The End Week 10

In a way, it is sad to read the final chapters of our 'textbooks'. I would never normally use that sentence. But it is true, like most people in our class agree, these books were thought-provoking, insightful, and intriguing. With social media being a new topic to study, I was excited to read each week and learn what the knowledgeable, experienced authors had to say--especially since all of their ideas can be applied directly to PR and where the profession is headed.

In the conclusion of New Influencers, Gillin says, "Social media is simply an electronic version of interactions that have been going on for a long time." I completely agree with his statement. The concepts and ideas behind social media aren't fabulously new and innovative. At its core, social media is communication and interaction between people. What has changed is that people now know how to communicate/interact electronically and instantaneously. This allows companies, organizations, and individual people to interact with the public in a more effective manner; a manner that follows the evolution of technology in our culture and uses it.

Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba stress the importance of loyalty and transparency in this social media phenomenon. Loyalty is the goal and the backbone of citizen-created content. People blog and share because of their passion and desire to do so. It isn't (normally) out of monetary motivation. Self-motivation is what makes the communication credible, honest, and transparent. Investing time and thought into people and engaging in transparent communication is social media at its finest.

Laptops for Everyone ...Week 4

Democratization concerning the internet is a loaded topic. Social media fuels the race for it. According to McConnell and Huba in chapter three of Citizen Marketers, democratization perpetuates the battle between transparency and control within companies and organizations. To me, one of the most interesting ideas concerning the concept was introduced by Nicholas Negroponte. He is an MIT hotshot who began a project called the One Laptop Per Child project in 2005. For around $135 each, the project sells laptops to children in developing nations. Negroponte is "trying to ride the wave of technological democratization by gentrifying the elitism of computer ownership." Once I broke this statement down into smaller words that I could understand, it made a lot of sense. Negroponte is embracing the concept of democratization and he knows that it is fueled by social media. He is working against the idea that only the privileged and wealthier countries should have social media tools at their fingertips. Negroponte knows that everyone has a voice and the potential to be a citizen marketer, whether they're an American businessman or a Nigerian child. I think the One Laptop Per Child project is genius.

Privacy is a thing of the past

Thanks to this class, I have been increasingly aware of social media's influence everywhere I look. Ashamed as I am to admit this, I am an avid Gossip Girls fan. The characters on that show are constantly using their cell phones or the internet to communicate the latest gossip. None of the characters can get away with anything. When Serena and Dan secretly rekindled their romance after a summer of being broken up, a random girl on the street spotted them kissing and snapped a picture with her camera phone. She then proceeded to send the pic to every other teenager in the city apparently. (This tends to happen at least once an episode.) Privacy doesn't exist in the fast-paced, technical world of Gossip Girl. But Gossip Girl's world is not far from our own.


With everyone owning an instant-connection-to-every-humanbeing device aka a cell phone, anything can be captured and sent out to people within seconds. Social networking sites are superb at capturing every little detail of one's activity and posting it in the open for all to witness. Ben Parr wrote a fantastic blog about the link between social media and privacy at http://mashable.com/2008/09/08/social-media-privacy-news-feed/


Facebook began their news feed application almost exactly two years ago. He explains that at first people were wary about the idea of the instant feeds and had no desire to post their lives online or view anyone elses. Or so they thought. Once the phenomena caught on, it exploded. Parr says the Facebook News Feed began to revolutionize how people viewed their friendships with people online and off. Suddenly, everyone could know when Joe Schmoe broke up with his girlfriend and what she had written on her best friend's wall about it. Parr writes, "Our views on what should be shared, what shouldn’t be shared, and with whom we share our lives are what have changed the most. We are more comfortable sharing our lives and thoughts instantly to thousands of people, close friends and strangers alike". Social media has invaded our privacy, but we are willing to let it. Individually, each person should ask themselves, how much should I put out there? What do I want my parents, boss, teachers, to see? Personal discretion is becoming more and more necessary.