Entries Tagged 'Social Media' ↓

Guest Post by Nakia Gray

I’ve always known that there has to be some good reason that Maryland is known as the “Free State.”  In an effort to ensure that the State lives up to its nickname, the Maryland State Legislature passed a bill that prevents managers from snooping on password-protected content, a practice that supporters of the bill argue violates privacy and intimidates job seekers and employees.  The bill provides protection to Marylanders by preventing employers and potential employers from demanding them to hand over passwords to Facebook or Twitter accounts before giving them a job.

Robert Collins, a former corrections officer in Maryland, said he was asked for his Facebook account information while being recertified for his job following a leave of absence.

“It almost seemed that my compliance was compulsory.” Collins told the Washington Post.

Collins complied with the request but felt very uneasy.  He sought advice from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) afterwards and that’s what sparked this investigation and proposed change to the law.

It is not officially a law in Maryland just yet, Governor Martin O’Malley is still reviewing the bill.  If O’Malley signs it, Maryland will be the first state to speak up about what I consider broad overreaching by employers.

As technology has developed and we all seem to be living our lives online, people should feel that use of the computer and online activities can be trusted and private.  Otherwise would be completely contrary to what we’ve been taught over the years…the internet is safe and can be trusted.

I can’t think of any reason, other than plain nosiness, that would warrant an employer invading an employee’s privacy by perusing their social media profiles.

Hopefully the bill is signed into law and more states step up to the plate and do the same.

Guest Post by Jessica Fyles

Technology and social media enables us to be more connected than ever before in our human history.  It’s pretty amazing how we can communicate with multiple people at once through a multitude tools.  On the iPhone alone one can talk, text, Tweet, and Facebook virtually all at the same time (and hopefully not while driving).  I worry, with the abundance in technology and online social interaction, that we are losing our vital ability to connect human to human.

Empathy is our capability to share our and understand other people’s emotions and feelings.  “Put yourself in their shoes” or “use your words” are phrases children often hear from parents who are teaching them empathy.  It’s very difficult to have a relationship with another person if we (or they) are unable to express emotions or understand what the other person is feeling.  We’ve all known people who can’t express themselves very well, if at all, and how challenging it is to get along with them.

Much of what I see going on in the world today leads me to believe we are becoming less empathetic as a society.  Children who kill their parents or classmates. Workplace violence. Road rage and aggressive driving.  Bullying. Discrimination.  The inability of our government leaders to work together on behalf of the American people. The personal attacks in negative political campaigns.  Legislation that limits the rights and personal freedoms of another human being. The disrespectful and violent language used by media. And the list goes on.

Technology and social media may not be primarily to blame for violence or partisanship, but they are contributing factors.  I wonder how this world would be different if all of us could use our words to express our feelings or if we put ourselves in other people’s shoes more often.  Maybe a child wouldn’t bring a gun to school to express their anger.  Maybe our government leaders would be more open to compromise to do what is best for all citizens.

We learn and practice empathy by interacting with other human beings in person.  All of the five senses are engaged when doing so.  Instead, we are spending more time interacting with a screen.  A January 2012 report from market research firm comScore found that the average American spends 36 hours on the internet per week.  Nielsen.com reports “Americans spend more than 33 hours per week watching video across the screens,” according to their latest Nielsen Cross-Platform Report. Undocumented sources on the web say we Americans spend an average of 13 hours per week playing video games.  That’s a lot of screen time.

With us consuming so much screen time, there is a strong desire to learn empathy in our society.  An internet search will result in a multitude of school lesson plans, books, blogs and videos on the topic.  Oprah demonstrates and conveys empathy through her multimedia empire.  However, we need more examples and role models of empathy in our everyday lives.

The long-term effects of our technology and social media consumption, both good and bad, remain to be seen.   Both are probably best practiced, as with everything else in life, in moderation.

“I’m too old for social media.”

“Twitter’s for kids.”

“Nobody needs to know what I’m doing all the time.”

I hear these all the time. ALL the time.

People over a certain age (let’s call it 50 years old) automatically disqualifying themselves from social networking.

My responses to the above statements:

1) Bullshit.

2) Trix are for kids, Twitter is for everyone.

3) Then don’t tell people what you are doing all the time.

The truth is that social media is immensely powerful…and frightening.

Heck, if an educated politician can Tweet a pic of his…uh…little tweeter, imagine what a senior citizen can do!?!

All mostly-kidding aside, to NOT embrace the social media is like turning away the mail, the phone and newspapers, all tied together.

Some of the smartest, savviest social marketers are closer to 60 than 30. If you know how to connect with people, you can connect with people on any platform.

But still, some people don’t see the point of it all.

So here’s what you tell those people:

1) Are you too old to learn and connect?

2) People only see what you put up. So don’t tell them you’re in the bathroom.

3) Maybe Facebook and Twitter aren’t for you. Have you looked into LinkedIn?

4) You do know companies give away free stuff online, right?

