Social networking has transformed the way we function as a society, especially in the corporate world. People have started to use social networking platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn to hunt job job candidates. As Maureen Crawford-Hentz says on NPR, "Social networking technology is absolutely the best thing to happen in recruiting." (Langfitt 1) LinkedIn is a business and employment-oriented service that operates via mobile apps and website used for professional networking. The platform has a network of 8 million professionals spread across the world, some which include executives from Fortune 500 companies. Headhunters can use LinkedIn's search engine to scrape the entire network and dig out high quality candidates that she can't find anywhere else. Not only has social networking allowed for job recruiting to be more efficient, "such sites help job hunters market themselves online by setting up profiles, listing work history and specific skills." (Langfitt 1). But more importantly, social networking has made job recruiting a lot more efficient. Headhunters don't have to contact people over phones to find candidates, but rather they have thousands of qualified candidates right in front of them by using LinkedIn. And with LinkedIn, the process of filtering through these candidates has gotten a lot quicker. "Using LinkedIn, Steckerl says he can scout a group of job candidates in just half an hour." (Langfitt 1)
Although social networking has brought many benefits to society, it does have a "dark side" in which it has destroyed the privacy of the many people using its platforms. Just recently, Facebook was caught in Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which Facebook sold data about its consumers to marketing firms such as Cambridge Analytica. This issue has brought up the controversy in which we question whether or not social networking platforms such as Facebook should be more heavily regulated. The move on part of Facebook destroys the privacy of its users who have trusted Facebook with keeping their privacy confidential. Not only that, even Rachel Zuckerberg, the sister of Facebook's founder, couldn't keep a family photo she posted private. The photo was reposted by Vox Media's marketing director Callie Schweitzer. This is very confusing because it brings up the question of how a stranger was able to get access to the Zuckerberg family photo without being friends with the person who posted it. "If Facebook's privacy settings are too confusing for a Zuckerberg, how are the rest of us ever supposed to post anything that's truly, completely private?" (Grifantini 1) In this case, we have to take the bad with the good.
Citations:
1. "Facebook Is Going for Some Twitter Sensibility" by Claire Cain Miller, The New York Times, Sept 13, 2009. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/technology/internet/14facebook.html?_r=1&ref=business
2. Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting by Frank Langfitt, NPR, March 16, 2008. available from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf
Hi Dennis!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I lvoe the style of your blog but could you perhaps make the text a big larger please?
I find it interesting that you mention the recent discovery that Facebook sells our personal data. What's interesting is that many pose this concern as a breach of our privacy even though when we are prompted to give away certain rights and allow the usage and selling of our data, we go ahead and click Agree to the Terms & Conditions. While it is a major concern as users of such a powerful company, I believe that in a way, we embrace both the bright and dark side of such technologies and don't realize that we have no choice in the selling of our data if we want to use the technology, until scandals like the one you mentioned emerge.
Good Job!