In this short YouTube video, it explains what social networking is and how the use of social networking is used in our everyday lives to expand our networks broader than we could ever have imagined.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Introduction
In this short YouTube video, it explains what social networking is and how the use of social networking is used in our everyday lives to expand our networks broader than we could ever have imagined.
Future of Social Networking - Education in the Past
Although the real coming of social networks as we know it today consist of sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, and even Twitter, education and social networking have gone a long way back, even before the new millennium.
When we think of education “in the past”, some people might conceive of the old one room school-house where children of all ages were taught by one teacher. In this case, although education through the use of social networks was not incorporated until very much later, what is called “Email Discussion Lists” was created in the 1970’s, in which email messages were able to be forwarded to a group of people, rather than just one person (Carvin 12). Not too long after, what was known as the “Big Sky Telegraph” was developed by Frank Odasz in 1988, which “[was] based at Western Montana College ... [and] [was] [a] distance learning network for rural educators ... [that] later incorporated bulletin board, collaborative workspaces, messaging, etc” (Carvin 16). The following link below is an article which goes into depth about the Big Sky Telegraph and its uses.
Eventually, social networks began to rise and find their place in the cyber-world, which allowed for more ease, flexibility, and a new way for education to be carried out, other than within the four walls of a classroom.
Written by Bertina Tan
Written by Bertina Tan
Future of Social Networking - Education in the Present
Social networking has become a popular universal phenomenon in our world today, and has already had, and will continue to have an impact on shaping education in the future.
With the creation of online courses that post-secondary students in university and college are able to take, this has pushed education to further places. Online classrooms have also allowed both teachers and students to communicate and share ideas and resources more efficiently. The following link gives a brief but in-depth insight into the benefits that social networking has in its integration with education today.
Podcasting has also shown to be a beneficial way for students to enhance their learning experiences. It has allowed students to be able to use different types of learning styles in order to learn about content, and has helped them to “learn lifelong learning skills through self-directed learning, co-learning and facilitated learning with teachers and [other] students” (Burbules and Thibert, par. 13). In addition, podcasts can be posted online for students to download for their own reference. The following YouTube video provides more information on the use of podcasting within the field of education.
Finally, the use of blogs have been expanded upon, with the use of information, pictures, podcasts, and links, these have been posted on blogs and can be used to elaborate on information in order to share with students to assist them in their learning of particular content.
As these are numerous ways of sharing and communicating information through networking, education has also already incorporated itself into sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, and will begin to advance in the near future.
Written by Bertina Tan
With the creation of online courses that post-secondary students in university and college are able to take, this has pushed education to further places. Online classrooms have also allowed both teachers and students to communicate and share ideas and resources more efficiently. The following link gives a brief but in-depth insight into the benefits that social networking has in its integration with education today.
Instant messaging and online chat-rooms have also played a role towards shaping education as we see it today. Since education does not always take place within the classroom setting in this day and age, online classrooms have become a beneficial way to enhance education. The integration of chat-rooms and instant messaging systems through online classrooms allow students to communicate with one another and share thoughts and ideas to gain different insights towards other types of perspectives of a certain topic.
Podcasting has also shown to be a beneficial way for students to enhance their learning experiences. It has allowed students to be able to use different types of learning styles in order to learn about content, and has helped them to “learn lifelong learning skills through self-directed learning, co-learning and facilitated learning with teachers and [other] students” (Burbules and Thibert, par. 13). In addition, podcasts can be posted online for students to download for their own reference. The following YouTube video provides more information on the use of podcasting within the field of education.
Finally, the use of blogs have been expanded upon, with the use of information, pictures, podcasts, and links, these have been posted on blogs and can be used to elaborate on information in order to share with students to assist them in their learning of particular content.
As these are numerous ways of sharing and communicating information through networking, education has also already incorporated itself into sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, and will begin to advance in the near future.
Written by Bertina Tan
Future of Social Networking: Personal Life - Twitter
Maci Bookout and son Bentley from MTV's hit television show Teen Mom
In the past, celebrities weren’t able to communicate with their fans on a personal level, unless they scheduled a meet and greet at some time in their careers. Now however, with the convenience of social networking websites such as Twitter, celebrities are able to connect with fans instantaneously. With the notion of celebrities using Twitter openly to connect with fans from all over the world, identity issues arise in the midst of the countless updates written per day. With more and more celebrities joining the Twitter-bandwagon, the more difficult it becomes to verify with Twitter which accounts are phoney and which accounts are deemed as authentic. For this reason, Twitter implemented their verification checks to celebrities that actually have an account on Twitter and are personally using it. For the celebrities who have had their accounts verified by Twitter such as model, businesswoman, and reality television star Kim Kardashian, millions of fans are able to interact with their favourite celebrities directly and confidently knowing it is actually she. Kim Kardashian accounts for more than 5 million followers and growing on a daily basis.
