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Nov. 02 2011

Social Networking

By Mark Malinowski | Posted in Host Blogs | 1 Comment

Social networking sites have had a profound impact on our global society. Sites like Facebook and Twitter and have used to make abuse of power public, to malign an innocent person, in political campaigns, to advertise products and services, and the list goes on. Anyone with a “smart” phone can remain in constant touch with the world through these and other networking sites. I started using these two sites more out of curiosity than anything else. I just wanted to find out what all the fuss was about. I have to admit that thanks to Facebook and Twitter, I have reconnected with some old friends. Many of them I had lost touch with and was glad to reconnect with. Some, I would rather had not. Well, that’s what happens when you “put yourself out there.”

What I find truly interesting is how important these sites have become to some people. You see “tweets” from people on Twitter all the time saying things like, “just 150 more and I’ll have 1,000 followers! Please RT!” (RT, in the vernacular, means to basically re-tweet the message you received to all your followers. ) It seems to be very important to some people to have as many “followers” as possible. Just as some people on Facebook are constantly striving to get more and more “friends.” Apparently, quality isn’t an issue–only quantity. Are some people using the number of followers (or friends) they have a measure of self-worth? Is it possible to measure a person’s value like that? When Kim Kardashian has over 10 million (yes–10 MILLION) Twitter followers, doesn’t that kind of call the value of the whole thing into question? In the future, will job applications ask how many Twitter followers or Facebook friends one has? Where will it end? Right now, it’s a fun thing, but how much more pervasive (or invasive) will it become? Just thinkin’…

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Mark is WBJC's morning host. His full bio can be read here.

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