Social Media & Networking - Boon or Bane?

Social Media & NetworkingBoon or Bane?

What is it?!• Social Relation or social interaction, as described in social

science, is any relationship that exists between two or moreindividuals.

• Social Network is a social structure made up of a set of socialactors (such as individuals or organizations) and a set of thedyadic, i.e. two-way ties between these actors.

• Social Networking is the grouping of individuals into specificgroups like small communities or neighborhood subdivisions.Although social networking is possible in person, especially inthe workspace, universities, and high schools, it is mostpopular online.

• Social Networking Service (SNS) is a platform to build socialnetworks or social relations among people who shareinterests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections.

• Social Media is the interaction among people in which theycreate, share or exchange information and ideas in virtualcommunities and networks.

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A Brief History in Time- Social Networks have been supported via computer-

mediated communication since early online services, including Usenet, the ARPANET, ListServe and Bulletin Board Services (BBS).

- Many prototypical features of today’s social networking sites were also present in early web services such as generalized online communities and forums.

- Focus was on bringing people together to interact with each other through chat rooms.

- Users were encouraged to share personal information and ideas via personal webpages by providing easy-to-use publishing tools and free or inexpensive web space.

- User profiles became a central feature of social 3networking websites, allowing users to compile lists of “friends” and search for other users with similar interests.

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Types of Social NetworkingI. Social Networks – These are the most popular way of socialnetworking in the world today. Services that allow users to connectwith other people of similar interests and background. Usually theyconsist of a user profile, various ways to interact with other users,ability to set up groups and much more. The most used socialnetworks are Facebook and LinkedIn.

II. Social Media Sharing – Services that allow you to upload andshare various media such as pictures and video. Most serviceshave additional social features such as profiles, commenting, likesor dislikes. A majority of these sites run strong recommendersystems and make extensive use of machine learning. The mostpopular are YouTube, Flickr and Vimeo.

III. Microblogging – Social networks focused on short updates that arecontinuously pushed out to anyone subscribed to receive the updates or followers.The most popular services are Twitter and Sina Weibo of China.

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IV. Social News – Services that allow people to post various newsitems or links to outside articles and then allows it’s users to “vote” or“upvote” on the items. This voting is the core social aspect as the itemwith the most votes are displayed most prominently. Hence, thecommunity decides which news items get seen by more people. Themost popular are Digg and Reddit.

V. Bookmarking Sites – These are services that allow peopleto save, organize and manage links to various websites andresources around the internet. These links can then be taggedto make them easy to search and share. Most commonly usedare Delicious, StumbleUpon, Pocket and FlipBoard.

VI. Blog Communities & Forums – Online forums allow members tohold conversations by posting messages. There have been siteswhich have become social networks for Blogs and forums. The mostpopular are Tumblr and Pinterest.

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Personalized Social NetworkingA form of social networking made famous by instant messaging applicationson mobile devices. Initially led by BBM, the kind became widespread whenWhatsApp burst on the scene. Google’s Hangouts is used for group chatsand video conferencing. Skype is used for making internet calls whileYammer is used for Office chats.

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A great personal ephemeral app is Snapchat which overcomes the privacyissues by deleting your photo and video messages after a particularamount of time, generally ten seconds. Foursquare is another uniquemobile app which classifies places in real-time based on their locations.

The Internet EffectWhy social networking is explosive on the Web?The Internet is a global channel uniquely propositioned for masscommunication between people living in different parts of theworld.i. Reach – The Internet has the potential to reach everyone

connected to the web in just a matter of hours, and on amassive scale. Charlie Sheen had 900,000 followers in justunder 24 hours

ii. Simultaneity of Reception – The ability to transmit messagesto your audience at the same point of time as receiving aquery or request.

iii. Anonymity – It’s the only place on Earth where the sender andthe receiver can remain truly anonymous in a heterogeneousgroup of people.

iv. Dual Outreach – The Internet can be adapted for both narrowand mass audience depending on the individual’s needs. Youcan send a private text or broadcast a message to the wholeworld. © Yash Mittal 8

Mobile Meets SocialWhy Mobile is better for Social Networking?• Smartphones: The growing ubiquity of cell phones,

especially the rise of smartphones, has made socialnetworking just a finger tap away.

• Location-free: The main reason for social networkinggrowth on the mobile platform is its availability on thego. People can now connect to the web whereverthey want and not just in the comfort of their homesor at the office.

• Anytime: Another major advantage for socialnetworking on mobile is that its available wheneveryou want and not just while you’re sitting on acomputer.

• Cross-Platform: Since social networking is internetenabled, it doesn’t matter whether an app exists ornot. It works on all mobile devices irrespective of theversion or operating system.

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Social Benefits to MankindGovernment Applications• Quick and easy way for the government to get public opinion.• NASA has also taken advantage of a few social networking tools,

including Twitter and Flickr to aid the Review of U.S. Human SpaceFlight Plans Committee

• Government also uses social media to inform of Earthquakes beforethey happen, ex-When a 5.9-magnitude earthquake shook theNortheast in 2011, many New Yorkers learned about it on Twitter -seconds before the shaking actually started.

Business Applications• Social networks connect people at low cost; this can be beneficial

for entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to expand their contactbases.

• Companies can also use social networks for advertising in the form ofbanners and text

• Brand networking is a new way to capitalize on social trends as amarketing tool

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Dating applications• Many social networks provide an online environment for people to

communicate and exchange personal information for datingpurposes.

