 "Photo: Anthony Salinaz / The Pan American")
If you’re sitting in a lab or anywhere near computers, look around. What is the most common sight seen on everyone’s screen? That’s an easy answer. Sitting near me now is someone on Facebook. Another, a couple of seats down, is checking their Twitter. Believe it or not, I can also see somebody surfing MySpace. Do you remember in the ancient times when Xanga existed? LiveJournal? Or even, dare I say, OpenDiary?
It seems to me that networking sites are extremely popular. Knowing every detail about people’s lives and being able to click a “like” button has become heroin to the drug addict that is society.
This statement is very much true though. The newly founded epiphany (note the sarcasm, keep up now) has made me realize as the last person on earth to not have a Facebook or MySpace, how important networking really is.
Especially as a journalism major. I feel someone who is likely to work in the news industry needs to keep up with current events. And what’s the fastest way, you ask? Social networking.
The only form I currently have is Twitter and for a full-time student and reporter with the school paper, that’s enough. I say that because I am a notorious procrastinator as it is when working on a computer. Instead of typing away feverishly you can find me surfing CNN.com, BarelyPolitical.com or ‘Perezing’ on PerezHilton.com. Yea, I am guilty of doing so.
As the final human being on planet earth to have not signed up with Facebook, I feel like a total outcast. The common joke around the newsroom when some sort of “Facebook event” is coming up is, I cannot attend because…why, you ask? Basically, I don’t have the invitation.
I can’t forget to mention the first time I heard about posting up videos, status updates and all the other fun crap one can post on their “wall.” Laugh at me if you must, but the truth of the matter is that my first thought upon hearing this fun fact was something along the lines of “wtf??”
The truth of the matter is I don’t find the subject at hand lame, I just don’t have the time. I am originally a small-town gal, and the notion back home is that everyone knows your business through these social networks. That’s not a good thing. When my best friend’s mother can comment on my crap and then turn around and talk chisme with her father who just so happens to be my father’s age and confidante, then we’ve got problems.
There are ups and downs to this topic, however. As noted before, social networking is a great way of marketing oneself. Businesses aiming at a younger generation know that this can be successfully done through networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. Not to mention they’re fun as hell and a great way of passing time.
On the other hand networking sites, when used inappropriately by douchebags, can be painted quite ugly. Bullying some kid through one of the aforementioned sites is a sick way of boosting up one’s self-esteem. In this situation once would use the term, “quit trollin’”; commonly used for haters who leave stupid comments on these types of sites.
And don’t post up that party picture of yourself asleep at some random person’s sink after a late night of partying. This is a true story. Friends of mine did hoist this picture up but only because it wasn’t any of us. This is allowed.
Anyhow, the whole point of this blurb is: networking sites when used accordingly are not so bad in the end. If anything, they can keep you connected and help with your chosen profession/industry.
So go back to your so-net lives, continue expanding your farms, and upload that sweet-ass picture you took of yourself in your bathroom.
Be the first to comment on this article!