Blog Social Networking

Social networking has brought people around the world closer. It allows people to communicate much more easily, closing gaps between people. Family from different continents can communicate more easily. It is also more quick and efficient. A person can reach someone instantly by posting a comment or sending a message and as soon as the person sees the message they can respond as well with as much speed. This is a major improvement from typical snail mail which would require a wait time for a message to be sent and then to get an answer as well. One can send as much or as little as possible and easily receive as well. Social networking allows for interaction with a wide audience as well to further elaborate on families being able to communicate no matter how geographically distanced they are. This can also go for celebrities and businesses. Businesses can interact with fans/consumers much more easily through social networking. The people can be heard much more easily and efficiently as opposed to having to make surveys, write letters, etc. Businesses can post any updates on job openings, new locations, new services, giveaways, deals, and so on. It allows them to interact with consumers and the community.
There is a dark side to social networking however. One thing that is controversial in social networking is privacy. As mentioned in the Chicago Tribune article about the Zuckerberg family photo, it is possible for information/content that you may want to be private, to not exactly be so private due to privacy settings. They are not always straightforward and can be tough to navigate. They may also not guarantee privacy. So, sometimes it is up to the user of a site to know what to put and what not to put on social media because there are loopholes and such that can allow something that you want to be private, to actually become public and it is a very tough situation to face since as mentioned before, legally there are things such as loopholes or other things within the social network sites that protect them from legal action. From one of the older articles read for a previous blog about blogging and the downsides to it, cyberbullying was mentioned. This is also something that can be present in social networks as well. There is something that is a double edged sword when it comes to social networking which was sort of mentioned before. In the blog, "Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum" it was mentioned that studies were done which found that despite undergraduate students participating in Facebook, having friended many people whom they may not even know, they have high social capital due to this. It seems terrible to be "friends" with people you vaguely or don't even know at all but it is done for attaining information such as for jobs, school, etc. but also just to gain different perspectives as well which is valuable as well in many aspects.
I think that as seen already with how businesses are trying to adapt to social media, it will grow. Now people are even being hired to manage social media accounts of businesses to help maintain their image or keep consumers/the community updated on their ventures. I do not know exactly what else can happen with businesses and social media but I feel that the use of it will definitely grow in the future since it is efficient.