with the new technologies development and the Internet  users applying their social network knowledge and skills, the future of these technologies would look even more promising. 

References:

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

2.Social Networking at IBM: Maclean's Feb 4, 2008 "What's Next? Your Future in Social Networking" vol 121, p. 42.http://ibm.rogersconsumerpublishing.com/macleans/downloads/social.pdf

3."They're Back, and They're Bad: Campus-Gossip Web Sites," by Jeffrey R. Young, The Chronicle for Higher Education, Sept 4, 2009, p. A20+. Available at:http://chronicle.com/article/Theyre-BackTheyre-B/48220/