Introduction
The twenty first century has been the era of globalization based on the integration of economies and amalgamation of diverse cultures. The biggest tool of globalization has been the technological advancements that have led to rising ease in the access of information for people all over the globe. Amongst all the technologies, the advent of internet has been the most critical tool that has affected the entire global population; there has been a complete transformation in the lives and behaviors of the individuals especially in the way people interact with one another. Until last decade, there was a clear distinction between the social media and social networking where social media was considered as a way to transmit information to a broader audience while social networking was considered to be an act of engagement where groups of people built relationships through social networking sites. In the modern era, there has been a closer connection between the social media as well as social networking as both have direct influence on the daily lives of individuals. Media networking or rather social media networking is where the social media and the act of making connections comes together in the society affecting the thoughts, behaviors, and actions. The paper sheds light on how the media networking today impacts the way people interact with each other in society considering both the work and personal life. But due to the broad nature of the topic, the paper shall be limited to social media networking and its impacts on the lives of people. Initially the paper discusses how the media and digitalization has changed the face of work and business itself followed by a discussion of how social media helps the people at work and finally, the impact on the personal connections of people is explored.
Transforming the Business Itself
There is no way through which our lives may avoid encountering with some form of social media especially with the dynamic nature of technology that has made computers and internet reach virtually everywhere. The most significant impact on the way businesses operate has been how the social media is playing a role in providing career opportunities to the potential employees making it easier for the employees to reach the potential employers. Every business is conducted through personal computers that offer tools to organize the information like databases and personal schedules and much more. The social media is helping companies identify and recruit their required talent. According to a survey 94% of recruiters are inclined towards LinkedIn, 66% consider Facebook as a helping source while 52% of the recruiters make their hiring efforts towards Twitter (Nathan).
The way people tend to communicate and collaborate at the workplace has been constantly changing. Most of the companies have enterprise-wide blogs and sites that help in promoting collaboration among the workforce. The president and analyst for Shore Communications, John Blossom states that the most effective publishing tools of social media already have in-built social networking elements in them. Blossom believes that as technology is evolving, tools like LinkedIn and Facebook are rapidly transforming; there is lesser distinction as publishing and social networking seem to be integrating together. “LinkedIn Answers, for example, enables people to ask questions of executives and to get valuable answers. However, without a secure social networking website, these questions would not be asked with security and privacy” (“Change the Face of Business” 14).
Considering the rising pressures of global competitive and the ease in access to information, it has become highly imperative for the organizations to take advantage of the social media networking in order to leverage the intellectual assets available. In order to solve problems, it is in the benefit of the companies to access the social media tools rather than hiring a limited team of experts. As compared to a team of expert personnel, reaching all around the globe with LinkedIn could not only be easier and cost effective but also has far reaching impacts. With such tools, it becomes easier to filter the right skill set required to solve the problems. For instance, if a company requires hiring a marketing manager or even a sales person, only filtering the requirements on LinkedIn can be very helpful as the required skills shall be matched and results sorted in no time. The use of media and the tools of social networking in integration have an amazing effect as a marketing tool for businesses that can boost the productivity as well as the image of the company. The social media has also ensured more engagement and transparency in the businesses. With the emergence of the digital media and the active participation of the social networking sites, people demand an honest and direct relation with the corporations.
Learning and Interacting at Work
The aging population from all around the globe who were considered to be the experts in corporate knowledge ae retiring while the younger generation is entering the workplace. The new employees have completely different mindsets regarding how information is to be consumed, how one needs to interact with other and how the learning needs to take place. The workplace requires tools like Enterprise 2.0 that enable participation of employees by building communities and encouraging them to interact online so that not only the employees are given a chance to accelerate the business but also to express themselves which would eventually lead to innovative capabilities and rising loyalty of the workforce. The need to engage employees and building closer relations has led to integrating social networking tools in organizations. For the purpose of professional communication, tools like e-mail, blogs, teleconferencing, and even Twitter may be very helpful. On the other hand, to build rapport with clients, and to gain intellectual capital, the social networking sites are used. Every company like Walmart, IBM, Microsoft, and even small businesses have online webpages as well as blogs to connect their people with one another and with their customers.
The tools for social networking enables the professionals to learn through various creative means. Mathew Valencius, the manager of sales learning design and development at IBM states more transparency seen in learning organizations and more opportunities are provided so that both professional and personal networks may be expanded. It has been clearly found that with te use of these technological tools, the companies are experiencing a reduction in travel costs as it has become easier to deliver content and information in a virtual manner rather than being physically present in other areas; it also saves time along with cutting costs (Derven 60). With the use of technology, it has become easier to match up the mentees and the mentors. IBM makes use of the social networking tools to connect with the employees as well as the customers all around the globe. It is also used for enhancing learning through mentor matching, peer coaching, online discussions that promote innovation, and most importantly to hold a training session from across the social media with far reaching impacts. But, IBM keeps track of how these tools are being used by the employees to ensure that the impact is only positive; Hoff states, “We don’t see this as a high-risk endeavor. Our employees know that they need to use IBM assets appropriately and in an ethical manner, and that includes social networking tools. We also have social networking guidelines” (Derven 63). The company is 100% clear on the organizational culture which aims at behaving in an ethical manner no matter the actions are conducted online or face-to-face. This ensures that learning through social networking media can be conducted with similar guidelines and codes of conduct that are required otherwise.
