Saturday, March 20, 2010
Cheri Zaras-Reflection
I learned alot in the video and slides on Social Networking sites. Classmates.com was one of the first social networking sites I have ever used a few years ago. It was exciting to find people I hadn’t talked to in years but it was short lived for me because it seemed it was hard to stay connected because of a monthly cost to be joined to be part of the site. MySpace always has scared me being the mom of a teenage daughter and hearing so many negative things about the dangers of it. I monitored my daughter’s use of it when it first came out and now it’s already obsolete in our household because Facebook is the new replacement for us. I consider Facebook a curse and a blessing. I was introduced to it by my 55 year old friend about a year ago. I consider myself a participant user, it’s fun and I like checking it briefly a few times a day but I don’t feel compelled to have it connected to my phone so I have to know everyone’s status updates, that’s just too much! I wish I never introduced it to my husband because now he is borderline obsessive with it! Twitter holds no interest for me; I feel it’s intrusive to have my phone sending me messages all day letting me know what my friends are doing. If I want to know what my friends are doing I call them or I just check Facebook. I don’t think Twitter will last long. There are so many other better social networking sites. The concept of Ning is scary to me. I just have no desire to talk to someone unless I know their identity. I guess it’s just the cautious side of me. I think that the Bebo panic button sounds like a great idea. I would just be worried about it being used for the wrong reasons, but I think it’s a great idea to protect our kids. But parents need to take a more proactive role in guarding what their kids are doing. I don’t think its snooping but having the computer in a public place is the best way to monitor and keep them safe! I found it very interesting that the creator of Facebook, Mark Zucherberg is only 23 years old. That’s amazing to have thought of this technology concept that has changed all our lives was created by such a young guy. I didn’t know that Microsoft has invested $240 billion in Facebook. That shows once again that Microsoft once again is keeping ahead of the game in technology and sees that Facebook is an awesome tool in making money and connecting millions of people. I haven’t really had anything personal affect me in the use of Facebook but I have heard of several acquaintance that have gotten divorced because of direct personal information they posted to Facebook that should have not been advertised. To me posting personal information on Facebook is like screaming information to the world and you have to be careful what you say or it will come back to bite you! If you are a very private person and do not like people knowing your business then you have to very careful what you post because once that information is out there pretty much anyone can access it!! I guess I’m amazed at how peoples judgment is so lapsed when they are posting negative information about employers while they are working, that’s just blatant stupidity to me, are you looking to get fired?
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I understand your statement about peoples lack of good judgement when it comes to status updates. I think people are in their comfort zones and forget that posting their "wicked" thoughts goes out to many people. Sometimes the wrong people. You just can't say your every thought out loud and there is no way to edit or delete it once you hit the send button!
ReplyDeleteThere have been a bunch of cases of people getting fired for what they have on their facebook, whether it is posts they made or photos. I personally think that anything you wouldn't say in front of your whole family on Thanksgiving, probably shouldn't go on facebook either.
ReplyDeleteI too am on Classmates.com but only to keep up with class reunions and private e-mails.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, my kids were mostly grown before MySpace came along and they weren't interested in it, but I know that at least half of them now have Facebook accounts.
I chuckled over your comment about your husband as I couldn't get my husband to use the computer for years (other than at work). Once he was introduced to on-line networking through the simple means of e-mails, he is borderline obsessive as well.
I don't know how long Twitter may last, but according to research reports, it appears to be causing more stress and "burn out" among the younger generations than any other form of social networking. I for one, would not add it to my phone, etc. as I don't want the "umbilical cord syndrome" with me all the time.
My thoughts were the same as yours when I heard that Microsoft invested so heavily into Facebook and remains in the forefront of technology. Even though people may not want a personal Facebook account, it is exciting to be able to get onto their public library (or academic) site and see all the latest news going on there and elsewhere. Have you checked out our Todd Library site yet? Just another great tool for our profession.
I might have missed something from the lecture about "Ning," or maybe you already knew about it, but I was wondering why you're skeptical about that site. Is that one where you create a "persona" that represents you & don't go by who you really are? From what I understood from the lecture it does have more privacy because you have to be invited & the network creator has control over what other users can access...
ReplyDeleteI also think Mark Zuckerberg's story is interesting, and I wonder if he will end up crashing at some point because of his youth/inexperience (kind of like when Steve Jobs was fired from Apple). It's usually hard when something takes off in a huge way and becomes bigger than the creator.