Social Net'g

When Myspace first came out, i was still in high school, and it was the cool thing to have. Posting all sorts of pictures of yourself, and keeping up with your friends as you posted on their page. Then it began evolving into a more personal page where you could choose a certain amount of friends( your favorite people) who would be displayed on your home page, and you could edit the background to make it your own. Then it quickly went down hill and in came Facebook. At first it was a tool that colleges were using to allow students to meet each other and create a better college community. You would friend people who you knew or who went to your school, and read their posting and comment on them. Then it got opened to the rest of the public and from there on it seems like it turned into one giant marketing scheme for companies.

Where time you visit a website they always have an area where they want you to like them on Facebook, or to follow them on Twitter. The evolution of these websites has allowed for companies to  market their products for free on peoples websites, and will sometimes offer a discount if you show them some recognition on your social media website. Now where do these companies take it from here? According to the article "Real Facebook shop in virtual world breathes life into Mars" it seems like companies will now try and sell you tangible products on Facebook. The idea seems brilliant if it is executed correctly. Sure not every one will do it, but things like candy and flowers would be great to be able to send to a loved one on their birthday, valentines days, or when they are sick. It would be convenient if you log on to Facebook and you see that your anniversary is coming up, to just click on a link with out leaving the website to have flowers sent to your loved one. 

But social media was created for communicating with other people, whether it be people you already know, or meeting new people. For this reason companies like IBM have created their own social media site "Beehive" to encourage their employees to connect with each other and increase team work and communication (IS Myspace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum). Companies know that among different departments their could be a lack of communication even though they are suppose to work together because they share common goals, and by implementing a social website, they hope to bridge the gap among their employees and have an increase in collaboration. 

Although social media websites are headed in the right direction with helping people connected and allowing a strong sense of community to build at work, at home, and with your friends, their is a downside to it. Censorship is a difficult aspect to control on websites such as Facebook and Twitter. If you are a high school student it can be very easy to fall into when is known as cyber bullying. Leaving school you to mean that you didn't have to be around the classmates that you may not have liked, but it is difficult to avoid people now when they can just log on and bother you online as well. Another challenge with social media is that people have taken a huge trust on what they read on blogs, or on Facebook with out doing any real research. Some people think that because they see things on a website that it is a fact. Any one can publish anything on the internet and knowing your source is a very important thing. Many people forget that wikipedia.org can be edited by any one, so not everything on that website is one hundred percent accurate.