Social Media Promotes Social Responsibility

I have recently been evaluating the way that social media has changed my life.  One of the most profound differences that it has made in my life is that I am extremely more aware of who is capturing what and what they are doing with it.  What I mean by that is who is taking pictures of me, who is recording me on a video camera or an audio clip, and what am I talking about or doing during it.  Something I will never forget is sitting in an auditorium at SoCon07, Atlanta’s first social media conference, and Sherry Heyl saying “Everyone remember that the person sitting next to you with a computer in their lap is blogging and this entire event is being podcast, so anything you say or do can end up on the web”.  I never ran around being wild and doing crazy things because there wasn’t the possibility of it finding its’ way onto the web, I just find myself being even more cautious of it now.  Which brings me to my point.  Is this a feeling that is shared by many and if so what kind of impact has it made on society as a whole?  How amazing would it be if a drop in crimes rates could be contributed to social media practices or if people became more enviornmentally friendly because the fear of being caught on tape doing something horrible to the earth was substantial.  Are people held more accountable for their actions because the risk of getting caught and the whole world having access to it is greater? I sure would like to think so.

Who Blogs?

An article written by Beth Synder Bulik at Advertising Age titled Who Blogs? discusses the credibility of blogs and incorporates the poll below that breaks down the blogosphere.

Constantly Linked

It feels good to be back to my blog. I has been a little over half a month and tons of stuff has been going on in my life. Through a lot of it I was unable to have convenient access to the internet. I know it seems crazy but it is true. It really got me thinking. I have always been the type of person who has enjoyed any technology that allows me to constantly stay linked and in touch with what is going on. I can’t remember a time when the internet was not a huge part of my life. I am sure there was between diapers and kindergarten I just can’t recall it. After spending a week on vacation without accessing the internet and only a few occasions a cell phone it truly shed a little perspective.

I love social media platforms because it has given me the opportunity to learn from individuals all over the world. I have created online relationships that have been extremely rewarding and that I have taken a lot out of. But where do you draw the line between online relationships and your real world social circle. I know that many individuals often times merge the two. I have not yet taken that step. Maybe that is out of fear or perhaps because on some level I still hold on to an old school way of thinking that attributes a negative connotation to meeting people online.

Either way I have been so focused on building online relationships that I forgot that I can learn a lot from the individuals that are and have been part of my physical life. The real point is that no matter where the interaction between individuals takes place something can always be learned and taken away from it.