Social Networking Sites

Facebook, twitter, and Instagram are the main 3 social networking sites that I go on, on a daily basis. I never used Myspace, being that I was young when it first came out. Facebook definitely used to be my top site to go to for the past 5 years. I loved posting statues, pictures, and comments on people's walls. When twitter came out though, I migrated there for the reason that I liked posting statuses. It's fun to express what you feel, and what you are doing at any particular moment. Facebook friends became less interested in reading status posts, aside from those who joined twitter as well. I fell out of twitter when Instagram arrived. Instagram is my go to site more then any other social networking site. I love posting pictures that interest me or pictures of me and my friends having a good time. I also love the fact that Instagram not only associates you with your followers, but it also branches out to people around the world that share your common interests. I totally fell out of Facebook and feel that many others did too. But being that it was my first social networking site, I will always go back to it, looking at updates, and posting things that interest me.

Social Networking

There are many different ways technologies can be used. Technology is beneficial for businesses and advertisement. People can broadcast business advertisements to people world wide. In the article, Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum by Stephen J. Dubner, I read about several different benefits of social networking. Political activities can form and spread by word of mouth through Facebook, where millions of people browse and learn new things everyday. Social networks such as, Facebook, are very important for college students. I for one admit I use Facebook a lot to ask fellow Brooklyn College students questions about classes or professors or to give others advice from my own experience. I am part of the Brooklyn College, "In the Know" group on Facebook. I found this group very helpful when looking to purchase books for college. Other students put up books for sale that they did not need anymore. The prices were much better then the ones I saw in the book stores. I was able to benefit from following the group and reading the posts people wrote. Also, I always say and believe that besides for my two or three best friends, I find it very helpful to form friendships with fellow college students on Facebook or even in class, or on campus. The reason for this is that we share the same college experiences and we can help each other in different ways. I will admit there can be a dark side to social media . In, "Brave New World of Digital Intimacy " by Clive Thompson, I read about when Facebook decided to add "Newsfeed" to its website. This gave people a chance to see their friends and acquaintances' updates without going out of their way to check out each friends page. I found this to be very helpful but also too much of a broadcast. I know on Facebook we are friends with who we want to be friends with, but not EVERYONE has to know that I went shopping today or that my Dr.'s appointment took way longer than expected. Sometimes you want only your close friends to see you updates. That's when I learned about the privacy feature on newsfeed allowing us to choose who we want and do not want seeing our updates. That sort of fixes the "dark side". Also, I do admit that although I freely speak my mind or post pictures of me and my friends at almost all the events we go to, it is sort of weird thinking everyone gets to know where I am at all times. Social Networking sort of got in the way of privacy in life and opened up a life where everyone can keep a tap on where you are, what you do, and who you hang out with. I found the article Being There: The subtle art of the Facebook update, by Virginia Heffernan, to be very funny. She spoke about the fact that in order to be a good facebook-er one must know what to update on their status, and what catches people's eyes most. She basically states that what makes a person cool is how they update their statuses. You can't look as though you tried to hard. The words have to seem jotted down and spit out on the spot in order to seem interesting and cool. I see these technologies continuing and becoming more prevalent in the future. People will be way more involved in social networking, because of its constant updates and improvements.

Blogs vs. Wikis

Blogs are personal web pages made by anyone, writing about what is on ones mind. I find blogs to be fun and interesting. It is nice to learn new things from people just like me. Blogs are written by all types of people whether they're famous or not. Some get lucky and their blog becomes a hit while others remain their same old selves. I was very shocked to learn that blogs can also help relay messages of drug raids and criminals to the police. In the article, Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid By MICHAEL WILSON, ones blog that had no intention of reaching police, got many readers and eventually the police were on top of the situation that was at hand. In the article, Wal-Mart Tastemakers Write a Blunt and Unfiltered Blog, I liked the idea Wal- Mart came up with in having a website where people can comment and give their opinions on products they like and dislike. It shows that they care about making their costumers happy. Wikipedias, on the other hand is a very different type of website. It is more of a website that gives information about anything and everything. It is sort of like a google, in that it can answer almost any question one has. However, I was surprised when I learned that wikis can be edited but anyone! It sort of gave me second thoughts on trusting this website for 100 percent validity. But, I also find it cool that everyone gets a chance to put their input as long as it is accurate, otherwise it will be re- edited by another reader. It is fun and a way to spread knowledge throughout the media world.