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Just recently CNN has published an article about the possible new feature of Facebook. The article called “Facebook testing disappearing posts” discusses the possibility of users adding an expiration date or time to a particular post. With the success of Snapchat, which allows users to post photos, videos, and texts to sooner be deleted (matter of seconds); other social media platforms are also enticed to try the feature out. If successful, the feature could come in handy for when communicating a specific message regarding the time and place of an event, for example. However, it also opens up room for discussion concerning what is known as “ephemeral data” (Bradshaw, 2014). Namely, data that is not necessarily as temporary as it seems. According to Bradshaw (2014), Snapchat “deceived consumers with promises about the disappearing nature of messages sent through the service” which has lead to a huge privacy and control issue. The creators of Snapchat even agreed that some major improvements in their privacy policy ought to be made. “While we were focused on building, some things didn’t get the attention they could have,” Snapchat said (Bradshaw, 2014). Although quite alluring the idea of a ‘Snapchat-type-of-post’ on Facebook, some users still do not trust that their information will not be stored somewhere on the web. Therefore, people are a bit skeptical regarding this possible new feature.

I personally would not make use of it, since whatever message I need to send in the same fashion will be probably done via email or Whatsapp.What are your opinions on that? If Facebook were to implement the feature, would you use it? If so, why?

References:

CNN. (2014). Facebook Disappearing Posts. Retrieved from:

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/11/tech/social-media/facebook-disappearing-posts/index.html

Bradshaw, T. (2014). Snapchat settles privacy complaint. FT.Com, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1533879199?accountid=13598

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The idea of being an influential person, whether in your circle of friends/family, or professionally speaking, is something that intrigues most of us. One aspect that has been constantly discussed is influence on social media. But what does it actually mean? And why do we seem to pursuit it? According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, influence is “the power to change or affect someone or something; the power to cause changes without directly forcing them to happen”. In my humble opinion, it is similar to saying that a person has some sort of ‘control’ over someone’s beliefs; which, is the exact definition of what propaganda means. Marketing and PR professionals have been trying to understand how social media influence can be translated into ‘real’ engagement; considering that having great amount of followers, for example, does not necessarily entails being very influential. An interesting an succinct blog post about the topic called Dissecting Influence of Twitter: Understand It to Obtain it discusses the subject in a clear way. Although the author focuses on Twitter, I believe the tips he gives can be applied to any other social media platform out there. He argues that what actually matters when trying to convey your message (being influential), is to focus on a niche group, where you have more chances of having engaged followers/ fans/ friends. Namely, “don’t try to influence everyone” (Zumwalt, 2014).

I believe that our online behavior ties together, generally speaking, with our offline world. We want to be heard, to have our opinions matter, and to have a sense of control. This is the path to Power that rules today’s society, and even though some of us do not care about being influential on and offline, I sincerely think it is a human instinct to try to find ‘the best spot under the sun’, so to speak.

What are your opinions on that? Do you yourself pursuit some sort of online recognition?

References:

Zumwalt, L. (Aug 27, 2014). Social Media Blog. Dissecting Influence of Twitter: Understand It to Obtain it. Retrieved from

http://www.meltwater.com/social-media-blog/influence-on-twitter/

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Social Networking Sites have become considerably popular since the early 2000s. Although SNSs are aimed at one particular goal, which is, simplistically speaking, to connect users to other users; researchers have yet to fully comprehend the social and cultural implications of these sites. The idea of having a community where an individual is the center of his/hers network (egocentric view) is appealing to a great majority. SNSs are, thus, essential to the construction and maintenance of self-presentation, control of self-identity, and impression management. Scholars such as Rosenberg & Egbert (2011) have studied the importance of these concepts in today’s society, where relationships are being born, formed, and maintained in an online environment. In their paper, the authors conclude that users need to be more aware when it comes to their own Facebook usage; since how an individual behaves online, affect and influence how he/she is perceived by others.

Interestingly, scholars have found that online segmentation happens inasmuch as in the offline world; “the problem of social order” (Borgatti, Mehra, Brass, & Labianca, 2009). Namely, individuals tend to form online groups based on affinities such as racial, ethnic, cultural, economic etc. Although some SNSs are designed for a tailored group (in the case of MyChurch and CouchSurfing, for example), most Social Networking Sites are targeting larger groups of people (as in the case of Facebook). However, some have been designed to a specific Geo-location and ended up being successful in another- Orkut, for instance, designed for the U.S public but highly successful in Brazil at the time (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Therefore, the predictability of a SNS’s success in a particular market and/or society is relatively low; other variables play an important role in the process, “trust between users and website” (Boyd & Ellison, 2007) to name a few.

Moreover, SNSs are proving to have substantial educational value, when used appropriately. For students who enroll in online courses, having a community to talk to and a sense of togetherness is essential in order to motivate them to share opinions and points of views, as they normally would in a physical classroom (Brady et. All., 2010). However, privacy and safety issues are still a concern for scholars and educators, and due to the lack of academic research on the subject, no real conclusion can yet be drawn.

Similar to what SNSs provide, Business Network helps individuals in a corporate level; assisting in their relationships and networks, by optimizing every step of the creation process. This type of business involves firms around the globe, bringing them closer in the process of making a new product or delivering a new service (Kauffman, & Heck, 2010). So whether we discuss SNSs or Business Networks, a clear, common social experience is present in both, therefore, we ought to study how we can fully benefit from these technologies.

Personally, I believe there must be a distinct separation between personal and educational environment.What do you think about it? Should schools adopt SNSs for education purposes?

References:

Borgatti, S.P., Mehra, A., Brass, D.J., and Labianca, G. 2009. Network analysis in the social sciences. Science 323(5916) 892-895.15.

Boyd, D.M., and Ellison, N.B. 2007. Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13(1) 210–230.14.

Brady, K. P., Holcomb, L. B., & Smith, B. V. (2010). The use of alternative social networking sites in higher educational settings: A case study of the e-learning benefits of Ning in education. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 9(2), 151-170.

Kauffman, R.J., Li, T., and Heck, E. 2010. Business network-based value creation in electronic commerce. International Journal of Electronic Commerce 15(1) 111-142.

Rosenberg, J., & Egbert, N. (2011). Online impression management: personality traits and concerns for secondary goals as predictors of self‐presentation tactics on Facebook. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 17(1), 1-18.

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We all hear people bragging about their ability of multitasking, specially in a social environment, where  people are constantly on their phones while participating in a face-to-face conversation or group discussion. We claim being able to produce better results when doing multiple things at the same time. However, studies have revealed an astounding truth. Whether we like it or not, multitasking is not necessarily beneficial to our cognitive abilities. Namely, the more we multitask, the more we become susceptible to irrelevant environmental stimuli and irrelevant representations in memory. A great deal of our fragmented attention comes from social media itself. Not only do we now have the technology at our hands, but was it recently proven that talking about ourselves online stimulates the same parts of our brain responsible for orgasm, motivation, and love. Although researchers have just begun understanding about social media behavior and multitasking itself, the topic should be something to be discussed and brainstormed, since we all experience it to a certain level.

What are your opinions on that?

For a quick update on the subject, I recommend this video: