The New Digital Age Chapters 2 and 3

Chapter 2 of The New Digital Age claims that there are more people online than there are in the world. How can this be? It is because that the majority of us have multiple profiles online. Not only do we have multiple profiles, but we also have multiple personalities. I for one have talked with a lot of individuals who live a different life than  what Facebook shows they live. I feel it is safe to say that basically every person represents their life on Facebook differently. Not only does this happen, but I also know people who act differently across the different social media websites. For example: one individual I know is very active on Twitter, but not so much on Facebook. The posts he makes are also more vulgar on Twitter. This is because he is a counselor for a summer camp and he is friends with most of the kids that attend that camp on Facebook. He doesn't want to have these kids see how he actually talks in other places.

Chapter 3 goes on to talk about the control of the internet worldwide. As we have seen, attempting to sensor what individuals do on the internet does not go over smoothly. People have had the freedom to do as they pleased and they don't want to give any of it up. How well will relationships evolve as we can become connected with more and more people? We have already seen how Facebook affected the revolutions in Egypt just a few years ago. There is a lot more potential for this to happen in the future.

Social Media in Business

Last Friday I had an interview. The first question I was asked was "What do you know about our company?". I let them know that I had a very short talk with an employee before and most of the information I had obtained was from the website. When hearing this answer, the interviewer rolled her eyes and said "Ugh. I don't like our website. It isn't the best. It is crazy how social media has changed the way people find information." I started to laugh a little and asked what social media sites that they utilized. She said LinkedIn was the major one and that they were working on creating a Facebook page, but she was not sure how well that would fare for the company. I let her know that I am currently enrolled in a class that is focused on using social media in the business setting and that we have a client that we are assisting with what social media to use and the basics of setting it up. It was very interesting having this talk with a potential employer and immediately being able to offer suggestions on what they should do.

Who Owns the Future Chapter 3

Jaron Lanier  discussed the invention of money. Yes, it is great that we have a universal way to value objects and we no longer have to worry about bartering or as Lanier expresses having to worry about losing  a wandering sheep. He also talked about that with the technology of money changing, we don't stop to think about the history of the bills we have sitting in our wallets right now. What was bought with these before? Was it used to take cocaine? Would we really want to keep these bills if we actually knew what they were used for? He also brings up the point that a lot of our major purchases (houses, cars, etc.) are paid with imaginary money. Few people have the money to be able to buy a house with cash. This is when mortgages come into play. Yes, the house is bought, but it is with the money that the person is promising to earn and pay in the future. With the changing technology and money becoming more technology based how are things going to change in the future? Everything is done by computers now. How easy is it for an individual to hack into a computer and change anything about another's bank account something along those lines. It is a scary thought to have.

Social Organization Chapters 9 & 10

Chapter 9 of the Social Organization starts off by talking about successfully switching the purpose of communities. The example of Obama for America was given. In this, the original purpose was to get Obama elected for President. After he was successfully elected, the community switched to Organizing for America which was supposed to bring about everything that Obama wanted to implement and then later to focus on electing Democrats to Congress. These changes worked very well because the community all had the shared trait of being Democrats and in favor of Obama. The changes of the purposes did not stray from the original purpose by very much. The March of Dimes was also given as an example. President Franklin Roosevelt created it as a way to raise money to find a cure for polio. Once this cure was found, donations fell drastically. Rather than eliminating this group that was successful, the purpose was switched from polio to eliminating birth defects. Chapter 10 goes on to talk about making the community a place that individuals would like to participate in. This can be done by having management in all different areas of a business (HR, Accounting, etc.) participating and making it feel like an area that is open to productive discussion.

Working Out for Social Media

While going to check on my Fantasy Football teams, I found this story on Yahoo: http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/hot-mom-defends-herself-against-facebook-haters-192149769.html. It is about an in-shape mother who posted a picture of herself in workout clothes with her children around her. Each of the three kids have their age posted close to them and at the top of the picture it says 'What's Your Excuse?'. She meant this to be a motivational tool for individuals that are not constant gym goers by showing that she can still do it even though she has three kids. A lot of people did comment saying how well she looked and that her picture truly did show them that anybody can find the time to get healthier. However, she may have had even more negative remarks from people saying that she is a horrible mother and only adding to the American image that skinny is beautiful. She has been forced into defending herself with all of the backlash. I for one don't think there is anything wrong with what she has done. The only thing that is wrong here is how people will use social media to turn any positive into a negative.

Technology Within the CMMA.

