So we know the "big three,"right? Well, it always use to be Myspace, Facebook, Twitter. But as Seth Myers said, Myspace is more like the "abandoned amusement park" of social networking sites. Have you actually logged into your Myspace account in the last, oh lets say, five years? If you did, you would probably be mortified at where your life was back then. Go ahead and try it, I dare you.
Myspace was the go-to website in the early 2000's, and really was the birth of social-networking sites. Then one day, id say it was probably around 2007/2008, my friends started to join this website called Facebook. The thing was, at the time, very bare-bones and only available to people enrolled in college. I seriously thought to myself "theres no way this thing is going to last, and it definitely wont put a dent in the myspace juggernaut." Myspace was cleaner, nicer, easier to look at. Most of all, EVERYONE could use it. It was easy to upload photos, all you had to have was a digital camera, usb cable, and patience while the files converted onto your computer. Well, as you probably know, I was wrong, and nowadays myspace looks old and tired. Facebook, on the other hand, is super easy to use, accessible to everyone (even parents), and people can post comments or pictures from the phone in their pocket. I have noticed more and more artists still turn to myspace to promote their albums, and advertisers still use it, but myspace really is on life support.
About two years ago I started to notice the same thing happening with Twitter. I had really just gotten the hang of this Facebook thing, and now more and more buzz was starting to form about Twitter. At first, it seemed like a very "Hollywood" thing to do. Mostly celebrities and other media talking heads were commenting about their "Tweets" and "Twitter accounts." After all, who else other than celebrities could post a small blurb about a moment in their life and have it be interesting? Then the craze started to catch on, and now everyone seems to be on twitter, tweeting about events and uploading pictures. It's even more instantaneous than Facebook, but unlike Facebook, the characters are limited so you had better make every word count. Twitter also gives people the ability to re-tweet something someone else said, allowing other people to "follow" that additional person. Its almost like a virus that just keeps spreading. Just recently, advertisers have caught on to the Twitter craze, and I'm beginning to see more and more "sponsored links" popping up on my feed. The biggest advantage of Twitter is the accessibility to people you would otherwise have absolutely no access to. For instance, the other day The Rock ate a stack of twenty pancakes. How else would I have known that other than through Twitter?
The most recent social networking site to emerge is Instagram. Instagram is dedicated to really just getting to the core of a post: the picture. It self-expression in its most visual form, with just enough room for a small blurb. Once again, its hard to believe something like Instagram will ever be as popular as Facebook or Twitter, but hey, I've been pretty wrong in my assumptions in the past, so it will be interesting to see where this will go as well.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Social Networking
Social networking has been both a blessing and a curse to internet users. Social networking, especially in the business I have decided to pursue, broadcasting, is essential to building connections amongst large numbers of people in any public sphere. Its a tremendous way to connect with other people in your community, and to stay connected with those people,many of whom will eventually help you achieve goals that would be impossible without such a tool.
Social networking has been a big plus in the advertising community. Through websites such a Facebook, advertisers can pinpoint the exact communites and people that would be interested in buying their product. (known as Target Marketing) It has also been a huge advantage to politicians looking to gain that political edge. I can tell you first hand, signing up for a "free" bumper sticker comes with at least ten different daily e-mails reminding me to donate to a campaign or get out and vote. As David Carr writes, "As a result, when he arrives at 1600 Pennsylvania, Mr. Obama will have not just a political base, but a database, millions of names of supporters who can be engaged almost instantly. And there’s every reason to believe that he will use the network not just to campaign, but to govern." (Carr, How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks' Power)
The positives of social networking can also translate into negatives. For instance, when a person uses the internet and signs up for things or registers to select websites, they are giving up their freedom to privacy more than ever. The eye of "big brother" has never been bigger. Its safe to say that the average person is probably on at least ten different mailing-lists or big-corporate survey. Just recently, I was asked to drive to a local Marriot for a "huge job opportunity." The gentleman that asked me found me on Facebook and, through a scan conducted by his company, found I would be a likely candidate to enter into this corporate pyramid. After I quickly realized it was a scam, the same gentleman had contacted many of my friends as well. All of us, because of our affiliation with something we had done and/or purchased in the past, almost got duped into buying into a pyramid scheme that we would have never gotten out of. Marc Parry describes in his article, Who Cares About Facebook Privacy? Students Do, "The authors speculate that the increased privacy interest could come from public attention devoted to the subject, from more changes in Facebook’s default settings, or from prompts that Facebook shows users." (Parry)
It seems to me that social networking will continue to grow because most people are willing to give up their freedoms of privacy in order to get ahead in life, or even to just receive their fifteen minutes of fame.
