Social Networking and Privacy

Social networking has become an extremely prevalent and essential form of communication in our society. The sites are used by a multitude of companies and individuals alike to express current and new information, and to update interested people in a very fast way. The social network that I use is Facebook. I don’t have other sites like Twitter because Facebook fills my own personal social networking needs. I access Facebook all the time through my computer, and check it multiple times a day. I don’t have Internet on my phone; otherwise I am sure I would use Facebook on my phone. There can obviously be problems that arise with maintaining boundaries and regarding privacy, but I generally see social networking positively. Social networks are great ways to keep up with people and to share information, you just have to understand who your audience is, and expect that other people who you may not wish to see the information, may be able to. I set my privacy settings on Facebook to fit my needs, highly manage and control who can see what on my Facebook. I do this because I use my own Facebook account to keep in touch with my friends and siblings. I would rather not change my Facebook page to suit future employees or for work purposes.  That is my main concern that I have, as I enter the work world, and a conflict that I will have to face eventually. One good thing is, that there are new more work-oriented social networking sites that have become popular, and keep personal life separate from work. I think that what you reveal on your social networking sites and the information you provide is at your discretion and you should control who sees that information and understand your audience. I haven’t run into any extremely bad instances of over sharing, but there have been times when I have realized that there are individuals able to see pictures, status updates, and posts that may not the best individuals to see it. It is hard at times because people use similar social networking sites in different ways. For example my high school friend’s parents have Facebook and have sent me friend requests, and while I would love to keep in contact with them, Facebook, for me personally, is not the venue for this. It can be a sticky situation because I do not want to offend them, but would like to keep boundaries that other friends have chosen to relinquish. I think the best way to hand a social network in regards to privacy, is to understand what you personally want to use the site for, and to set up your privacy and edit yourself to fit those needs and boundaries. It also never hurts to remain a little more private on the Internet and to keep some boundaries regardless of your audience. I plan to use a different site for workplace interactions and friendship interactions, that way I can share a funny Youtube clip to my friends without worrying that my boss would think it wasn’t appropriate.

Media Diet

	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
TV	45 minutes	2 hours	1 hour	1.5 hours	2 hours
Internet	1 hour	40 minutes	50 minutes	30 minutes	15 minutes
Books	3-4 hours	1 hour	3 hours	2 hours	2.5 hours

            My media diet seems to be pretty balanced, but it was really hard to track the exact amount of time I spent using each different media. For example, I am rarely on the Internet for long periods of time, but use it to check email, Facebook, and other sites periodically throughout the day. Other than Facebook and emails, I use the Internet to youtube music, look at fashion blogs, and look up information on random things.  I also use it for school to research for papers to fulfill class assignments, etc. While my TV watching doesn’t seem out of control, I would like to watch less of it, and I am trying to cut down the amount of time that I waste watching TV. There are a few shows that I enjoy, including Dexter and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. However, that does not make up my whole TV consumption, and I feel that I end up watching mindless things, and my time could be better spent. In fact I would rather not watch any TV but somehow I always end up watching some each day. My reading hours are pretty high because of the classes I am taking this quarter. I have a lot of reading assigned for each of my classes, and I am also a slow reader, so this does take up more time than it may for a typical student. Generally these readings are school textbooks or articles assigned to me. I do try to read a chapter a night of a different non-school related book, but this is a goal that I have a hard time doing.

            On a whole, I would say that my consumption is pretty typical of a student. I know that most of my friends use these three forms of media most.  I think that one thing that may be different is I don’t have internet on my phone, and generally just use it to check sites periodically, so maybe my internet use is lower than average. From reading some previous blog postings, I may have a bit higher TV watching than some. But generally, I think my media diet says that I am an average student. The student population of Santa Clara can access all three forms of media, and are able to access all three at any time. Thus, I would think that their consumption rates are similar. However, I don’t really feel satisfied by my media diet. I really would like to cut back on the amount of hours of TV I watch, and add more valuable other forms (reading the news, reading books away from the classroom, etc).  I think American in general have become a little too involved with Internet and TV use. Especially TV, where it is such a passive activity, it is kind of concerning to me. It is so easy to sit in front of the TV and waste hours upon hours watching shows that don’t even provide us with any pleasure or knowledge. It reminds me of the movie Wall-E where the people have turned into blobs that just sit in front of screens consuming media constantly. 

Wall-E Video clip (about 1 minute in)

Overwhelmed with the Access Technology Provides

Technology, especially the internet, provides us with a unique ability to access a wealth of information, and additionally allows us to access that information at any time and through many different ways. It also allows information and material to be constantly updated and content to be continually added. This ability to access information and the nature of content being updated all the time is certainly beneficial and useful, and for many reasons an amazing aspect of our technology. But it is also the reason I so often feel overwhelmed by the Internet and information available to me.  

            I like to follow a lot of different fashion blogs, my friends and I are constantly sharing music by posting links of songs on each others’ Facebook walls, and there are always new emails, photographs, articles and so forth, continually and constantly added that is impossible for me to keep up everything that I would like to. There are always songs that I haven’t heard, posts I haven’t viewed, photos I haven’t looked through, and emails I haven’t read. To the point where, I am not enjoying what initially was something I got involved with for the sole point of enjoying.

            There are now new tools to streamline the updates and sort the information have popped up. I have noticed Google Reader, and now use it to easily keep up with blogs and websites I look at. I also have noticed that in Gmail there is a new priority mailbox to get the important emails to the front of the users attention. There are more sites and tools that allow you to stay connected even further and keep on top of the information that constantly is being added and updated. There are so many ways to be connected to people, events, and information that now there are tools being developed to stay connected to your connections. While these new tools help with my feelings of being overwhelmed, they do not necessarily resolve my feelings.

            In the documentary “We Live in Public” Josh Harris seems to go a little crazy at the end of his experiments living his life in public. He seems too exposed and too integrated into living publicly that his mental health is at stake. The parallels that Josh Harris’ experiments have with our current society make me wonder if the way Josh returned to a more simplistic living at the end of the documentary will also inevitably happen in our society. I wonder if having so much information and constant connection, will cause us to abandon or retreat from some technological advances, in hopes for a more sound and happy life.

            I think my own solution is to simplify and reduce the number of things I am trying to achieve and keep up with on the Internet and accept that there will constantly be more to know and experience. I just have to realize that I am not going to be able to process all the information that I want to and to enjoy and experience the information that I can when I have the time and ability, and not to stress.