You can't take something off the Internet - it's like taking pee out of a pool. ~Author Unknown, 1995http://www.quotegarden.com/internet.html
Social media has opened the door to so many positives for the human race as a whole. The positives I see are the ability to lessen judgement on physical attributes, widen the scope for communication on a global platform, the ability to globalise businesses, the ability to transcend race, religion, language or geographical location. That said, I’m a bit of an old chook (not in years of course, I’m only 30) when it comes to what is and is not proper when it comes to social media. I believe there should ALWAYS be a time and a place to be using social media. Also there should be monitoring by parents on their children’s internet consumption, clearly as my previous blog showed, the potential for children to expose themselves to harm online is quite alarming.
When you get your license, you have to go for a driving test… this assesses your ability to operate a vehicle (which has the potential to harm) in a safe way, and teaches learners all about what you can and cannot do on the road. Why can’t we have the same thing for children in schools? I think it would be an invaluable addition to school curriculum. Should we not teach our children the potential dangers of the internet and how to navigate it safely to avoid harm to themselves and others just as we teach them about road safety?
The future that I see for social media is much the same as I see it now, a lot of both pro’s and con’s, depending upon the personal use and monitoring for that particular person. The health risks and lack of physical contact using social media are quite worrying for myself, and I believe there is a huge advantage of having ‘people’ skills which may be lost if social media becomes the sole vehicle of communication (http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com/Negative_Impact_of_Social_Networking_Sites).
I have learnt a lot about social media from this unit, but what I have learnt more about in all honesty is myself. My core values, my belief systems and my vulnerabilities when it comes to online usage. It has raised new worries for myself as a parent (like I didn’t already have enough), but has also given me enough information and exposure to issues to be able to combat these problems with confidence and knowledge. From a business perspective I see endless possibilities for social media sites, but without proper guidelines in place, where will it end? I don’t have a crystal ball, but if we lose the ability to communicate in person via body language and context, what is the point of life? It’s great we can run a business meeting with people all over the world via a Skype chat, but how do you know one of the participants isn’t on twitter or facebook at the same time as you are running your meeting? There are certain things that can never be replaced by personal interaction, but social media’s potential to enhance and progress the scope of this communication is huge. Maybe we are the last generations to experience this merging of communication techniques. Who knows? But I am going to hang on and try and keep up with technology for as long as is humanly possible.
