Privacy & Confidentiality

In a world of Facebook and Myspace you can already log in and find someones name, birthday, and even phone number within seconds. Through Twitter or Facebook status updates you can often even see what they had for breakfast, and now with sites like FourSquare, which allows you to check in at locations throughout the city, you can see where they are at any given moment and how often they go there.

Of course, with all this information being updated every minute, the issues of privacy and confidentiality come up a great deal. While all of social media's users are voluntarily posting everything there is to post about themselves, they are often doing so without recognizing the consequences. It is not until someone you don't want having that information uses it against you that you realize exactly how important your privacy is.

We live in a world where most people are used to having their every move chronicled online, but should that be the case? Most social networking sites provide privacy settings that, when used correctly, can help protect your information from the people who you don't want having it. The problem with these settings is that they are usually opt-in, not opt-out. This means that by default all your information is out in the open, for the world to see.

The next time you update your status, fill out a profile, or check-in somewhere, think about who may be seeing this information, and what they may be using it for. If there is even a single friend, family member, or boss who you do not want seeing what you are about to post, then perhaps you should hold of posting it until you properly configure your privacy settings.

Advice to Baruch College

There are several ways Baruch College can make use of new media to improve the college. New media can be used for either marketing efforts or in the classroom to assist in the education. Various technologies can be used for one or both of those purposes for little to no cost to the college.

Tools like Twitter and Facebook could be used for marketing purposes to get the word out there about Baruch and its many offerings. The college's various departments already have accounts on these social networking sites, so my suggestion would be to make a general Baruch College account which would be used for promotion. It could be used to generate buzz by holding giveaways and using other such gimmicks to gain followers, and thus get the college's name out there. Perhaps even a creative video on YouTube could go viral and make the college known around the country. Something well produced, and funny, could go a long way towards promoting Baruch College.

Secondly, blogs, wikis, and Twitter could also be used in the classroom for students to share their knowledge. Much as they are used in this online class, they could be used for traditional classes and would allow students to continue the discussion outside the classroom. Having a place for students to post articles and information they have come across could be of great advantage. Allowing students to connect through groups on sites like Facebook where most already have profiles could provide them with an opportunity to network outside of the classroom as well.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds, such as Second Life, create a platform for us, as individuals, to be whoever we want to be. The potential is endless, as are the uses. More than allowing us to be whoever we want though, virtual worlds also allow people from all over the world to connect and meet no matter where they are. It is this aspect of virtual worlds that I feel is important for their future. Although Second Life's popularity has diminished in recent years, the concept of virtual worlds opened a new world, literally, to both individuals and corporations.

According to a CNN article by Mark Tutton called "Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life" some companies are using Second Life to allow employees to interact, no matter where they are physically located, and hold meetings within a virtual world hosted on the companies own private network. Given sufficient development of these systems, the possibilities are endless. Imagine a world where nobody has to leave their home to go to work. Without geographic limitations, the possibilities for productivity are endless.

Likewise, the possibilities are endless for non-corporate clients too. With the advent of virtual worlds you can have entire family reunions from the comfort of your home, just by having everyone log on to a specific server at a specific time. The possibility for creativity is similarly limitless because your identity in this world is limited to just how you were born. Your avatar and your virtual character can be an expression of who you've always wanted to be.

Not all these things are good, however. The big fear, depicted in the movie Surrogates, is that humanity will cease to interact in real life. On a smaller, and more immediate, scale it is important to realize that nothing can truly replace face to face interaction. Meeting in virtual worlds may be more convenient, but they may not be as persuasive. Having the real life and in person aspect to any interaction is very important and that is something virtual worlds will never be able to compensate for.

When Second Life was first developed it was the hot story. Everyone saw it as the future for both companies and individuals. Once the hype died down, however, so did Second Life. I see a reincarnation of virtual worlds in the future that, like Second Life, will try to bring in the masses, but for the time being I think that we can only make use of the bits and pieces of information gained from Second Life. Telecommuting, for example, is becoming a big part of organizations, but its still not quite the same as logging in to a virtual world. Perhaps as telecom telecommuting uting grows, there will be a push for new virtual world technologies and we will see growth in the field.

Twitter Discussion

Having a discussion on Twitter is unlike most other forms of communication, with the exception of maybe text messages, because you are so limited in what you can write. Twitter forces you to really think about what you want to say and cut it down to only 140 characters.

