Online Social Media Paper Week 3 1 4

Online Social Network
Christina Behm, Jacqueline Stafford, Jason Shattuck, Lindsay Brunst, Mary Wade,
And Myron Morgan
SOC/100
January 12, 2015
Bette Wade
Online Social Network
What is social network? What are the advantages and disadvantages of social network? For this paper, we have chosen LinkedIn as our network to access. We each made a profile and began experiencing what this particular network had to offer. Our mission is to describe the site 's purpose, content and participant population, along with each one of us describing our experience on this site. We intend to find the cultural significance and the social effect of online networks. We will talk about what effects online websites have on the face to face interaction and what cultural values are reinforced. What are the future online social networking trends?
What is a social network? A social network is a social structure for people to build relationships with others, such as individuals or organizations by posting messages, comments, information or images. Social networking goes back more than ten years ago, before Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube became a reality. The thought that people would spend half their day on a social website was unthinkable. With joining a social site you experience increased communication between friends, professionals and businesses.
With social media, connection to friends and family is easier than ever no matter where you live. The number one problem users and social media sites face daily is security, a single attack could make every user vulnerable to security related problems such as identity theft, information access.
We chose LinkedIn as our social network site. LinkedIn Corporation is a business-oriented social networking service. They founded the company in December 2002 and launched in May 2003. This site is mainly used for professional networking. In 2006, LinkedIn increased to 20 million members, and currently they have 465,672 followers. The goal of the site is to allow registered members establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally.
A Social group is any number of persons with similar norms, values, and expectations who interact on a regular basis. Norms are established standards of behaviors maintained by a society. Values we all have a personal set of values that may include caring or fitness or success in business. We also share a set of values as members of a society. Cultural values are those collective concepts of what is considered good, desirable, and proper or wrong, undesirable, and improper.
The potential effects, which online social networking sites have on face-to-face interaction depends on the individual’s purpose for using the site, the social competency and how comfortable each is using the site. On one side, social networking sites can harm people 's ability to interact face-to-face competently. The More time we spend in an online setting, the less time we spend offline, giving our time and attention to our friends and families outside of our immediate family members. We are living in a time that attaches us to our electronic devices, tweeting, texting, or posting messages even when we can attend events or parties in person. But, unfortunately, no one is engaged or is interacting with those people around them. Some people know how to use social networking sites to their advantage and find a balance between ways to communicate with their circle of friends and family. These are the individuals that believe that face-to-face interaction should be the primary source of communication. Understanding that social networking can and should be used as a secondary form of reaching out to others, not the primary. Because of how important social networking is to our society, the effects are determined by each person individually and will always be different. No matter how long people try to avoid getting caught up in this rampant trend, in some way, form or fashion, social networking will find its way into your life. People value your full attention and time. As long as we can remember that social interaction is only as rewarding as we are willing to make it, whether in person or online, we will be just fine.
In social networking, there may be some cultural barriers that a person or group may have to get over. There may not be a very significant reason for why a social network can be a barrier. When you consume all of your time in social media and don 't spend time with your family, or other things that need to be done. That is when you began to have problems. Depending on what you are doing with social media it can take up a lot of your time reading all the different feeds that are on different pages that you may be looking at on that particular social media. It may also be a factor that some people do not want to join social media sites because they fear that their information may be stolen and used without their permission. With the world having criminals stealing people’s personal information, it makes them afraid to have their information on the social media site. Another factor, public social media sites will sell your information to other companies. Giving telemarketers the opportunity to call and bug you, send spam mail to your email addresses, and even unwanted mail to your home. Some people don 't know how to separate your social media experience from home and work. Causing personal and work problems. Online social media can have a negative effect on many things when you do not handle them properly or use them in the correct manner. Social networking is something that you should also be careful about the sites that you sign up to; you never know if the site is legit.
Social networking has quickly become the "norm" for socializing and connecting. As it may be the primary source of communication among all age groups, it has also become addictive for many. The increase in social media usage may give the impression that our interpersonal skills are suffering in a negative way. A socially isolated person that spends most of their time online may experience an adverse outcome from social networking by increasing the time spent in isolation. Socially outgoing people may improve their interpersonal skills by connecting with other users and social groups. Social media provide easy access to open forums that allow personal and professional connections. Researchers have suggested that this type of social networking creates social relationships that are engaging and supportive. The success of these social media sites has proven that the benefits of connecting online outweigh the potential problem with continued isolation.
We each created our individual accounts, many reluctant to create another social site. Much to our surprise this web site can benefit each and every person that creates an account. The site helps connect you to businesses and careers that you may be interested in, people that may know you, and tons of information you can use. The site works as an agent, setting you up with multiple networking possibilities, job prospects, and group associations, school of choice, and updates on the latest news around the world and in your area. The site allows you to see who has viewed your profile, send and receive messages, and build connections with people from a broad range of professional backgrounds. Individuals that do not regularly participate in social networking have reconsidered after joining this site. Our consensus was that this particular website is used to help people gain employment, find employers, or to just keep in touch with other professional employed people.
Ways to attract and engage with other people:
Spruce up your LinkedIn profile – make sure your photo, headline and summary all tell a compelling story of who you are and what you have to offer.
Create your online presence – Make sure you are comfortable with your online appearance.
Always write a personal note – a personal touch makes an enormous difference.
Connect – make it meaningful, maybe a phone call, video chat, etc. Future online social trends are easy to get caught up in. Some of the biggest trends include increased emphasis on real-time search and information distribution.
1. Investment in social media will become a necessity, not a luxury.
2. Google will become a major factor.
3. Image-centric networks will see tremendous success
4. We’ll witness the rise of micro video.
5. Foursquare will decline sharply.
6. Myspace will grow.
7. LinkedIn will become a major player in business growth.
There are many possibilities for online social networking trends in the future and most are just ideas built upon what’s already there. People are more concerned with privacy and keeping in touch with family and friends.
In conclusion, we have answered what a social network is. The advantages and disadvantages of social network are. We each made a profile and began experiencing what this particular network had to offer. Our mission was to describe the site 's purpose, content and participant population, along with each one of us describing our experience on this site. We covered the cultural significance and the social effect of online networks. We talked about what effects online websites have on the face to face interaction and what cultural values are reinforced. Lastly, the future online social networking trends. In our opinion, the assessment of the current, primary traditional agent of socialization in our society help people get socially involved and gain acceptance in the particular society. Our prediction on whether or not social networking sites will become the primary 21st century agent of socialization in our society is yes we believe that social media will be the primary source of communication, mainly LinkedIn.

References:
The top 7 Social Media Marketing Trends. Forbes. (9/24/2013). Retrieved from www.forbes.com
Online Social Networking Paper. UOP. (n.d.). Week 3. Retrieved from www.newclassroom3.phoenix.edu
Sociology: A Brief Introduction. UOP. (2014). Week 3. Retrieved from www.newclassroom3.phoenix.edu

References: The top 7 Social Media Marketing Trends. Forbes. (9/24/2013). Retrieved from www.forbes.com Online Social Networking Paper. UOP. (n.d.). Week 3. Retrieved from www.newclassroom3.phoenix.edu Sociology: A Brief Introduction. UOP. (2014). Week 3. Retrieved from www.newclassroom3.phoenix.edu