Social Networking

Social Networking technologies can be used for people to connect with each other, to share pictures, videos, comments, and personal information that they wish to share with others.  In the corporate world, Social Networking can also be used for collaboration such as sharing common documents when working on a project or posting messages to one common message board similar to a blog.  The benefit of this technology is that anything that's posted on one of the Social Networking sites can be instantly viewed by all the users of those sites and potentially all of the internet users.  This feature of Social Networking can also be used against people, to post information, pictures and videos to harass them or to damage their reputation.

I believe that the use of this technology will continue to expand to all groups of society and it will be incorporated into all commonly used internet-enabled electronic devices.  In the Maclean's article Social Networking at IBM: "What's Next? Your Future in Social Networking", the author tells us that companies such as IBM recognize the value and importance of Social Networks and are starting to use them in their business operations.  This illustrates the expansion of the use of Social Networking to other groups of society because when it started, it was just a way for friends to connect with each other.  Also, since its beginnings, the use of Social Networking expanded to politics.  Politicians use Social Networking sites to promote themselves.  In The New York Times article, "How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power," by David Carr, the author writes that President Obama understood the power of Social Networking and it helped him win his campaign against other presidential candidates in the 2008 election.