I stumbled upon an article from the Financial Times that discusses how older people are suffering from their lack of participation in select social media sites. As the internet continues to grow, certain sites become relevant in the job application process. Professional networking sites like LinkedIn.com allow users to "connect" with many academics and business professionals for networking purposes.
The situation that was raised in the article is, "for example, you’re looking to hire a VP of recruiting and they only have four connections on LinkedIn, would you want to hire them?" (Financial Times, December 1, 2010) My answer along with the author is probably not. The lack of online connections could translate in the real world.
All of this makes me think, in our lifetime, is the quantity of connections more important or the quality? Before this, I would easily say quality but it's become more salient that quality alone just does not do. The ones that will rise to the top will have many high quality connections, that translate online to offline.
I feel that this is a perfect example of the Network Effect. People have the choice to be included or not. If they choose not to, they are looked down upon. It's all about keeping up with the times, nowadays. If one isn't up to date with technology and the new innovations they are left in the past.
ReplyDeleteAs I've grown older I've realized the importance of quality connections as opposed to quantity. When I was younger and made a Myspace, I was all about having the most friends and being popular online. As I moved on to Facebook and then Twitter, I cared less and less about the number of connections and more about who exactly I was connecting with.
Sadly, I feel that many of us today put a heightened sense of value on who we interact with sometimes online rather than who we interact with on a daily basis in REAL life.
I do think that in this day and age if you want to get a job you need to be technologically educated and keep up with the what is going on with technology. I do not think people should lose face connection but in order to do well I think people need to be involved with social media and technology.
ReplyDeleteit really just depends on the user. keep in mind, some adult users may just not feel comfortable with privacy settings - others may not have the time. but in the end, regardless of whether one is on it or not, they should be familiar with how to apply it to a business setting. personal use and knowing how to apply it are two different things. The latter should be the standard.
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