Social Networking

After I read those three reading (Social Network Sites, FCC says 93M in U.S. lack broadband.., For Minorities, New ‘Digital Divide..’), I would like to say it seems to me that the Internet, chat rooms, message boards, and social networking are all things that are likely to increase group polarization. Group polarization is a phenomenon in which, if a person set up a special post (whatever according to nationality, belief or interest), and let people talk for a while, on the whole all of them will end up supporting that position and finally become a super strong aligned group in opposition to people with the contradicting view points. As you can see the example in the reading of “For Minorities, New ‘Digital Divide’, the first thing Simmons does when he just starts using Twitter is to look for other African American faces to connect with. As you can see, social networking sites have a power to gather the people who have the same interest. Social networking sites become a marketing tool for companies to advertise, fund-raising and gain support.

Recently, there have been many news stories about how social networking destroys families. When one woman found out that her husband had a tagged picture kissing a hot girl, there would be a disaster of the family. However, social networking sites also have a good side. Social networking can be a weapon of our job finding. People’s action will influence one another. A picture that is posted on facebook will affect the future of the people in the picture. Therefore we should always beware of what poses we take and how we act because people like to “share”.  Also, we should beware about the profile, whether we make it fake or real.

Here is a site http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/04/20/make-social-media-your-job-finding-weapon/

“Make Social Media Your Job-Finding Weapon”, which says two in five companies browse applicant’s social media profiles to evaluate their character and personality and some even base their hiring decision on what they find. There are 7 tips for landing a job. I found one is very useful. “Create Relevant Profiles—build job history that let people know your strengths.” I found that this is quite true. When you list your job history in your profile, then your new employers noticed that and think that you have a specific skill and that skill is very suitable for the company. Then here is your chance.

Besides, I found interesting research in the reading of “For minorities, New” Researchers have noticed signs of segregation online that perpetuate divisions in the physical world. Coley is a black person and he said, "Twitter is a great social network to kill time.” And he talked about how the African Americans are active on Twitter. Does this article imply that the African American people have more free time to kill? Does this implication make people make a mistake to think of the stereotypes of white and black people? In this way, it is true that SNS site have group polarization.