• Social networks do not necessarily have to be for dating; manyusers simply use it for keeping in touch with friends, and colleagues

• However, an important difference between social networks andonline dating services is the fact that online dating sites usuallyrequire a fee, where social networks are free.

• The number of Internet users in the United States that visit onlinedating sites has fallen from a peak of 21% in 2003 to 10% in 2006

Educational applications• The National School Brands Association reports that almost 60% of students

who use social networking talk about educational topics online, and more than50% specifically about schoolwork.

• Social networks are also emerging as online yearbooks, both public and private.• Sites are being built to foster relationships that include educational blogs, e-

portfolios, formal and ad hoc communities, as well as communication.

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Medical & Health Applications• A new trend is emerging with social networks created to help its members with

various physical and mental ailments.• For alcoholics and addicts, SoberCircle gives people in recovery the ability to

communicate with one another and strengthen their recovery through theencouragement of others who can relate to their situation.

• Some social networks aim to encourage healthy lifestyles in their users.

Social & Political Applications• Social networking sites have recently been of immense value in

heralding social and political movements.• Activists have credited social networking sites with providing a

platform for planning protest and sharing news.• By presenting a platform for thousands of people to instantaneously

share videos of events featuring brutality, social networking can be avital tool in starting revolutions on a large scale.

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Marketing• Social Media Marketing is a trial and error business, so

it would be advisable to put into place experimentsand do a lot of research before putting all of your eggsinto the Twitter basket!

• A success story is Dell and their recent InternetMarketing strategy. Their outlet site sells refurbishedPCs, and they post details about the newest ones ontheir Twitter feed. The company has generated$6.5million in revenue from this venture.

Entertainment• Going hand in hand with the ‘social’ element of Social Networking,

people sometimes go on purely for entertainment purposes.• The newest craze is on Facebook, where all the game applications

that have appeared over the last couple of years. The most popularof these is a game called Farmville which has managed to acquire72.9 MILLION users per month.

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Other Advantages• Social Networking can be a powerful engine for job

searches.• Social networking can be used to counteract terrorism and

organized crime• Social networking can be used to memorialize and honor

dead persons to keep memories and history that wouldotherwise fade alive.

• Social networking can be used to get difficult personalissues out of the closet in front of others so they can beexamined and evaluated, and people in trouble can garnersupport from their friends.

• Social networking can provide an extremely accessiblemedium for self expression to those with access tocomputer technology.

• Through Social Networking, students can establish contactwith entrepreneurs, corporate people and can gain valuableinformation from them.

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Man’s “Social” Misfortune

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Privacy Concerns• Think once before you publish something online.• These give rise to issues like Cyber bullying or

Internet harassment.• Scientists consider internet privacy (or the lack of it)

one of today's serious social issues.• Sociologists believe there is a need for legislation

concerning social networking privacy.• The laws would help but public awareness is also

very important.• The question is - Has it become necessary to

constantly be on guard?

Cyber Bullying

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• Cyberbullies post damaging information onblogs or websites.

• They might steal a classmate's online nameand spread lies or write hateful commentsabout them.

• Being embarrassed has a detrimental effecton a person's self-esteem.

• A story was on internet where stalking-typeemails were sent to a 16-year old, whoended up committing suicide.

• At least a dozen suicides have been linkedto internet harassment in just the last fewyears.

• Published information from the NationalCrime Prevention Council indicates that halfof all American teens are bullied online.

Cyber Bullying, is a form of harassment thatmakes use of the latest electronic technology.Primarily the harassment occurs on the web,but today's smart phones are being used toharass people, too.

Disinformation on Social Sites

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Many people are confused by what they seeor read on social networks like Facebook andmedia sites.• How to know the truth?• How to spot the liar?The answer :• To be Skeptical• When see a story, look for more reliable

sources.• Non-Journalistic sources should have

some kind of verifiable credentials.Think before Click!• A post on Facebook that seems incredible,

Google before you click!• Some posts are designed to send viruses

to the system you are working on.

Psychological Ill-Effects

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• With increasing popularity, people have beenspending an excessive amount of time on thesocial networking sites. And Internet addiction hasbecome an actual clinical disorder.

• Sites like Facebook and Twitter may providepeople with a false sense of connection thatultimately increases loneliness in people and canfoster feelings of sensitivity to disconnection.

• Networking activities that do not facilitate face-to-face interactions tend to erode trust andnegatively affect subject’s well being.

• High online interaction leads to loss of social skills.• A sizeable portion of the online population (about

28%) doe end up having a negative experience,some leaving scars for life.

Other Disadvantages

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• Negative impact on employability – People may end up losing jobsbecause of exposing inappropriate content

• Trolling – defacement of deceased person(s) tribute pages, namecalling, playing online pranks on volatile individuals

• Workers’ Rights – The types of speech on social networks which theworkers are protected from being fired for.

• Virtual Identity Suicide – Due to the privacy issues and negativeaspects of social networks, people decide to kill their onlineidentities and maintain complete abstinence.

• Break-ups – Sites such as Facebook are increasingly becomingpopular tools for ending relationships or blocking the otherindividual

• The dark side of Social Networking Service (SNS) usage is called“Social Overload”, which is cause by the extent of usage, number offriends, subjective social support forms, and type of relationship(online-only vs offline friends) while age only has an indirect effect.

Do’s & Don’ts on Social Networks

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Thank You

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