One of the big things I took out of our meeting with the CMMA was that they were worried of what the social media would do to their employees. One of the board members said that any personal technology is not allowed on the floor because it becomes a distraction to the employees which then can become a safety hazard. I think that they thought that once the association began to use social media, then employees would start using their phones more often so that they could update their statuses or check on what their friends and family were up to. I don't think they realized that they would be able to utilize social media as both getting their name out and a way to streamline their internal communication while still having that rule apply. They could have computers set up in a break room or only have a manager use the computer in their office for internal communication needs such as asking about maintenance on  machines. Then the external use could be done by only a board member or by a rotation of the board members. By doing this they would be able to utilize the power of social media while still maintaining a safe work environment.

Meeting with the CMMA

Our meeting with the CMMA went over very well. We basically went over the what different types of social media can do for a business. It seemed like the board members knew how they wanted to utilize it, but they were not totally sure of the power of social media. They were also a bit unsure of how they wanted to implement it also. It was interesting to see their view of manufacturing compared to how others view it. I do think that they are correct when they said that the majority of people think of 'working the line' and 'oil and grease' when they think of manufacturing. We don't really look at the behind the scenes aspects that are vital to any business such as accounting, management, or engineering. These are the careers that they want to bring in a younger generation to rejuvenate. Their take on how to do this was also quite interesting. Instead of focusing on college kids that they might be able to entice into joining a manufacturing career in their degree rather than going to a more natural ending spot for them (ie. an accounting degree going to work for an accounting firm), they are trying to target a much younger generation: middle schoolers. This is so interesting because middle schoolers don't tend to use social media to search for what they want to be when they grow up. The only way that they would be able to really target this group is through their schools or parents. The entire meeting was an interesting one and it really made our group have to put a bit of a twist on how we thought we were going to do this project.

The New Digital Age Chapter 3

Schmidt and Cohen begin the chapter by asking 'How will they use the Internet?'. This is referring to the billions of people that continue to join the group of internet users. I have never really considered this topic before, but it does bring up an interesting area of thought. The entire globe is becoming more easily connected, however, every area has a different language, alphabet, and culture. Diving more deeply to each individual person, everybody has different likes and dislikes. Well it is true that this could be a great tool to connect with an individual on the other side of the planet and become great friends with them, it is just as likely that people can make enemies. People being able to hide behind a computer screen act in a totally different manner than people communicating face-to-face. With the way the internet is going and how everything can be pinpointed back to the source it came from could cause a dangerous scenario. Just imagine...a young man in Mount Pleasant is on Chatroulette and finds another young man that lives just outside Boston. One of them calls the other a profane name and they get into a bit of a heated argument. It is simple enough to next the individual and not have to worry about him anymore.  Feelings may be hurt, but no harm, no foul. Soon enough the young man from Boston will be able to get the IP address and be able to send the other young man a virus. This takes a whole new twist on the aspect. Now imagine this on an international scale. And even worse, a bigger playing field that would affect a larger number of people such as governments. This is a really scary thought to think about.

The Social Organization Chapter 8

Chapter 8 begins with a story from EA. They had set up internal communities to connect the entire company globally. The problem with this is that they opened to many communities. None of the employees participated that much because everything was so spread out. They then go on to explain how the managers at EA did not handle the situation in the best way. Many people think that the managers are not going to do anything and that they are going to only watch over the community and try to stop anything bad from happening. The real issue is that managers are key to the success of communities. They have to be able to find the perfect balance in which they help to lead the discussion, but then allow the community to grow and flourish by itself. When employees see that the community is then being 'run' by peers, they feel more comfortable to join in and participate. When the communities take this turn, the managers just have to sit back and focus on any conflicts that may arise. This again makes the employees feel safe and wish to participate in the community. In the end, EA was able to figure things out and use the communities to promote internal communication and spread ideas around the globe. Even though EA ended up being successful, that scenario shows how easy it is to create a tool that you think would help only to have it do more damage.

Social Organization Chapter 7

Chapter 7 of the Social Organization opens with Paul Price, Executive Vice President Marketing Services at Acosta, discussing how social media has changed the way that sales and marketing work now. He gave the example of his daughter taking pictures of herself in any clothing she is interested in buying. However, instead of buying it right away, she posts these pictures on Facebook and gets all of her friends opinions on the outfit. I agree with Price. The use of social media has led to consumers being able to find a lot more information about any product than they used to be able to. The research can either make or break the product. Even if one friend of an individual posts a bad review on anything, that could kill any chance that that person would make the purchase. The rest of the chapter discusses how an organization should choose the proper social media that they are going to use and how to find the community that will follow. This is vital to the success of the social media implementation because if it does not arouse any interest out of people, then there is no point in even having social media.