Search This Blog

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Social Networking

Social networking sites have been used in many ways by individuals and businesses in order to get into contact with others. Social networking sites such as Twitter have been used extensively by businesses to communicate with their customers and also their potential employees. Like in an article in the NY Times, Tweeting Your Way to a Job, it mentioned that "Twitter is an extension of customer service, an efficient way to solve problems for disgruntled customers." Businesses are looking for employees who can effectively communicate with their customers using social networking sites in order to solve their problems and even establish a relationship so they can retain that customer.

Not only are social networking sites useful within the business community but they are also useful for education purposes. Many schools are using social networking sites to help communication between the students and the professors. Students are able to collaborate and complete assignments much more effectively because of social networking sites. For more examples on how to use Twitter within the school environment please read this article, 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom.

I believe that these technologies have a great benefit to our society because it helps bring people together which allows them to accomplish things with more efficiency than ever before. It also helps people become more inform about what is currently going on in their community and around the world. Social networking sites gives people the chance to voice their opinions on important matters. For example in the article, Twitter used to help land plane with aid for Haiti earthquake victims, Twitter was actually used to help save the lives of Haiti earthquake victims. Many people were allow to voice their opinion by tweeting that the plane, full with medical supplies, land on the tarmac.

Of course where ever there are so many people connected to each other there is always going to be a dark side because some people are going to abuse these technologies to meet their needs. There have been reports of individuals stalking and tormenting others using these social networking sites. Sometimes finding these individuals is difficult because they may multiple accounts with different profiles. Also employers may find information about their employees on these social networking sites that may get them fired. So there is the potential of these sites to have a negative impact on people lives.

But I do believe that the future for social networking sites to be bright. These sites have the potential to evolve into something great especially in the business world. Employers could have interviews with potential employees from across the world and feel like they're sitting right in front of them. Also in the medical field, doctors could examine a patient when they're located in another country. If the pros continue to outweigh the cons popularity of social networking sites will continue to grow.

1 comment:

  1. Social Networking sites now provide users with more convenience and flexibility than before. It's now easier to interact with other people than it were before.

    ReplyDelete