By Kristin Biery
Today's lecture about Twittering really made me think about the transition the communication field is making. We are moving out of the boardrooms, off of conference calls and are instead sitting behind a computer screen. Although I am someone who loves text messaging and getting online—there is a time and a place for it. Websites like twitter, facebook, myspace, craigslist and other popular blog sites are becoming the norm for social networking and advancing careers.
Today in class we had a guest speaker who had over 15,000 followers on her twitter page. That’s ridiculous to me. I understand that by using the internet you can reach a broader group of individuals, but how genuine and sincere can the relationships be? There is only so much information I am willing to give out online and I am not very trusting to people who I meet on the internet.
We all watch the stories on Dateline and 20/20 about internet predators and unfortunately it has tainted my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, I have a facebook and today in class I signed up for a twitter page, however I hope that that is not the life line of my social network.
8 comments:
I thought today's class guest speaker was very interesting. I just received an email from my father regarding a member of twitter blogging about her boring, pointless job. The article later said representative of her company later found the post and reported it to upper management. Needless to say she was later fired.
I also don't agree with the issue of corporations being able to look at your facebook as a judgement of who you are. Your facebook changes from year to year as you change but the things you have done in the past shouldn't define who you are nor should your pictures. I do agree that your longest keg stand shouldn't be your proudest moment displayed for everyone to see but at the same time the world is changing. Those younger than us are just as liable for partying and having a good time. What about those who will enter the corporate world with tatoos and body piercings. Making judgements on people is human nature but if they are qualified for the job then that should be what corporations most care about.
Ugh. Can we stop lamenting the "Computerization" of human relationships.
We talk like the new relationships are mutually exclusive to the older, traditional relationships. It just isn't the same thing. Every new technology has its place.
We need to realize that twitter/facebook/etc. are not here to replace relationships, just augment them in a new way.
Twitter and other social networking sites can be a great tool if you use them correctly. 15,000 followers is impressive and it is highly unlikely that she was friends with these people in real life. Networking sites allow you to communicate with people you would never have a chance of meeting in real life, and that is a great benefit. However, if you being to use the sites to replace face-to-face talk with someone you have a real relationship with, that definitely is a problem.
I agree with Leah, in the sense that it can be used for networking with new people, but in the same sense think that having such a "cult" like following for a normal individual is a little crazy. The guest speaker did a nice job of breaking down the advantages of twitter and how it can be used for a positive business networking site. I still feel like I don't know what I am doing everytime I get on twitter, but I think since the time we had the speaker I am getting a better grip on this form of social networking.
At the beginning of college, I joined facebook because of the personal social aspect. Fast forward two years later, and I find myself being graded on my profiles on numerous social media sites for a class. Twitter is a site that seems to have boomed lately, as celebrities and even our president are on Twitter. Networking is such an important part of public relations, which is what Twitter is all about. I find social media sites to be super fascinating; I thoroughly enjoyed your blog!
I agree with you Stacey whatever you post on these sites can be dangerous because you never know who is reading or looking at your Facebook page or any other social medias you might used. Since I am sure that lady didn’t want her boss to see what she was writing, let alone think that he would read it and fire her for it. I also agree with you while you don’t want pictures of you wasted on these sites. Those actions or pictures do not define who you are, or how you will perform you job. Therefore, I think it is ridiculous that companies see one picture like this and it would cost someone their job. I think Kristen made a good point that while these sites might keep you informed with what your friends are doing, I don’t really think you can make truly genuine and sincere new friendships on these site.
I have mixed feelings about all of this topics. In some sense, I feel that these social media networks are helping those who may have never had a voice, speak their minds. In other ways, I think people need to be careful about what they are posting online. I remember a friend who called me and asked how to shut down her facebook account because she was applying to law school. She said that she didn't want the school to see her facebook pictures. I think there is time and place to post things for the world to see, but you will have to accept the consequences.
I do think the speaker who came to talk about Twittering was an insightful speech to hear. I honestly didn't understand what all this buzz about twittering was, and I really still do not get it fully. I think these social media networks definitely have their positive side because it helps companies, businesses, individuals and friends communicate. It is also a scary world out there when it comes to blogging and giving out personal information. I know after watching the news on a daily basis, there are creeps out there, and they can easily find a person online. There are boundaries I think when it comes to blogging, facebook, myspace and twitter.
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