Uses of Social Networking

What are some ways (corporate and otherwise) that these technologies can be used? What are the benefits of these technologies to society? Be specific. Is there a "dark side"? Make sure to include your opinion of the way these technologies might evolve in the future.

The benefits of social networking technology are readily apparent. Although physical distance still exists, social networking has made it even easier for people from all over the world from different backgrounds and with different interests to contact each other as well as find people with the same interests even if they might not be living in the same state, country, or continent.

Social networking sites aren't just limited to friends and old classmates keeping track of one another, nor is it limited to bringing people with a common interest together. Today, social networking is used by businesses, researchers, and politicians to reach out to a younger audience. Businesses can use LinkedIn to find potential employees, researchers can use Facebook to study certain demographics, and politicians can use Twitter to garner support for their campaigns.

Cole W. Camplese, director of education-technology services at Pennsylvania State University, has shown that such technologies can even be used in the classroom. He did this by integrating Twitter into his classes, having one screen projecting class slides and another showing a direct feed of the students' notes that were being taken in class to encourage "new kinds of teaching in which students play a greater role and information is pulled in from outside the classroom walls."
Sites like Twitter have even been used to save lives. With the recent earthquake in Haiti, Twitter was used to help land a plane that was being blocked from providing much needed supplies to the victims.

This is not to say that social networking has made everything better, of course. Privacy is always a concern and, with sites like Twitter making it easier to send out information by reflex rather than with concious thinking, means that people have to be even more careful about what they do. In September of 2009, ABC News employees tweeted that President Obama had called Kanye West a jackass after interrupting Taylor West's acceptance speech. However, this comment was not made on the air, but when cameras weren't rolling and the President was just speaking his mind.

Furthermore, not all tweets necessarily hold useful information. According to Pear Analytics, 40.55 percent of all tweets are completely meaningless and hold no real information. For people trying to use Twitter as a source of news and information, it may be difficult for them to separate the useful messages from the junk.

I expect that in the near future, a cross between Twitter and YouTube might be possible in which people can post short videos to the Internet for rapid viewing. Cell phones are becoming more and more advanced with each generation of smart phones, so it's only a matter of time before something like this could become reality and helps with situations similar to the previously mentioned plane landing in Haiti.

Sources:
"The Wired Campus: Professor Encourages Students to Pass Notes During Class -- via Twitter", by Jeffrey R. Young, The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 8, 2009 (http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Professor-Encourages-Students/4619/)

"Twitter used to help land plane with aid for Haiti earthquake victims", by Helen Kennedy, Daily News, January 18, 2010. (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/01/18/2010-01-18_twitter_used_to_help_land_plane_with_aid_for_haiti_earthquake_victims.html)

"Obama, Kanye West and the trouble with Twitter", by Matea Gold, Los Angeles Times, September 16, 2009. (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-et-abctwitter16-2009sep16,0,3179288.story)

"40 percent of Twitter messages 'pointless babble': study", August 17, 2009. (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.80c182849ca932a32a5eda49e4fe1b02.3b1&show_article=1)

Social Networking Sites

Facebook
Target audience: Just about anyone, but geared more towards older teens and adults
Pros: Clean interface, fairly simple to use and customize, just about everybody uses it
Cons: No real control in terms of color scheme
Impressions: This is the only social networking site I actually use for the reasons mentioned in the pros. I don't care for all the buttons and games and random spam these games generate, but it's convenient for at least knowing that people from elementary school still exist.

MySpace
Target audience: Younger teens
Pros: Lots of customization options, color scheme changing available
Cons: Color scheme changing available
Impressions: I have never used this site and I never plan to. Just because there are options to change the color scheme of a page does not mean that the colors should be changed in such a way that even a unicorn would vomit at the sight of it.

Friendster
Target audience: Just about anyone (similar to Facebook)
Pros: Lots of easy customization options
Cons: Not very relevant in America compared to Facebook
Impressions: I haven't had much experience with this site, but it seems fairly similar to Facebook aside from not having as many people. Supposedly, the site is incredibly popular in Asia and is synonymous with the concept of social networking there.

LinkedIn
Target audience: Professionals
Pros: More professional/business-like for finding employers/employees, more customization options for finding business news relevant to you and your contacts
Cons: Less casual, fewer customization options for personal pages
Impressions: I haven't had much experience with this either, but I do plan to make a complete profile on this site once I have more time to.