Privacy & Confidentiality

There are many issues related to being able to protect privacy and confidentiality in social media. Facebook, myspace, YouTube have revised their privacy policies couple of times already. However, as a users we should be concerned about what we post or what kind of information we share with other web users. The more active we are on the social networking sites, the higher the risk of losing the confidentially. We might think that only our friends can see what we post but in reality everyone can access it and maybe use it against us in the future. Some for profit agencies search the social web sites to target market young people. They try to find out what you like, what kind of music you listen to, what style of clothes you wear and based on that they send you advertisements, promotions, marketing offers, etc.On internet it is really hard to be confidential. Recently, MIT students performed a research study on facebook users. After that reasearch they were able to come up with a way to find out the sexual orientation of facebook users based on what kind of friends they have, what kind of posts they make, what pictures they post, etc. Simply, internet is a huge data mine. It is really almost impossible to be active in social networking websites and at the same time being able to fully control and protect our privacy. Each and every action we take on internet is traceable and recorded if we want it or not.

Advice to Baruch College

In a short amount of time, web technologies have changed our world from how we do shopping to how we read newspapers or learn new things. Surely, the first adopters of this new technologies are young people like students. As a new hired person I will advise Baruch College to use Virtual World to construct an alternative educational facility in Second Life platform. Students who missed the lecture or are unable to come to the class could log in to Virtual Baruch College, find their class, sit down in a nicely design room and listen to the lectures. I think that would be also a great solution for students who work full time and don't have time to come to school.

My another suggestion for Baruch is to post some of the lectures done by professors of Baruch on youtube.com. This way students who don't know what class to take as an elective or are not sure if this subject will interest them can see the actual preview how the class will look like on line. In addition to that, college can use Twitter as a way to remind students about certain deadlines or social event that are going on in the school.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual world technologies are becoming more and more popular, and not only from the point of view of entertainment. Many big corporations like IBM, educational institutions and even government and military agencies are using virtual world tools in everyday operations. According to Mark Tutton’s article from Cnn.com Going to the virtual office in a Second Life, “companies are increasingly seeking innovative ways of bringing employees together for conferences and meetings remotely.” First of all, using those tools of communication between people from different parts of the globe is much cheaper. Instead of organizing conferences that are very costly, the employees can have a productive “meeting” and discussions with other colleagues without having to leave the comfort of their own homes. Another benefit of virtual world technologies used in a corporate world is that some people don’t even have to come to work but instead they can do their work from home. I think that is a great solution for single parents who would like to work but can’t leave their children home without supervision. Virtual technologies also help people to be creative and use their imagination in designing cloths or interior. It also helps people to think in abstractive and more creative way. Virtual worlds like Second Life or Sometime 3D(by IBM) are developed and upgraded on the daily basis. There are new innovations and approaches to make this tool more useful in everyday life. However, as every networking tool has some disadvantages, so does virtual world. It definitively limits the interaction with people because instead of seeing your coworkers in your office you are limited to interacting with their “avatars-animated alter-egos”as well named by Mark Tutton in his article. Another dangerous side of the Second Life is that people who spend too much time in this created, perfect world may become addicted to this surreal world. Just like the people who spend hours and hours in front of computer playing games tend to forget about other important thing in their life. For example shopaholics in virtual world may spend fortunes on shoe-shopping without worrying that they may not be able to afford it. The last but not the least thing that we should be concern about is the future of the human interaction and communication. Let’s just hope that in the future, people will not turn themselves completely into virtual world and that there will still be room for the face-to-face conversation.

Social Networking

One of many social benefits of online networking technologies were presented to us during this presidential campaign when Barack Obama used social media such us Facebook, Youtube as a mean to communicate its ideas with wide range of internet users, especially the younger generation of Americans. In New York Times article, David Carr summarizes the effects of social networking used in Obama’s campaign in the following words, “by bolting together social networking applications under the banner of a movement, they created an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote.”

Another example of using social media technologies in politics is tweetering. For example, in Iran during the elections young people used the tweeter.com to communicate with the rest of the world to show their disapproval of the outcome of the elections.

Businesses use blogs, facebook and any other possible social media to advertise, promote their services and products.

Networking technologies are more often used by the employers as a help in hiring people. According to Frank Lengfitt and his article Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting, “Professional recruiters have started hunting for job candidates using social networking technology.” Creating the right profile including interests, achievements, education and professional ideas can lead to being noticed by the future employer.

As with everything else, there is a good and bad side of everything. We benefit from social networking in a big scale, but at the same time we give up some rights. As soon as we post a picture or upload a video on Facebook it becomes the property of Facebook. It happens very often that social sites enable profile pictures to advertisers and marketers, without an announcement to users.

The actual lack of control over your personal content can bring some serious issues. However, we have to remember that with every newly developed technology there are people who will use it not in the way it was initially designed for but for the personal gain.

I believe the social networking sites will keep attracting more and more people of different age. I also believe that gradually people will start to realize that for the benefits of having hundreds of “friends” they will have to give up some personal rights such as right to their online content and most importantly the right to privacy.

Check Out Social Networking Sites

Initially Facebook was only available to Harvard University students as a way to get know each other better. Gradually, students from other colleges were allowed to log in. Nowadays, anyone 13 years or older can join the Facebook and there are approximately 400 millions active users. This number is pretty impressive, especially if we think of Facebook as a country, it would be the 3rd biggest country by population in the world!

Facebook is improving its features gradually. Among other benefits of the social networking website there are numbers of different applications that allow you to for example give a virtual friendly gift to your favorites. We have the Wall that we can post our comments on. We can upload pictures, post comments and become fans of social groups and play games. Businesses also use Facebook as a mean to spread the work about their product, services and ideas.

Myspace became very popular among the young users because it allowed them to express themselves and their creativity on a wide platform. Mainly, it became very popular because it does not require sophisticated knowledge of web development or design to create your own site where users can express themselves, ideas, music talent, etc. In comparison to Facebook, Myspace is mostly for artistic people who want to share their creativity with other people.

Friendster is another social site which is very popular in Asian countries. It is similar to Facebook. It is used to share online content among users. It is also used for sharing the videos, pictures through the profiles. Some people use Friendster also for dating and meeting new people.

Another social network tool is linkedin.com. This one is mostly used for the professional networking. It is a great way to interact with people from your business field. This site comparing to Fcebook.com, Friendster.com or Myspace.com is directed towards professional networking. You cannot really request a friendship from someone unless you belong to the same professional network. You can also join social groups such us “Woman in Business” or “Media Professionals in NY”, etc. Some people use Linkedin.com in searching for a job. Users can upload their résumés to their profile hoping that their future employee will see it. It is also very popular for the colleagues to write recommendations for each other. Linkedin.com definitively becomes more and more popular way of interacting with other people not only for fun but also professional interest.