Be careful what you write.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-15426919

The link above is to a story published on the BBC news website on the 24TH of October. The issue at hand here is that an employer took action against a an employee who stated that he worked for them on his Facebook and then went on to give views they did not deem an appropriate representation of them so they promptly demoted him. This poses a dilemma because although his views are less than favourable we have, in this country the right to freedom of speech and Mr Smith believes that this made him well within his rights to express this belief in particular. However the company are arguing that these beliefs were representing them and as he stated he worked for them and was well aware of an updated version of their code of conduct which included social networking he is in the wring. So there are two sides to this but the really interesting thing is the fact that social networking is now such a big part of the world we live in that people are now being held accountable for what they say, in a place where they thought they do have the right to freedom of speech to express ore controversial opinions, something they might have kept to themselves in the work place. Perhaps this is a positive thing because companies are now able to see whether people do not fit with the views they hold but whether or not the man deserved to lose his job for it is a difficult one. Social networking is beginning to infiltrate all aspects of society and it often seems that perhaps people should be more careful what they write. The freedom of speech argument isn't always going to be there for you.

Twitter in the commons.

MPs vote in favour of using Twitter in Commons

The link above is to a BBC news article posted on the 13th of October 2011. It relates to the issue I mentioned in my first post about the rise of social networking on smart phones and how that could have a detrimental effect on employment. The issue of tweeting in the house of commons is definitely an interesting one. Although I agree with Sir Allen Haslehurst that using a social networking site such a twitter could create an unwanted distraction and seem un-professional in such a high profile place I have to say that in order for MPs of this age to be able to relate to and connect with the public on something which people from all walk of life should be involved in, politics they have to be able to move with the times and if that means tweeting from the house of commons then 'tradition' and 'decorum' will just have to move aside. This story also really highlights how much social networking has infiltrated all of our society. It is now seen as one of the number one ways for world leaders to reach out to and gain support from the public on a world stage. Barack Obama, David Cameron and Ed Miliband all have official Twitters and it can only be a positive that the young generation now feel they can connect with their governments through a medium that they want to and do use. Yes it would be great if all 20 somethings sat down with a newspaper every day but realistically using Twitter is a much more effective way of reaching the younger generation. So tweet away MP's. Maybe one day you'll have as many followers as Lady Gaga.

First thoughts.

The beginnings of social networking on the Internet can be traced back to the mid 1990's in the form of  on-line communities which were focused bringing people together to interact with one other through chat rooms by sharing personal information on web pages. Features such as user profiles and 'friend' lists were developed during this time on websites such as sixdegrees.com and Classmates.com. However it was really with the emergence of Myspace and Bebo in the early 2000's that social networking websites really began to boom. The emergence of Facebook in 2004 started by Mark Zuckerburg in his Harvard dorm room led to it becoming the most popular social networking site in the world. So much so that a 2011 survey showed 47% of American adults now use the site. Entertainment Weekly summed up the concept and success of Facebook when it wrote "How on earth did we stalk our exes, remeber our co-workers birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?" in 2009. But it is the rise in popularity and affordability of smart phones which let users access sites like Facebook and Twitter any time and anywhere that created a huge boom in the usage of these sites and also meant people began starting to question the possible detrimental impact on education, privacy, employment and online bullying amongst many others things that the invasion of social networking on society could have. In this blog I will look into an analyse the constant changing world of social networking in the 21st century.