Social interaction in the 21’st century
November 21, 2009
Today’s social-media-madness is on the edge of interfere in every peoples private life. If it isn’t Facebook it’s Twitter, Google or MySpace. Nothing interests people more than other people and through mega-social networking sites like these, people might feel obligated to update their status, thoughts and pictures, which can be a negative factor to the professional reputation.
“What is a friend?” is asked in the article “Facebook dumbing friendships down?” The answer is hard to think of when you should be “friends” with everyone these days. The author Neil Seeman discusses the fragile relationship between a doctor and his patient online.
I don’t understand why people might find it rude to deny certain casual friendships. Young people today are friends on the network even if they only met once and probably will they never meet again. Where does this “friend-hysteria” come from? Why do people think it’s so important to have 800 casual friends on Facebook instead of 100 close friends?
Google is not only a search engine anymore. You can Google your friends, your date and even your teacher by curiosity, and information can appear such as blogs, videos, webpage’s, interviews etc. Using social media is a great way to promote information about companies, products, people and services. But has it gone too far? In the article “Digital PR strategies: Using…” they talk about the significant opportunities the social media gives marketers. “It can have a big influence on the online brand visibility and reputation”.
Consumers like it easy. Companies in the social media environment probably get more costumers and become more popular than others which are positive aspects of their business. One negative factor is that what’s posted on Google isn’t previewed. Inappropriate things which can harm a reputation can get published and stays there like a permanent footprint.
I ask myself how much privacy every human being will have in the future. If the hysteria we experience today keeps on going like it does, then probably not much. We don’t know how the future will turn out to be. We can only wait and see.
“Facebook dumbing friendships down? – Neil Seeman, National Post”.
“Digital PR strategies: Using social media to influence online brad visibility and reputation”.
November 22, 2009 at 19:40
I think it’s quite scary, the fact that everyone can google you and find something that’s in-correct, because as you write, it isn’t pre-viewed. You can also regret something that you’ve done in the past and wants to forget but because of the internet you will always get reminded. Good and interesting article!
November 27, 2009 at 10:20
This is a really well-written blog article. And I can recognize myself in the situation where there are friend requests from people I hardly can remember I’ve met and even talked to. My father also asked me, as he’s new to facebook, where to stake out boundaries for whom to accept as a friend. I have to admit I hardly even have any answer. Social networking isn’t there to replace all your physical contacts to your closest friends, but to make it possible to have some sort of relationship to those who are long gone.
November 28, 2009 at 18:07
It’s an important question you ask, about how much privacy we will have in the future. I’m all for being transparent on the Internet, but it is a bit strange than no-one seems to feel the need to have secrets anymore. But as long as we think about and discuss questions like this one and how we should act on the Internet I don’t think that we need to worry too much about the future.