Social Networking:

pros & cons

privacy concerns

Samra Salam
03/11/2011

Presentation created using Google Docs

1. What the heck is Social Networking??

PC Magazine defines a social network as:

"An association of people drawn together by family, work or
hobby. The term was first coined by professor J. A. Barnes in the
1950s, who defined the size of a social network as a group of about
100 to 150 people."
 
PC Magazine defines a Social Networking site as:
"A Web site that provides a virtual community for people
interested in a particular subject or just to 'hang out'
together. Members create their own online "profile" with
biographical data, pictures, likes, dislikes and any other
information they choose to post. They communicate with
each other by voice, chat, instant message, videoconference
and blogs, and the service typically provides a way for
members to contact friends of other members.

"Sites may also serve as a vehicle for meeting in person. The

'social networking site' is the 21st century 'virtual community,'
a group of people who use the Internet to communicate with
each other about anything and everything. One can find
dating sites, friendship sites, sites with a business purpose
and hybrids that offer a combination of these. Globally,
hundreds of millions of people have joined one or more social
networking sites."
 Types of Social Networks:
 
• Social Networking Sites (Facebook, MySpace,
LinkedIn)
• Video and Photo Sharing Sites (YouTube, Flickr)
• Blogs (Huffington Post, Lifehacker, TMZ)
• Wikis (Wikipedia)
• Social Bookmarking (del.icio.us, Digg)
• Internet Radio (Pandora)
• RSS Feeds
• Open Source software
• Text and Video Chat (Skype, Meebo)
• Maps/Directions (MapQuest, Google Maps)
• Collaboration (Whiteboard, Google Docs)
• ...many many more
 Social Networking Statistics
Source: "Social Media Revolution" by Socialnomics09 video found on YouTube and Socialnomics.
 
• By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers….96% of them have joined a
social network 
• 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
• Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4
Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9
months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
• If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest between the
United States and Indonesia
• Yet, some sources say China’s QZone is larger with over 300 million using their
services (Facebook’s ban in China plays into this) 
• 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online
students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction
• 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum
• % of companies using LinkedIn as a primary tool to find employees….80%
• The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females
 
Social Networking Statistics (cont.)
 
• Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres have more Twitter followers than the entire
populations of Ireland, Norway and Panama
• 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices…people update anywhere, anytime…
imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?
• Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé…In 2009 Boston College stopped
distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen
• What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook…
• The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube
• Wikipedia has over 13 million articles…some studies show it’s more accurate than
Encyclopedia Britannica…78% of these articles are non-English
• There are over 200,000,000 Blogs
• 54% = Number of bloggers who post content or tweet daily
• More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes,
photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook…daily.
Chart Taken from Social Media Optimization website
Pros and Cons of Social Networking

Advantages of Social Networking Sites

• Create and maintain many relationships
• Information comes to you
• Provides ability to participate and contribute
• Professional networking
• Promote issues important to you
 
Disadvantages of Social Networking Sites
• Lack of anonymity
• Predatory targeting
• Harassment and online bullying
 Privacy concerns
Social networking sites provide privacy options but
users are generally unaware or tend to ignore the
following concerns:
•User Anonymity can allow illegitimate practices
such as fake identities which can encourage stalkers,
sex offenders, and other ill-intended people can
interact with targeted audience
•It’s easy for teenagers and young adults to reveal
their private information to strangers that can
easily expose them for selfish reasons

•Employees can now make job-hiring decisions by looking up

employees on social networks and judge them by their interactions –
without the knowledge of the individual seeking the job
• College admission decisions are also often made by judging the
students’ interaction, ethics and general behavior on social networking
sites
• Because of the anonymity of the blogs and ads present on the social
networks, it is easy to give away private – confidential information to
scams, malware and hackers
• Once a unwanted photo or video gets out into the public
network, its hard to get it back – and the person who
uploaded the photo/video will not be able to stop it from
getting into the hands of restricted peoples.