Social Networking

Social networking is the new trend on the internet. Some of the most popular social networking sites include Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn. These sites benefit society because it helps connect each other even though we may live miles apart. Friends and families who haven't spoken to each other in a while can find each other on Facebook and reconnect. You can easily keep in touch with new people you meet. You can communicate with people of the same interests. Status updates from your friends usually let you know whats happening around you faster than news sources. The list goes on and on.

The business world has also taken advantage of these popular social networking tools to reach out to people. Advertising and promotions are usually spotted while you make your way around Facebook. Corporations may also use these sites to give you the latest updates on their companies. Some companies even use social networking sites to do a background check on you to see what kind of person you are if you are applying for a job so you have to be careful on what you decide to put out on the internet. In fact, LinkedIn is a social networking site designed specifically for the business person. One can put their resume/skills/experience on there and begin networking with others to try to find jobs. According to the article titled "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" by Frank Langfitt, many Fortune 500 companies use LinkedIn to find qualified candidates using a simple search function. "Social Networking is the best thing that happened to recruiting-ever" says Maureen Crawford-Hentz, a recruiter for a global lighting company.

President Obama even used social networking during his presidential campaign. Through these popular sites he was able to connect with more people and raise money for his campaign. In an article written by David Carr titled "How Obama Tapped into Social Network's Power", he writes that "Mr Obama [had] not just a political base, but a database, millions of names of supporters who can be engaged almost instantly". That basically sums up the power of social networking and how it can even help the President of the United States.

Privacy is a big issue with the social networking sites. There are privacy settings that the user can put in place but are all your information that you put online actually safe? There are probably ways around everything if you really wanted to exploit something, especially with the growing popularity of social networking. There are always people out there trying to do harm.
All in all, I believe social networking has come a long way in the last few years and am interested in how it grows in the future. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a video streaming feature in the future on these sites where you can see what people are doing at any moment because we are already doing that via text.