When someone looks at my Facebook,
I am sure they are surprised at the amount of friends I have. I currently have around
1500 friends. I had no idea I had that many until I had to look it up for this
blog post. Before checking, I would have
guessed that I had around 700 friends, which is less than half of what I
actually have. This shows how I accept and send friend requests with very
little consideration to whom I am accepting from and sending them to. I would
say that I only keep in touch with approximately fifty people out of my 1500
friends. When I say keep in touch, I am using this term lightly. The fifty that
I keep in touch with, I text or Facebook chat with at least once a month. If I
am only talking to fifty out of 1500 friends it makes me realize that maybe
there is no point to have that many. However, I think it important to have a
Facebook and accept new friend requests now that I am attending a new school.
It is easier to contact some of my classmates over Facebook. There is also a
connectivity aspect to it. I may not be keeping in touch with some of my
Facebook friends now, but maybe later in life I will be.
With social
media booming these days, a majority of the population has a Facebook, Twitter,
or blogger account. Many people have these accounts and have personal
information or photos that prevent them from being hired. I have heard that
people delete their Facebook accounts before they apply for jobs in fear of
their employers seeing something they do not particularly look for in
employees. Examples of things that people are deleting from their accounts to
avoid this include: parties, evidence of underage drinking, drugs, nudity, or
any other actions that could be detrimental or misinterpreted.
If I were
to look at one my friends Facebook pages, I would most likely choose not to
hire them as one of my employees. Their pages include many pictures of illegal
alcohol consumption as well as use of illicit drugs. The reason I would not
hire them is that these photos might give off the impression that they are
irresponsible, unprofessional, or reckless. I would recommend that they
immediately remove these types of pictures if they wanted to apply for any type
of job. When they are posting photos or vulgar statuses, they should think
about who can see their accounts before they post it. Looking at my account now
I should probably think about going through all of my posts, statuses, and
photos to see if there is anything that would prevent me from getting hired.
In
conclusion, social media impacts the way people interact as well as displays
information to people you may not want looking at your page. Also, many people
don’t realize that the amount of friends on Facebook or Twitter is unnecessary
and it should only include people that you are keeping in touch with in real
life. There are many pros and cons to the use of social media but people need
to learn how to balance it.
This is a very interesting topic to write a blog about. However I found this response to be very well thought out and relative to my situation as well. I have around 2,000 Facebook friends but of all of these friends I probably only keep in contact with about 50 to 70 of them. It just goes to show you that people don't really take into consideration who they are accepting to their friends this when they choose between "accept" or "deny". After reading this post, I almost want to go back into my Facebook friends list and review who I am actually friends with. Because I have set my profile to private to where only people I am friends with can view my profile, I want to see who is actually viewing my profile and in the possibility of me not knowing them, I can easily remove them with a push of a button. However, with Facebook becoming a source of news, I sometimes find myself finding out about news through out the world through people posting articles and photos about news all over the world. Here is an article explaining that Facebook could become one of the leading sources of world news.http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_aims_to_succeed_where_google_reader_faile.php
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a very interesting argument when you mention the amount of Facebook "friends" that you have but do not regularly interact with. Is Facebook simply another means of communicating with close friends, or should it be used as a more powerful networking tool to help foster a much more diverse set of connections? In my opinion, the full potential of social networking sites cannot fully be realized if its usage is restricted to interpersonal communication between only those friends who you regularly keep in touch with. Therefore, I would disagree with your conclusion that the amount of friends on Facebook or Twitter "should only include people that you are keeping in touch with in real life." If you are keeping in touch with these people in real life, then there is not as strong of a reason for keeping in touch with them through Facebook. Rather, having so many connections with people who you do not typically interact with in real life allows you access to a much wider audience, which in turn exposes you to groups that you would otherwise never interact with. I do not think that there is necessarily an obligation to consistently communicate in some way with every single friend you have on Facebook, and while that is one useful facet of the website, it does not have to stop there. All of this being said, I agree that we need to be more conscious of who might be accessing our profiles at any given time. If we expand our virtual audience beyond our own personal friends, then we must also be mindful of what this means and not post things that we would only want our personal friends to see. The world of social media is still young, of course, and we have a lot to learn about it. Overall, a very insightful post, and an enjoyable read.
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