Blog Social Networking

The expansion of social networking technologies has a significant effect on both corporations and individuals. We can say that there are many benefits to these technologies and ways to use them, but we also shouldn't forget about some drawbacks. Social networking platforms create spaces for corporations and individuals to interact with others, or to find certain people and possibly get things done in a faster manner.

One way corporations can really use social networking is the use of a recruitment site such as "Linkedin". According to the article "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" by Frank Langfitt; such a website contains accounts of millions of professionals and willing recruits spread across different states and even countries. It makes it easier for both, the individuals who are looking for work and for the hiring company. Companies can easily filter trough possible recruits to find the right person matching the job type. Corporations can market themselves more easily. This makes job search, recruit search and hiring process much faster and efficient.

Another corporate way, just bit more specific, is the use of social networking technologies in the medical field. Thanks to platforms like "Sermo", doctors and physicians around the globe can connect with each other, creating huge learning space which contributes to the improvements in medicine all over the world. Medicine is a field which is constantly changing due to new findings and technology, therefore such sites are crucial in order to spread the knowledge all around.

As for individuals, social networking technologies can provide support in multiple ways. For one, people can meet new people, stay in contact with others and overall engage in an online community/social environment. Places like "Facebook" create spaces for people to do just that, to build relationships and communicate in all kind of ways. In the article "Brave New World of Digital Intimacy", Clive Thompson states that with "news feed" which is like a "social gazette", people get to know about all kinds of changes, posts, updates from their friends on Facebook, all under one place. This is an amazing tool as it allows people to constantly be updated about all their friends and points of interests in a very efficient manner. This encourages further communication and the creation of new posts, which provides the idea that everyone will be able to know about it.

There are multiple benefits to social networking technologies as stated above. People and corporations can engage in communities, conveniently browse through candidates, stay connected in different ways and make certain things done more efficiently, and possibly on a larger scale; but there also might be some drawbacks to social networking. People who are concerned with their privacy might be exposed to cyber-bullying, online profile-based marketing, data collection without true consent, vulnerability to hackers, judgment profiling based on the graphical image. Certain people may experience it harder to get recruited because the employers don't like their facebook look or page. 

In my opinion, there are way more benefits to social networking technologies than the negatives. I would recommend being cautious, not agreeing to all terms, not creating accounts in as many places as one can, and you should be fine. I would like to see these technologies to evolve in a virtual reality way. It would be nice to get hired online, put some kind of headset on, eliminating the need to travel to a different country; and see the real person in a virtual world who will give you the final interview. I would love to see the day where virtual reality where all human senses, maybe with the exception of pain category, would be utilized.

Thanks for reading!

Karol