However, what about those who are just starting out on Twitter and have accounts already made for them? MTV’s Maci Bookout from the show Teen Mom already has the reality of her life broadcasted on television for all of America and Canada to see once a week. Over time, Maci’s popularity on the hit television show has convinced fans to create a number of fake twitter accounts, posing to be Maci Bookout. Although Maci still sees herself as just an ordinary girl, fans have still taken the time to create accounts for her. The fight to win over as many followers as possible has led the creators of the fake accounts into tweeting things like “this is the real maci bookout!! Make sure to follow me” and “okay, this is the last time I am saying this. IF YOU THINK I’M FAKE THEN DELETE ME ALREADY!!!!”. So how do we determine which one is actually real and which ones are bogus when Twitter has not identified the differences of these accounts yet?
Unfortunately, there isn’t a way. Fans have to look through all of the twitter accounts made and hope that one of them will become a verified account. This identity crisis does not just carry on from major celebrities to rising ones, but from the most ordinary people. This example of Maci Bookout just goes to show that although sites like Twitter can be fun and a simple and quick way to connect to many different people all at once, it is not always the most efficient way because we do not always know whom we are talking to.
Aside from the identity issues that arise with Twitter, the website is also used for a number of things. News stories are constantly being told as they are happening on Twitter. For example, the earthquake that occurred in China was being told as it was happening and thus coverage of the story was brought to the world quicker than it ever would have been if Twitter did not exist.
The present state of Twitter in all its glory and popularity only goes to show how much more convenient it will become to all of us and how much of an impact it will create on society in the future. The dependence of Twitter to attain news will come quicker than turning on the television or radio. We will look towards these forms of social media to be informed of all events occurring in the world as they are happening.
Links:
Written by Shelley Luc
Future of Social Networking: Personal Life - YouTube
The slogan “broadcast yourself” is definitely true to its words when depicting an imagery of what YouTube is and what the users who create accounts on YouTube are trying to do. Thousands of people that we know as the “average Joe” has created accounts on YouTube, trying to promote and advertise themselves for the entire world to see what they are made of. Popular stars such as Justin Bieber, Mia Rose and Esmee Denters have all come out of YouTube with stardom that will follow them for the rest of their lives and has changed the way the “average Joe” is depicted on YouTube. It presents YouTube as an opportunity for the average person to someday be recognized and become famous stars in the Hollywood world.
A present real life example of how an average person created an account on YouTube and is now globally recognized is Kevin Wu, or better known as YouTube’s online comedian KevJumba. Although Kevin is not a singer of any kind and is not a millionaire celebrity with millions of fans like pop star sensation Justin Bieber, Kevin has accumulated more than one million subscribers world wide and received more than one hundred million collective video views since creating his videos in his junior year of high school. As his popularity continued to ascend at a rapid rate, the money Kevin was making began to accumulate as well. With the knowledge of earning a substantiate amount of money off of YouTube, Kevin used this opportunity to create a charity account in the name of “JumbaFund” where he used the revenue he made off of ads to donate to charity for each video he posted. Both his charity channel and personal channel are widely successful and continue to rake in more and more viewers and subscribers on a daily basis. In addition to his success on YouTube, Kevin and his father (whom also become well established on YouTube from his appearances in Kevin's videos) was granted the opportunity to be on the CBS hit television show The Amazing Race, currently on air.
However, with the fame from his YouTube channel, Kevin faced some personal challenges as well. In Kevin’s real world, it was time to graduate from high school and move onto university. As his viewers followed him closely, they too recognized the change in his life and began questioning where he was going to go to school. More questions about his personal life began to surface and the commencement of a privacy paradox in relation to his online YouTube life and his personal life was prevalent. Viewers wanted to know everything about him, from where he was going to attend, where his lived at the moment, what high school he was graduating from, to if there was a significant other in his life, etc. It was hard for Kevin to keep up with the attention, and soon a break was taken from the YouTube celebrity where he admittedly told his fans that it was overwhelming responsibility having a YouTube channel. The security issue of his life obviously had a toll on his YouTube experience in the end.
As this illustration of Kevin Wu exemplifies, YouTube can open very large windows and doors of opportunity for the every day person. It has in the past with stars such as Justin Bieber, and it will continue to do so for many people looking to find a way to show off their talents. It will most definitely not be surprising if more singers are signed to big record labels in the future because of YouTube, or are widely recognized across the globe for their ability to make others laugh like KevJumba. YouTube in the year 2020 will continue to be the prime destination for just about every kind of video and even more forms of communication through the art of video creation will be brought to life on YouTube.
Below is an example of one of the videos posted by Kevin Wu on the JumbaFund Charity Channel, announcing the amount they made over a month and where the proceeds were going to.
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Written by Shelley Luc
Future of Social Networking: Personal Life - Facebook
Facebook, launched in 2004 by creator Mark Zuckerberg, may be defined as a social networking website that is used globally, accounting for 500 million active users. Facebook serves as one of the most popular websites used in the twenty first century, and the number of accounts created on a daily basis continues to grow at a rapid pace. Facebook’s popularity has sky rocketed in the recent years, however along with this popularity has brought about issues pertaining to real world identities in the past and will likely continue into the future.
Identity disaggregation (the construction and maintenance of multiple choice identities on social networking sites) has become a substantiate issues on popular social networking sites such as Facebook. Although it is a relevant issue, members of social networking sites continue to practice identity disaggregation because it creates a high level social capital for oneself that they may likely be unable to gain in the real world. While identity aggregation is widely known and practiced, the matter becomes questionably relevant when someone who is not you are falsely creating your own identity on social networking websites.
Studies have shown that more than 80% of those who participate on social networks are aware of the privacy and identity issues at hand, but more than half of the participants admitted that they do not take the necessary precautions to actively protect themselves of identity theft issues. The following link shows an article that discusses findings from a study concerning social media identity theft and the implications of the actions people take while on the these sites: The truth about social media identity theft article
Studies have shown that more than 80% of those who participate on social networks are aware of the privacy and identity issues at hand, but more than half of the participants admitted that they do not take the necessary precautions to actively protect themselves of identity theft issues. The following link shows an article that discusses findings from a study concerning social media identity theft and the implications of the actions people take while on the these sites: The truth about social media identity theft article
An example of this incident on Facebook from the past is with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, an undergraduate at Oxford University and son of Benazir Bhutto, a leader in Pakistan’s politics. A fake Facebook profile of the student was created that established the personification of a laid back womanizer with the lack of faith in his own religion. When news companies got a hold of what had seemed to be Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s authentic Facebook profile, postings from the individual were being quoted and referenced in actual news stories. Eventually, when the news came out that the profile was a fake, big news companies such as ABC, Globe and Mail, Times magazine, etc published statements informing and apologizing to its readers to falsely concluded statements taken from the fake Facebook profile. Facebook had also removed the profile, and all others that claimed to be Bhutto without the consent of the people who created the account. It was as if Bhutto never existed on Facebook at all.
This exemplification of identity disaggregation on Facebook is an issue that is constantly practiced on a daily basis. This example in particular however, just goes to show that even creating an account for a public figure and reporting on events can become so vital that the information posted on these accounts can be quoted and referenced from news companies as actual facts. Although many stories such as this one and others who have faced the same problem such as Steve Webb (member of parliament in Britain), the problem is still prevalent and will continue to be in the future of all social networking websites.
Links:
Written by Shelley Luc
Future of social Networking: Professional Work Place
A past example of how social networking by using a blog has been effective in the work place was a blog written by Jeff Jarvis entitled “Dell Hell.” This blog inspired many to participate in the reviews of many products over the Internet. Jeff Jarvis’ “Dell Hell” blog was written from the perspective of a consumer who reported on his unfortunate experience with the Dell Company after purchasing a computer that was not up to par with his expectations. Jarvis’ blog about his experience with Dell’s poor customer service expanded to his theory on why Dell was doing so poorly in the economic world. Eventually, after Jarvis had deflated any type of good standing Dell had left, Michael Dell, creator of Dell, sat down with Jeff Jarvis for an interview in turn for his bad reviews and the interview was published in Business Week.
Eventually, by voicing his concerns about the product he received the poor customer service he endured during the process of “Dell Hell,” Jarvis was able to get in touch with the creator of the company and computer himself and was able to get the feedback he wanted to get. Although it might not have fixed his dissatisfaction with the computer itself completely, by Dell firstly recognizing that there was someone blogging about their incompetency’s, they were able to keep Jarvis’ loyalty as a consumer. From this experience, Dell was able to reach out to their other consumers by creating “Direct2Dell” blog.
The following link from Doc Stoc gives a thorough explanation of the Dell Hell experience and the impact of social media in this controversy: Doc Stoc: Case Study Dell Hell
In this short YouTube clip, Richard Binhammer - Dell's social media expert explains how Dell's experience with "Dell Hell" has helped the company transform the way they use various forms of social media and connecting to its consumers.
The following link from Doc Stoc gives a thorough explanation of the Dell Hell experience and the impact of social media in this controversy: Doc Stoc: Case Study Dell Hell
In this short YouTube clip, Richard Binhammer - Dell's social media expert explains how Dell's experience with "Dell Hell" has helped the company transform the way they use various forms of social media and connecting to its consumers.
In relation to the future of social networking, with the use of social networking sites like blogs in reviewing products by consumers themselves, companies will be able to connect to the consumers more effectively. Companies will also be able to ensure their consumers that they are actually listening and reading what they are suggesting instead of having consumers list their concerns without hearing anything back from the company at all. In the year 2020, the future of social networking will bring the consumer and the producer even closer together than it already is. Companies will depend fully on the needs of the consumer, and customer satisfaction in that way will exponentially ascend.
Reference:
Fraser, M., Dutta, S. (2008). Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom: How social networking will change your life, work and world.
Fraser, M., Dutta, S. (2008). Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom: How social networking will change your life, work and world.
Links:
Written by Shelley Luc
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