Social Networks

 

As we get started in the world of Web 2.0 and Social Media, one of the readings we needed to do this semester is Networked: The New Social Operating System. The first chapter of this book talks about how the use of social networks helped a couple to raise as they went through some difficult times. I am not going to go over all the details, but it made me realize how normal this is now. The book was published in 2011 and many things have changed since then, but be able to use social media to raise funds has become a very common thing. It is very typical to see Go Fund me campaigns in Facebook and as someone who has donated to these campaigns and it has become a way for me to find out that someone that I haven’t talked to in a while it’s going through difficult times and I make sure to contribute even if it is just a small donation.

This also made me reflect on how we use social media to sell stuff. A couple years ago, we had to sell our house and the real estate agents that we hired were not very good. I decided just to test to publish the house on Facebook and see what happened. In less than a week, we had a buyer and we sold a house. This is another example that people are not using the traditional channels anymore to find things.

Of course, we know there is also the bad side of this. When I publish the house on Facebook, I was very scared that we might get people with ill intentions, but I just had to test this as we really needed to sale the house. With the Go Fund me campaigns, there have been many scams and the money that is raised people use it for personal vacations or other intentions. So, like everything in life it is important to be aware, but these social networks are not going away and we will have to see how they continue to grow.