The Charlie Rose interview with Linked In CEO Reid highlights the value of online networking playing a bigger role than ever before in areas such as job seeking and idea generation instead of the traditional methods such as mailing in resumes for job interview that was the predominant method about 5 years back and going through class room based learning for idea and concept development for an area someone is interested in.
I personally use Linked In to network to market myself. However, more impactful to me was finding some of my school friends at a professional level through Linked In as well as through Facebook at a social level. These tools or social networking engines have not only been tremendously beneficial but actually has created a paradigm shift in the younger generation which in essence has forced the older generation to accept this new social media lifestyle, some of them out of reluctance while the rest out of willingness.
I should however highlight the cons which is glaringly in the area of privacy. With the advent of these enginese, there is absolutely no concept of privacy. Especially in Facebook, I see almost everyone posting their photos such as their house parties and trip details. This is something I still refrain from doing so. I always am concerned about the security breach, a recent one that was in Facebook, that could possibly result in the access of ones' photos and social details falling into the hands of unwanted elements. It is therefore very important that we should shoulder the responsibility of constantly educating kids about the security and identity issues that one could compromise in the event of posting everything in social media networks.
I would therefore feel comfortable and certainly advocate keeping the network moving at a professional level and hence my strong support for LinkedIn, therefore supporting the ideas and concepts that Reid talks about in the interview.
Privacy is certainly a concern, but I am frequently surprised by what educated professionals post on their Facebook pages for everyone to see. While some are worried about keeping things private, others are broadcasting information which is strange and may eventually hurt them in careers and relationships.
ReplyDeleteBasically, my working assumption is that anything I type in an emal, post on a web site, simply do on the internet (such as searching or visiting a site) has the potential to be exposed to the public. The only saving grace today is that there is simply so much of this information that its very magnitude makes it unlikely that it can be used for bad purposes.
Frank