5) Social media isn’t a fad. Between Facebook and Twitter alone, there are over 1 BILLION accounts worldwide.

6) Again, please don’t tell everyone when you are in the bathroom.

What else would you tell an older person who refuses to even explore social media?

Guest Post by Hala Abdulla

It is no doubt that social media plays a major role in our lives today. More people are communicating their thoughts, photos, feelings, politics and everything, globally and locally, via social media’s various tools. At this point we cannot imagine life without Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or even the newborn Pinterest.  And we all know how social media, and particularly Twitter, helped organizing massive protests, provoking historical revolutions and bring down dictators in the Middle East. But little do we know that Twitter also helped foil a predawn robbery and find a missing donkey, as well as locate a brown and white sheep in the most remote African village in the world.

After receiving a tip of a robbery, Francis Kariuki, chief of the dusty and isolated village of stone houses of Lanet Umoja in Kenya, used Twitter to alarm residents, and in no time people responded and the thugs fled. So how does Chief Kariuki do it when there is neither Internet nor computers or smart phones in his village? According to the many sources reporting on the story, Kariuki uses his cell phone to tweet, and residents receive these tweets as text messages on their cell phones because the majority has no Twitter accounts.

It is fascinating how people of different backgrounds and cultures across the globe use these social media tools in various ways, such as in Chief Kariuki’s story where the goal was to enhance security. According to sources, the crime rate in Lanet Umoja went down from daily reports of break-ins to no crimes in weeks, thanks to Kariuki’s innovative usage of Twitter. After realizing how Twitter helped brining security to his village, Chief Kariuki is using Twitter to send out messages of hope to the young and unemployed, encouraging them to spread kindness and be helpful to others. And in the words of Timon and Pumbaa from the “Lion King,” we can tell them “Hakuna Matata,” because as long as there is Twitter, Chief Kariuki will keep tweeting.

So to all those who still think of Twitter as the vain tool that Kim Kardashian uses to complain about her latest divorce, Twitter and other social media is changing the world we live in. it is revolutionizing our basics in communications, and dropping all cultural boundaries. Simply put, social media is our same old way of communicating with others, whether socially or professionally, but now it is digitalized and done with a press of a button, so embrace it and make it work for you and your brand the way Chief Kariuki did.

Guest Post by Kaelan Richards

These days, social media seems to be everywhere— from grandparents signing up for Facebook, to Fortune 500 companies joining Twitter, to elected officials inadvertently ending their careers with a mistakenly sent tweet. It seems like a whole new world, with exciting possibilities and endless opportunities for expression and interaction with others. But is it really anything new?

Throughout history, people have sought to express themselves and communicate with others. Cave drawings, smoke signals, Morse code— these are all forms of communication and methods for broadcasting one person’s thoughts to another, simplistic though they may be. As technologies evolved, easier and more effective methods of communications developed as well, and communication became easier. I remember the day my dad came home with one of the first cell phones, and how amazed we were… today, the sight of one of those grey shoebox-like phones is enough to make the people who remember them laugh. Compare it to a brand-new iPhone, and the stark reality of how far we’ve come (in just 15 years or so) is astonishing.

So why is social media suddenly so popular, and why the buzz around it? It’s just another form of communication, in a world where 6 billion people talk to each other all day, every day. What is it about social media that’s so attractive yet scary to so many? I’d argue that what it comes down to is reach and accountability. Cavemen in France didn’t need to worry about their mothers seeing cave drawings of them lounging in the sun when they were supposed to be hunting for food. These cavemen could draw in a cave their mothers never visited, or argue someone else drew the incriminating images. But in today’s modern world, all a parent needs to do is follow their kid on Twitter to see when, where and what exactly they’re up to.

Potential problems?

In today’s world, hundreds of millions of people in countries around the world have access to social media platforms that span continents. It’s easy to tweet someone in South Africa, Australia, Russia or India and get a reply within minutes—that ease of accessibility, where the barriers that once stood in the way of truly global communication have fallen away. But the layers of anonymity that were the hallmarks of previous forms of communication (such as the lazy cavemen, or even pre-caller ID) have thinned as well. Privacy has been a casualty of the social media, and the implications of this frighten many people and corporations.

Social media has, by providing everyone with a voice, ensured that their voices are heard—and not always in a good way.  Just this week, a student in the UK was sentenced to 56 days in jail because of racist tweets he sent out about Fabrice Muamba, a soccer player from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who collapsed of cardiac arrest during a game (but survived). As social networking sites have gone mainstream and become credible sources of information, this kind of absolute accountability on a social networking platform is the new reality. Over the next few years, governments and corporations will more clearly define the laws of social networking, and the global landscape will continue to change.

Social media isn’t anything new—it’s just the easiest, yet most accessible, form of communication the world has ever seen. And it’s still evolving, as more and more people and organizations decide to be involved. The next few years will be exciting for social media as technologies continue to improve, accessibility grows, and millions more people join the social networks.