One of the very significant uses of social media platforms in organizations is to engage the employees so that information is shared easily and knowledge can be built. This can be very helpful specifically when the employees are scattered geographically. The social media tools like Google+ and Facebook allow sharing of information and photos; “Hangouts” has an inbuilt video chat designed where groups of up to 10 people may schedule a private meeting. Facebook is particularly helpful as a communication hub and with Twitter, seminar attendees may share highlights of presentations. Though the general thinking is that Facebook and Twitter may distract the workers from their actual jobs, but a new study that was published in The European Journal of Information Systems, identified that internal integration of social media programs can affect the attitude and performance of employees in a positive manner. The research focused on a financial institution that launched a social network so that it Information Technology employees may connect with other organizational members for discussions. Dorothy Leidner, the Ferguson Professor of Information Systems, said: “the new hires evolve from being primarily consumers of the information in the social networking systems when they first join the organization, to becoming contributors to the social networking system after they have been in the company for a while” (“The Impact of Social Networking Sites in the Workplace”). According to the author, through the social network, the new hires got easily acclimated to the company and got introduced to the peers. Further, the younger employees could easily connect to the older employees and gain social capital through the mentors. Even the daily interactions helped the employees to build healthy professional relations and engage easily with their peers.
Personal Connections and Media
A study conducted by Ericsson in 2011 identified that more than 35 percent of mobile users have a habit of checking their Facebook accounts as well as their emails even before they get out of their beds while 40 percent of the people are sure to use their phones before going to sleep. Moreover it was also found that the average time spent by an American being connected with others through the digital devices falls between 2.5 to 3.5 hours per day (Greengard 17). Generally, the interactions of people are limited to geographical boundaries which tend to decay as the physical distance increases. For example, once you move out of a city, you most probably lose touch with the neighbors there or the old school friends who went to study in another state university. But in the age of digital technology, the concept of being connected has been changing radically. The digital devices have played a critical role in increasing the human interactions.
The primary use of the internet is to communicate and people use different tools like e-mail, social network sites, blogs, instant messaging, and Twitter to make social connections. But there are still two views about the impacts of the use of internet on the social life of people that are classified as the “cyberpessimists” and the “cyberoptimists” (Pollet, Robert and Dunbar 253); while the former assert that there is negative impact of the use of internet on social life of individuals, the latter show that internet has affected the social lives of individuals in a positive manner. The cyberpessimists believe that time spent on internet is equal to wastage of the time that could otherwise be spent on socializing which particularly involves the face-to-face interactions. On the contrary, the cyberoptimists believe that internet has brought communication to a new verge; rather than replacing other communication means, the internet tools have supplemented so that more stronger and satisfying social relationships can be built.
A very old saying regarding humans that they are social animals seems to be fitting when this study is analyzed. People look for ways to connect with others and are more into sharing information so that relationships can be built. The social networking sites and other digital tools have helped individuals come closer. The digital tools included in the social media have helped the people in interacting and sharing information. For Instance, the social networking sites like Facebook, and Twitter are very helpful to build relations. All such sites and groups help the people to learn making friends; and to add more, it has become easier to get in touch with old friends and to get to know the no-acquaintances that could be best friends in the future. A very famous online community page known by the name of LinkedIn is a very useful online hub to get in touch and identify with the required skilled labor or finding the right employers. It helps by matching the interests, fields of expertise, qualifications and filters information to help individuals in various ways.
Despite all the positive impacts on the personal lives of the people, it cannot be denied that communication through social media or digital media has helped the weak ties more than the strong ties; as compared to the close friends and family members, this medium has positive effects on bringing the acquaintances and colleagues closer as they gain access to personal information and get to know each other more. On the other hand, this is having a negative impact on the close ties as they do not get enough time to spend face-to-face. So, internet and social media tend to help individuals to build and maintain more relationships that could not be allowed through face-to-face channels. Moreover, through public posts and providing profile information, people tend to establish common grounds and create a more clear relation. Due to information sharing, there are lesser chances that unpleasant surprise would hurt a relation (Steijn and Alexander).
Though, it is a fact that the face-to-face interactions have been decreasing but this is completely wrong to blame the digitalization of the media to be the root cause of this trend. Considering all the changing conditions, using the digital media or the social media tools is the need of the time; it has helped the individuals personally as well as professionally to cope up with the dynamic world. Rather than limiting interactions, it is through the integration of media networking in the daily lives that relationship building has become a significant part of life. It has become the need to build relations and get in touch as now, the human aspect of the individuals is being given significance both in personal lives and professional lives. Distances do not really mean to decay relations because now, there are tools to get in touch, to communicate and even to visualize the presence of one another. The very famous examples are Skype, Viber, CALL and Facebook Messenger.
Conclusion
Digital technology has impacted the daily lives of the human beings to a great extent. Just two decades ago, internet was considered to be useful for only those people who were perceived to be struggling with social anxiety. But with the rising globalization and the elimination of geographical boundaries, the need to communicate over longer distances rose dramatically giving the internet yet another powerful boost such that it has taken over the lives of people completely. Social media and internet have changed the way people behave at work and in their personal lives. Businesses have realized the need to building closer ties among their employees and the need to communicate over longer distances. With social networking in organizations, employees develop stronger relationships and their morale enhances which in turn impacts the productivity of the overall organization.
Apart from the professional impact at work, the media networking and specially the social networking has connected people with others. Social relationships require time and active maintenance to survive otherwise over time, they are prone to decay. For the weaker ties like acquaintances and old friends, the internet communication has provided means to strengthening relations by sharing information and more self-disclosure. But for the stronger ties like closer friends and family, spending more time on the internet and other digital device leads to lesser face-to-face interactions and hurting the strong relation. There are many other ways social media networking is impacting individuals but due to limitations of the paper, only some are discussed.
Works Cited
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