Social Networking
Social networking sites can be used for many things. The very first thing that comes to mind is personal use. You can connect with friends and family that are close and the ones that are far away as well. Sites like Facebook are really beneficial when it comes to keeping in touch with people in your life that don't live near you; it allows to share news, pictures, and videos immediately with someone that lives 5000 miles away from you, so there is that convenience. Another use is job recruitment/search; as mentioned in the podcast, "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting", LinkedIn is a really popular social networking site for that purpose. It's very easy for companies to look at individuals' skills and background and then contact them with a job offer. On the other hand, it also makes it easy for individuals to connect with all these executives and companies; they are also able to search for jobs that they would be interested in and apply directly from the site. These are the ways that these technologies can benefit society.
However, there is a less positive side to social networking sites. One of the big issues with these kind of technologies is privacy issues. The article, "Facebook Privacy is so Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo isn't Private", shows just how difficult it can be too keep your privacy on Facebook; even though you may think your content is only being shown to the people you want, that might not actually be the case. If Mark Zuckerberg's sister fell victim to Facebook's privacy settings, then it's very possible for the same to happen to anyone. Some other negative outcomes of technologies like these are sexual harassment and cyber-bullying; when people put themselves out on public platforms such as Facebook, even with privacy settings, it's possible for them to across people with bad intentions. There are many instances where women are harassed in comments of pictures they have posted, or even in their messages and it's impossible to stop it from happening. You can block the person, but you can't prevent another person like that from trying to message you again; so it just ends up being a blocking cycle. The same goes when it comes to cyber-bullying; people can post rude and offensive comments about others or send mean messages; although, once again, you can block them or report their account, it can be very difficult for the person being bullied.
So there are benefits and downsides to social networking technologies and I think in the future it will remain the same; there might be even greater benefits, but I think as the benefits increase, so will the downsides. I feel like privacy will definitely continue to be an issue; Facebook and Instagram have both created features that allow users to go live on videos and it was really new and cool, but there have been instances where people accidentally go live and they are not aware of it, which is not good.
References:
However, there is a less positive side to social networking sites. One of the big issues with these kind of technologies is privacy issues. The article, "Facebook Privacy is so Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo isn't Private", shows just how difficult it can be too keep your privacy on Facebook; even though you may think your content is only being shown to the people you want, that might not actually be the case. If Mark Zuckerberg's sister fell victim to Facebook's privacy settings, then it's very possible for the same to happen to anyone. Some other negative outcomes of technologies like these are sexual harassment and cyber-bullying; when people put themselves out on public platforms such as Facebook, even with privacy settings, it's possible for them to across people with bad intentions. There are many instances where women are harassed in comments of pictures they have posted, or even in their messages and it's impossible to stop it from happening. You can block the person, but you can't prevent another person like that from trying to message you again; so it just ends up being a blocking cycle. The same goes when it comes to cyber-bullying; people can post rude and offensive comments about others or send mean messages; although, once again, you can block them or report their account, it can be very difficult for the person being bullied.
So there are benefits and downsides to social networking technologies and I think in the future it will remain the same; there might be even greater benefits, but I think as the benefits increase, so will the downsides. I feel like privacy will definitely continue to be an issue; Facebook and Instagram have both created features that allow users to go live on videos and it was really new and cool, but there have been instances where people accidentally go live and they are not aware of it, which is not good.
References:
Greenfield, Rebecca. “Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 30 Oct. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/12/facebook-privacy-so-confusing-even-zuckerberg-family-photo-isnt-private/320164/.
Langfitt, Frank. “Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting.” NPR, NPR, 22 Nov. 2006, www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=6522523.
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