Sunday, February 21, 2010

Why I Find Social Networking Helpful

Social networking devices such as Facebook, Twitter, My Space, instant messaging and many more, have become increasing popular over the last 5 years. In today’s society, when we think of communication we already thinking of the internet and how it’s technology has helped us in providing us with several ways of doing our daily activities. As a frequent user of networking devices, I have listed 3 reasons as to why I find them useful:

1. Way to promote yourself: One of the most effective ways of promoting your work, organization or even yourself is through social networking sites. There are plenty of sites like Linkedin or MySpace where you can promote your company, organization, business, and individual talents. The first benefit is that the social networking sites will help you in initiating an extensive brand promotion strategy.

2. Friendship/Relationships: There are plenty of social networking sites that promote friendship, finding soul mates, travel partners, and even marriage partners. The main idea is to provide a platform where people from different counties and cultures can meet and share a part of their life with other people. Social networking sites like Hi5, Lavalife, and Facebook have drawn a lot of popularity because we can forget they’re man-made boundaries, and reach out to just about anyone in a specific community or on that website.

3. Creating a Niche: There are some social networking sites, which cater to special community, subjects, or categories. For instance: if you are looking for a classmate or an old school friend, then you have the ability to sign on to specific social networking sites that can link you or help you to find your old school friend. Classmates.com and reunion.com are two such social networking sites. These social networking sites can provide a niche, which could be the target audience or the subject.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Growing Up With The Internet

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is becoming more essential for work and social interaction. Our socialization has certainly changed over the last ten or fifteen years as we’ve added new technologies to our lifestyle. While the changes haven’t been perfect, they certainly have not all been for the worse. Most of our social technology has made a positive impact on the way we interact with one another. I personally believe that computer-mediated communication provides society with an easy convenience of communication form, such as online dating from anywhere around the world. I have chosen to write my blog on how technology plays a positive role on socialization.

Some advantages of CMC are obvious. For instance, all CMC is place independent; meaning that the parties do not have to be in the same location to communicate. Certain forms of CMC, such as e-mail, are also time independent; where the parties do not have to participate in the exchange of information at the same point in time. For these reasons, CMC may offer a practical solution to some educational problems relating to time and location. A perfect example of this is what we are going through right now; online courses.

Online dating affords an incredible amount of options to people looking for love. In school you met plenty of members of the opposite sex and online dating is probably the only other time in your life that you will be able to connect with so many other eligible singles. In most cases Internet dating sites are relatively inexpensive so budget isn’t a major concern. Online profiles can give plenty of insight into an individual’s personality, background, hobbies, likes and dislikes, dreams, goals and so forth. The more you know the better equip you are to decide if this is a person you wish to get to know or not. Also, regardless of your background and personality there is almost guaranteed to be people out there who want to get to know you.

Internet dating is a safe and secure way to meet others as long as you use your instincts and plenty of common sense. Meeting a person online gives you the opportunity to exchange e-mails with the person and get to know them at a gradual pace and this helps to melt away some of the awkwardness and insecurity that is often evident on first dates that evolve from traditional dating.

I myself am at a young age in where marriage is the last thing on my mind, so I haven’t had the pleasure of using this service. But in the future, it could be a possibility. The Internet to me is another form of life. Many people in society use it so often because of one key thing, convenience.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Social Networking Is Making Us Rude

Social networking devices are making us ruder when it comes to communication. Emails, voicemails, text messaging – you name it, we got it. Thanks to technology, it has created many brilliant ways for us to keep in touch with each other, as well as make our lives a lot easier. With the busy lives we entail, we find it difficult to keep in touch with friends and families the way we would like to. Times have changed so much that those days of sitting down and having a nice conversation seem like ancient history. However, there is no need to worry because with emails and text messaging being available, we are guaranteed to keep in touch with people correctly, right? Wrong! You may assume that with the many options we have with communication, that the better we would be at it. However the more options we are given and the easier communication becomes, the ruder and lazier we get.

Everyone considers them self to be important, and we expect others to see us the same way. If we do not get respectful acknowledgement from others, we feel disappointed and hurt. To me, this seems to be happening a lot these days. Text messages have replaced the phone call and even then people do not always keep up to date with their messages. Now because of this, we have gotten used to receiving emails and texts messages without getting a reply back in a timely manner, if at all. It almost makes it seem like we are fine as long as we are being kept in touch with, but what we are often forgetting is our lack of manners to acknowledge these messages leaves the sender feeling unappreciated, hurt, upset or even worried. I, as frequent texter, can easily relate to this. There has been several times when I feel irritated when a friend or family member has no effort to call, but is quick to send one-wordy text messages such as “kk” or “lol”.

With everyone just a click or push of a button away, would it kill to quickly send an email or text message back, letting that person know if their message has been received or not? It can take less than a minute and it would make everyone happy. The sender would be left happy and shall no longer be left wondering and assuming the worst.