Weekly Blog Post #10 Social Media

The social media big guns such as MySpace and Facebook commonly attract millions and millions of users to use their service. Social media websites provide a place for people to have their own "space" on the Internet. People can make lists of their interests, favorite movies, favorite music, favorite books, etc. People can write blogs and and personal profiles to be displayed on their web page.

Probably the biggest reasons people use social media services is to network with people in their job field and to stay in touch with long distance friends. Networking has long been used through simply getting someones phone number, meeting a person on the job, meeting a person at a convention or conference, etc. Now people can network over the Internet via social media services to stay in touch with their job contacts or potential employers. Does networking over social media services create a face-to-face disconnect? In my opinion it depends on the job field.

Keeping in touch with friends who have moved to place that cannot be visited as often as you'd like can be difficult. Social media services provide a means for people to keep in touch with all their friends whether they are long distance or not. The only problem I have with social media websites like MySpace and Facebook is the same concern I have with networking, face-to-face interaction. If I want to talk to my friends, I'm not going to comment on their web page, I will call them on the phone, go to their home, or chat with them on an instant messenger.

One problem that just irritates me about social media services is they can be used for a place to brag. You can add every person you have ever met to your friends list and brag about having 1,246 friends, who they hell knows that many people? Every single piece of information on someones web page on their "About Me" can be utter crap sometimes. Probably the photos are the funniest part of people's web page. For example, a profile would read 17 years old and the person's front page picture is them drinking at a party. Classy. Some of these reasons make me think sometimes that using social media isn't a good idea to network. Do you want your employer finding crap on your MySpace? If they do then say goodbye to that job offer.