Social networking has been a big plus in the advertising community. Through websites such a Facebook, advertisers can pinpoint the exact communites and people that would be interested in buying their product. (known as Target Marketing) It has also been a huge advantage to politicians looking to gain that political edge. I can tell you first hand, signing up for a "free" bumper sticker comes with at least ten different daily e-mails reminding me to donate to a campaign or get out and vote. As David Carr writes, "As a result, when he arrives at 1600 Pennsylvania, Mr. Obama will have not just a political base, but a database, millions of names of supporters who can be engaged almost instantly. And there’s every reason to believe that he will use the network not just to campaign, but to govern." (Carr, How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks' Power)
The positives of social networking can also translate into negatives. For instance, when a person uses the internet and signs up for things or registers to select websites, they are giving up their freedom to privacy more than ever. The eye of "big brother" has never been bigger. Its safe to say that the average person is probably on at least ten different mailing-lists or big-corporate survey. Just recently, I was asked to drive to a local Marriot for a "huge job opportunity." The gentleman that asked me found me on Facebook and, through a scan conducted by his company, found I would be a likely candidate to enter into this corporate pyramid. After I quickly realized it was a scam, the same gentleman had contacted many of my friends as well. All of us, because of our affiliation with something we had done and/or purchased in the past, almost got duped into buying into a pyramid scheme that we would have never gotten out of. Marc Parry describes in his article, Who Cares About Facebook Privacy? Students Do, "The authors speculate that the increased privacy interest could come from public attention devoted to the subject, from more changes in Facebook’s default settings, or from prompts that Facebook shows users." (Parry)
It seems to me that social networking will continue to grow because most people are willing to give up their freedoms of privacy in order to get ahead in life, or even to just receive their fifteen minutes of fame.
Blogs Versus Wikis
We live in a time where an individual's voice can be heard by many through the use of the internet. The two greatest platforms one can achieve a modern-day soap box are Wikis and Blogs.
Blogs are around twenty years old, and started almost as a grass-roots style of internet usage. As the article How can we Measure the Influence of the Blogospher by Kathy E. Gill,In the early 1990s, the Web promised active communities and social networks, sharing ideas and shaping new realities. Everyone who wished to be would be a publisher; democratization of information (and, consequently, power), would follow."(Gill) A blog enables the author to create posts ranging from how-to's to political opinions. It's mean to be a form of self-expression, a published document where other readers can view and often times submit a comment. Often times, dirt-sheets will utilize a blog to their advantage, giving up-to-date reports on celebrity's life off the silver screen. Out of the millions upon millions of blogs available on the internet, the top blog remains to be the Huffington Post which, to its credit, is often honored by mass media outlets as being a credible news source for information regarding not only Hollywood, but politics as well. It is, of course, followed by the today's answer for dirt-sheets, TMZ. (Which, contrary to what Jimmy Kimmel says, does not stand for The Mexican Zone) While these are huge-market blogs, anyone from anywhere on any budget can start a successful blog, as long as their content is valued enough.
Wikis, unlike blogs, are styled in such a way that many people can add, subtract, or contribute in a number of different ways to the original base content.Ezra Goodnoe describes wikis as,"In the corporate environment, wikis are best implemented behind a firewall for a wholly internal user base."(Goodnoe, How To Use Wikis for Business,2005).It's often used to arrange groups, plan events, and spread word amongst communities with the platform being opened up to one and all. The most popular wiki website is Wikileaks. Wikileaks is anarchy at its purist form and uses the digital media as a platform to fight corruption in all forms of government. It's most recent "leak"was about detainee policies and how the United States' military detention policies.
To see a list of the top blogs on the internet, go to
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/blogs
To visit Wikileaks, go to
http://wikileaks.org/
Really funny parody of wikileaks on SNL:
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/wikileaks-cold-open/1263417/
Blogs are around twenty years old, and started almost as a grass-roots style of internet usage. As the article How can we Measure the Influence of the Blogospher by Kathy E. Gill,In the early 1990s, the Web promised active communities and social networks, sharing ideas and shaping new realities. Everyone who wished to be would be a publisher; democratization of information (and, consequently, power), would follow."(Gill) A blog enables the author to create posts ranging from how-to's to political opinions. It's mean to be a form of self-expression, a published document where other readers can view and often times submit a comment. Often times, dirt-sheets will utilize a blog to their advantage, giving up-to-date reports on celebrity's life off the silver screen. Out of the millions upon millions of blogs available on the internet, the top blog remains to be the Huffington Post which, to its credit, is often honored by mass media outlets as being a credible news source for information regarding not only Hollywood, but politics as well. It is, of course, followed by the today's answer for dirt-sheets, TMZ. (Which, contrary to what Jimmy Kimmel says, does not stand for The Mexican Zone) While these are huge-market blogs, anyone from anywhere on any budget can start a successful blog, as long as their content is valued enough.
Wikis, unlike blogs, are styled in such a way that many people can add, subtract, or contribute in a number of different ways to the original base content.Ezra Goodnoe describes wikis as,"In the corporate environment, wikis are best implemented behind a firewall for a wholly internal user base."(Goodnoe, How To Use Wikis for Business,2005).It's often used to arrange groups, plan events, and spread word amongst communities with the platform being opened up to one and all. The most popular wiki website is Wikileaks. Wikileaks is anarchy at its purist form and uses the digital media as a platform to fight corruption in all forms of government. It's most recent "leak"was about detainee policies and how the United States' military detention policies.
To see a list of the top blogs on the internet, go to
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/blogs
To visit Wikileaks, go to
http://wikileaks.org/
Really funny parody of wikileaks on SNL:
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/wikileaks-cold-open/1263417/
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