Day: May 7, 2020

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The influence of technology on society

How technology shapes society

From the first text based bulletin boards created by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess in 1978 to the massive platforms today such as Facebook and WeChat, it could be argued that social networking has had an irreversible effect on society.  It has become an insatiable tool and companion for many an estimated two and a half billion Facebook users alone at time of writing (internetlivestats.com, n.d.).

Socially and economically it has changed the way people communicate and retrieve information and entertainment and interact with one another.

Nowhere has the change been more evident in terms of its effect than within the galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) industry. Libraries in particular have been quick to take on the new technology.

Enhancing the way we as professionals engage with our clients which allows them wider freedom to interact and access information and experience of connecting with their local library.

Libraries have embraced social networking technology such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Instagram and YouTube to enhance their online presence.

It has created a new avenue of providing new online training experiences and enhanced the information needs of the community of those in remote or socially disadvantaged areas. Additionally, it has opened opportunities for accessibility with the capacity of most social networks being compliant under the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative through providing audio transcripts, close captioning or tools like alternative image or audio descriptions as immediate examples (W3.org, 2018).

Social networking can not only be an effective communication tool, but also serves as a decisive business tool, especially in terms of employment.  As Segal discusses, over 70 percent of potential employers will review a person’s social media (Hhrm.org, 2020).

The flow on effect can also create a negative impact on the course of employment as seen in 2018 when director James Gunn was fired when old tweets resurfaced with alleged jokes of a highly offensive nature (ABC News, 2018).

Looking forward there are a three thing that will need to be considered for both organisation and individuals alike when engaging with social networking tools successfully:

  • Personal brand, which according to Peters, “everyone has the power to be their own brand and it is each person’s responsibility to promote their brand” (fast company.com, 1997).
  • Privacy, both for organisations as well as the individuals who they represent or use their products
  • Accessibility, in the rush to move forward we must be inclusive and not leave anyone behind

References

ABC News. (2018). Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn fired by Disney after tweets joking about rape, paedophilia resurface. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-21/james-gunn-fired-from-guardians-of-the-galaxy-over-tweets/10020902

Internetlivestats.com. (n.d.). Number of Facebook users. Retrieved from https://www.internetlivestats.com/

Peters, T. (1997). The brand called you. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/28905/brand-called-you

Segal, J. (2020). Legal trends social media use in hiring:assessing the risks. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/0914-social-media-hiring.aspx

W3.org. (2018). Accessibility. Retrieved from https://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/accessibility

 

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Social media and society – Journal analysis

American Behavioral Scientist article analysis

“Should I stay or should I go” poses an interesting and timely reminder with the upcoming November elections in America. The discussion of the positives and negatives of using social media and a particular focus on Facebook is somewhat timely.

The article looks into the Cambridge Analytica scandal where a private company was able to harvest personal information from Facebook users without their permission and the effect it had on people deciding to delete their profile or not.

Brown investigates the initial reaction to the scandal by focusing on the reactions of users aged 18 to 29, looking at if their reliance on the connectivity of the social media platform is more important than that of their personal privacy.

I find the paper supportive of DeRosa’s definitions of social network platforms being supportive of facilitating interaction between users (DeRosa, 2007).

Caci identifies a similar finding in that highly extroverted people tend to engage and disclose greater amount of information than an introverted user who may share concerns about misuse of personal information from an external source (Caci, 2019)

Looking at the author’s methodology for conducting his research, they have taken a standard qualitative collection of data by conducting interviews with a mixed group of respondents. I agree with the method used; however, I feel the limited range of subjects and the use of only one university campus location does not provide a sufficient breadth for a definitive result.  Although the information gathered from the group is credible, the reliability due to the limited size of respondents questions the quality of the data considering the scale of the scandal.

I am supportive in the conclusion that most users are not aware of the lucrative business behind their online presence. As Rosenburg discussed the scandal affected an estimated 50 million users, and not only made the company a substantial amount of money, it also potentially affected the federal US election results (Rosenburg, 2018). I feel that there is strong potential for the article to lead to further investigation and peer reviewed literature to discuss the concerns of social media users and their understanding of privacy terms and conditions.

References

Caci, B., Cardaci, M., & Miceli, S. (2019). Development and Maintenance of Self-Disclosure on Facebook: The Role of Personality Traits. SAGE Open, 9(2), SAGE Open, June 2019, Vol.9(2).

De Rosa, C. (2007) OCLC xiv Sharing, privacy and trust in our networked world: a report to the OCLC Membership. Retrieved from https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/reports/pdfs/sharing.pdf

Rosenburg, M. &Confessore, N. & Cadwalladr, C. (2018, March 17). How Trump consultants exploited the Facebook data of millions. Retrieved from. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-trump-campaign.html