Social Networking

Social networking is the common way we communicate in today's society. It is the "norm" and many of us either hold facebook accounts, twitter accounts, snap chats, Instagram, and so on. However, do we every stop to think how the use of social networking impacts our everyday lives within our society? Can it benefit us? Or can it affect us negatively? 
According to an online New York Times article, 'Tweeting Your Way to a Job', by  Laura M. Holson, social media experts are building careers based on their knowledge and 
usage of social networking. She writes, "The position of social media specialist, introduced by companies like Comcast, General Motors, and JetBlue Airways, has become the hottest new corporate job among the Twitterati. To marketers, it seems, personal relations have become the new public relations." She explains in the article how corporations are using social networks like twitter to extend their customer service and relations with customers to help resolve problems. So, in this aspect, social networking reflects a positive outcome for possible job opportunities. 
However, on the flip side of things social networking involves us constantly uploading posts and details about everyday moments, and we often lack privacy and wonder if the social networking sites are secure. For instance, some things we post on social media can also cause us to not have a job opportunity. Corporations invest probable perspective employees and it includes investing such things as hid or her twitter account or facebook page. So, then we question how much privacy do we really have on these social networking sites? 
According to an online New York Times article, ‘The Wild West of Privacy’, by Joe Nocera, The United States is soon approaching a privacy crisis. He writes, "Google, Facebook and other big Internet companies collect information about us, which they deploy in the service of advertisers." The information we are providing such sites as he discussed targets our society to give out information to advertisers. He explains, "Big data brokers, like Acxiom, have developed sophisticated tools that allow them to know almost as much about us as we know about ourselves; they then sell that data to all kinds of companies that want to learn everything from our habits to our health, from our sexual orientation to our finances." The information we use on everyday websites can be harmful and impact us negatively. As far as finding a job it can also affect us negatively too; Nocera writes, " It’s not just data brokers that need to be more transparent. It is every entity that collects data. People should be able to see the information that is collected on them. For instance, there are companies that compile scores about people — risk scores, or health scores, or fraud scores. Those scores should be known to the people who are being scored because it can affect everything from their ability to get insurance to their chances of landing a job." He argues that we should have the right to know about any personal information used against us. The issue of our privacy is a serious one because the sites that we use are like tracking devices. 
In my opinion, I believe in the future there will have to be some sort of data tool used to let us the consumers be aware of how we use social network sites, and how we are monitored. Since social media is evolving and is a major part of our society, there will have to be newer measures created to ensure our safety online. More job opportunities will be created, and corporations should not be allowed to follow our social media to determine a job offer without certain protocol. 

References 
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/opinion/nocera-the-wild-west-of-privacy.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/fashion/21whiz.html