Social Networking

Social networking is the process of communication in order to meet and establish somewhat of a connection between other people. In today's day and age, social networking revolves around social media; forming a new bonds and relationship with someone is embraced by new media and the applications with the internet.

Social networking technology can be used in many ways. One is for personal use, such as creating a personal blog or twitter to rant out your thoughts and opinions. Another is to expand your network of connections, Linkedin and Monster are some examples of professional uses of social networking. Those who want to pursue their career can list themselves on the "bulletin board" and those who seek potential employees can browse for open candidates. Not only are social networking technologies beneficial in a personal space, but large corporations also utilize them. In the article Why is Nissan Mimicking MySpace? Nissan launched a social networking website called N-Square, in promises to achieve more by lessening the gap between communication. Such a tool allows employees to make suggestions, comments and give advice to co-workers.

Like many great utilities, social networking comes with many drawbacks as well. The "dark side" to social networking is not one that can simply be ignored. In the article Antisocial Networking, Stout points out a couple of maleficent contributing factors of social networking. It is diminishing real life values of meeting other people face to face. One loses the capabilities to communicate effectively in person. Oral speech and shyness also poses as a negativity in social networking through new media. Cyber bullying is another aspect that is occurring more and more and it's not just simply hurt feelings; victims have committed mass murders and suicides because of insecurity and lack of self esteem hiding behind an invisible barrier- the internet anonymity. A lost of privacy also hosts as a threat to social networking. It is a two way encounter that can backfire on either side. Inside information has been leaked from large corporations countless times by hackers, identity theft, and online scamming schemes resulting from tracking social networking websites are just a handful possible outcomes. There have been many accounts in which employees were fired because personal social networking information get leaked to their employers.

Despite all the shortcomings, I believe social networking is beneficial to society as a whole. More voices are heard, there is a greater opportunity for everyone's "self label" to be seen by a wider audience (whether this is positive or not depends on the scenario). I think that social networking has already reached its pinnacle, that it can not evolve very much any further. Aside from a few tweaks here and there, what possible way is there to reduce the already short amount of time it takes to form a chat session across the world with a hundred different people? In the end, it will still rely on the internet. I think social networking has achieved its goal and hit its climax. After all, social networking is a form of reducing time it takes to reach an audience and in the end, it is just a way of communication. Unless we come up with some gadget that can be implanted into our brains and enable telepathy, communication can't get any faster.