Social Networking Sites

Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Tumblr are all social networking websites that allows you to communicate and post comments, messages, pictures, videos, etc. Out of the many social network sites Facebook and Tumblr is my favorite. I go on Facebook to keep me updated with recent news, friends and family from afar, and to play games. I go on Tumblr to follow cool blogs from fashion, news, music and art. On tumblr, the site allows you to reblog, post, and comment on your own creative blog page. Social networking is definitely an outlet for expression and be updated on recent news.

Social Networking

Social Networking is the use of a dedicated web site to communicate informally with other members of the site, by posting messages, photographs, etc. Few examples of social networking websites are Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. The way social network is used is by a public web site that allows people to interact with each other whether is by text, pictures, or both. Upon being a member on a social networking site you can communicate to other members who can be friends, family, or even stranger. Social networking can be used corporately by many businesses can be a member on the web site and use the site to promote and sell their business. Most businesses use social networking as a form of marketing. The website allows them to advertise to other members on the site in which the business get many people to view and buy what they promote. The benefits of social networking are that you can communicate with friends or family who is not near to you by the click of a button. You feel more connected to your love ones because you could text, video call, or view up to date pictures of them through social networking websites. Also social networking can get your voice heard or make people become aware of an important problem. For an example, in the article “Tweeting Your Way to a Job” by Laura M. Holson states that Amanda Casgar wanted a job so badly that she used social networking sites to for her to get the position. Amanda tweeted, had a Facebook fan page, and posted videos in order to get the job and she eventually did. As well in the article “Twitter used to help land plane with aid for Haiti earthquake victims” by Helen Kennedy stated that doctors on with aid for Haiti victims sent out tweets to the U.S air force so their plane can land in Haiti. The dark side of social networking is cyber bullying and cyber stalking. Many people is cyber bullied daily because people go on sites and bully others by posting nasty comments and messages about them. Also many people black mail others with inappropriate and private pictures, messages, videos that wasn’t meant for the public to be seen. The rate of suicidal death has risen due to cyber bullying. As well as cyber stalking has made murder rates raise substantially. Irrational people would use social networking sites to stalk others to point that they want to find out where they live. Many young females have been raped or murdered due to talking to a stranger on social networking website. My opinion of the way these technologies might evolve in the future is that it will be extraordinary. Someone will create a website or phone that will always keep people connected and updated every second of the matters of stuff all over the world.

Blog vs. Wikis

A blog is a website on which an individual or group of users record opinions and information on a regular basis. It is commonly a bunch of information posted by an individual and commented by a group of users that want to share their opinion on the subject of matter. There is a selection of different types of blogs. Blogs can range from photography, food, entertainment, news, religion, and etc. For an example, Tumblr is a popular blog site in which you can post pictures, quotes, audio, and video and have your followers repost, like, and comment on them. Blogs are places to communicate on any topic you will like to address. It allows you to express your thoughts and feelings on anything on your mind. In the article “Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid” by Michael Wilson shows how blogs play an important role in communicating to people and getting them aware of a situation. The blog in the article allowed people to post and comment on the dangerous crack houses and people in their neighborhood. The comments and posts brought awareness to the situation. This caused the police to lock up the injustice people who lived in the crack house with the charge of drug possession.  It shows how the communication through blogs can bring awareness to getting protection in our society.  A wiki is a web site developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing any user to add and edit content.  A wiki is a collaboration of users that can continuously revise and edit a post to their liking. For an example, Wikipedia is a wiki that any one post and edit information on many topics. Wikis can be very inaccurate so you have to be careful where you get your research from. In the wiki “Wiki” by Wikipedia states that “A wiki is a website which allows its users to add, modify, or delete its content via a web browser usually using a simplified markup language or a rich-text editor. Wikis are powered by wiki software. Most are created collaboratively.”  This shows that wiki original content can be edited by its users while in a blog the content can only be edited by the individual who made it. Blog collaboration comes into effect by the comments and opinions left by users in reply to the post. A new use of a wiki that have not been done yet should be the display on the original content of the wiki before it ever been edited.