Unlike Blackboard Discussion Boards and even in class discussion, you don't have a limitless space to get your thoughts out. Instead you are forced to put out concise and short 140 character sound-bites which you must then make sure will be understood the way you intend them too.

Although the space is limited, when you put all the little bites together with a hash tag and are able to see them as a long string on a particular topic of discussion, you can really see the use of it and Twitter becomes a good way to communicate and share ideas.

Social Networking

Social Networking has overtaken the lives of most people I know. Whenever I go out there is at least one person in the group, at any given time, updating their Facebook status, tweeting about where they are at the moment, or even using Foursquare to check in at our current location. This kind of always-on availability of people has changed the way most social interactions occur. Virginia Heffernan writes in "Being There" for the New York Times that "The current friendliness of handheld devices to Facebook (and Twitter and MySpace) has made it more likely that when a pal — the Jägermeister-besotted Sean, say — writes that he’s stumbling home, he is stumbling home, right then, and simultaneously apprising his friends via his mobile." Much like my friends who are constantly letting their entire network know where they are.

This, of course, has benefits and disadvantages like any other technology. These days I could know all about the life of a friend who I haven't seen since elementary school, including what he had for breakfast, who he's hooking up with, and where he's working these days, without even seeing him once. (Same goes for knowing what my girlfriend is doing without having to ask.) But is that really a benefit? Sure, I am able to use social networking to reconnect with old friends and keep informed on their lives, but do I really want that many friends? Furthermore, do I really want that many people knowing what I had for breakfast? With 500 Facebook friends and 150 Twitter followers I guess the answer is yes, I do, but the point is that with all the benefits of connectivity that social networking provides, it has its dark sides too.

Its not just our friends who can make use of all the information we are putting out either. Companies have begun to tap into this social market by creating apps and add-ons which allow us to do their advertising for them. Dominoes pizza for example posts your order on Facebook, if you allow it too, shows your friends what you ordered, and even how soon it will be delivered. I know I've certainly seen a friend order food, and decided to do the same right then and there. Games on my iPhone post my high scores to Facebook and Twitter and encourage friends and followers to try and beat them, thus getting them to buy the app because if I'm playing it, it must be good. Right?

There's no doubt about it that social networking is fun and in many ways even beneficial. As long we are aware of the privacy lost when using all of these technologies I think there is no reason for them to not continue to prosper in the future. All the dark sides and negative effects of privacy lost can be mitigated by proper use and education, and the benefits are there to be shared by all. I feel we are moving into more and more intrusive social applications and towards an ever-more connected world. Applications such was FourSquare and Gowalla which use your iPhone's GPS to check you in at various locations throughout your day are lots of fun, albeit a bit creepy, and can be used to compete with friends over who goes somewhere most. This kind of social geo-tagging, in my opinion, is the wave of the future.

Check Out Social Networking Sites

Social Networking has become a phenomenon that has missed very few people. Everyone I know is on one social networking site or another. From Facebook, to Myspace, to LinkedIn, even my mother has an account on at least 2 of them. For many people it started with Friendster. As the first glimpse into social networking for many people Friendster provided an opportunity for people to connect online, post pictures, leave comments, and do all the usual things you can on any social networking site.

These days Friendster appears to be nothing more than a dead framework for what once was a social networking site. My time on the site recently yielded nothing more than deleted profiles, empty profiles, or spam profiles. Not much there.

Next came MySpace. MySpace aloud for more creativity with the ability to create custom profiles, upload music, and pretty much do whatever you wanted to your page. As MySpace exploded everyone under the age of 30 seemed to have one, but just as quickly as it came up, it was all but destroyed by Facebook. These days MySpace seams like a post-apocalyptic burying ground where few profiles are still active, and the rest are just littered with spam and abandonment.

Facebook provides a much cleaner feeling, without crazy colors, loud music, and annoying pictures that overtake a MySpace profile. Facebook provides a clean and productive network with many features as well as security which doesn't allow anyone who isn't in your network to see your information. Still the number one choice for social networking it seams like Facebook will remain the most popular until something new comes along.

Finally, there are alternative social networking sites that are created for specific reasons. LinkedIn for example is a site for professionals. Those looking to network with colleagues past and present join LinkedIn and ask for recommendations and references. Seeing as building your professional network is vital to success, LinkedIn can be a very important too for your career.