Social software to some can be seen as a waste of tIme. It can be viewed as a distracter and also something that can divert you from a more important goal that you have at hand. Everyone has an opinion of their own but social software can also be viewed as a blessing in disguise. Although an annoyance at times social software could be used as an outlet for creativity and new ideas. It’s sole purpose is not to just connect people. A quote that stood out to me in one of the readings was ” when less information is available, we change our behavior and discover new subtleties in the information that we have” (Kasperzak). This holds much truth. When we do not have information at hand we look for ways to find information with what we have. Social software can be used as that type of outlet instead of the use of google or some type of professional information we can also use the information and ideas of our piers that we have on our social software. With the positives does come some negatives. Many people do not realize that what you put on your social software does not disappear even if you “delete” it. If you are not careful what you put onto it it could come back to bite you when going for a new job, if you have legal issues, or even something as simple as friends and family it could have a negative effect if you are not conscious of what you are putting up. Speaking from personal experience with currently in the process of getting hired by a police department they check all aspects of your social software and if there are any discrepancies with what you have to them you are disqualified for that job. Luckily I have been pretty smart with my social software platforms and I have not run into that problem but it is important to know that whatever you put up never goes away. I do believe social software through it all is indeed a blessing in disguise because it can open doors for us that otherwise couldn’t have been open before, it can be used as another source for ideas and it helps you communicate and keep in touch and spread a message of your own to just about anyone or even use it to make friends as it stated in the article “Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What?” Whereas without social software it would be impossible for a single average citizen to have as much reach as they would have thanks to social software.
Apr 09