The Social Media Era
By: Deric Shults
The social media era that is upon us has created an infinite number of directions in which the field of journalism and communications can expand. During the 90′s we as Americans experienced a time of great technological innovation, particularly in the area of the internet and all the professionals fields effected by the birth of it. The introduction of the internet forever changed the field of journalism and communications. With the change of the century came a greater advance in the field as social media swept the globe like a storm. As we approach the end of an eventful decade it seems the growth of social media and the advancement in journalism and communications is endless.
As great as social media has been for the world we live in today, it also brought with it negative aspects that sometimes take hold of the overall view of that subject. The Privacy Troupe has blogged multiple times this term about the many times facebook has changed their privacy policies in a short period. The annoyance that has been caused by these controversial changes has provoked a number of dissatisfied users to create a website urging fellow users to delete their facebook accounts by a certain date. According to the creators of the site, you’ll want to delete your account by May 31 and, “If you agree Facebook doesn’t respect you, your personal data or the future of the Web, you may want to join us.”
There is a less extreme route to take for diehard users who refuse to abandon their media outlet so quickly. According to Catherine Smith of The Huffington Post, “Facebook Protest seeks to challenge Faceook’s recent push for more openness by proposing a boycott of Facebook services on June 6.” This will allow for all participants in the boycott to let their voice be heard about the frustrating constant changes to privacy policies and the controversial implications of such policies.
Facebook is a publicly used domain that needs to protect the privacy rights of its users in order to uphold its credibility as a social media platform. There will always be those diehard “I refuse to delete my Myspace” type users who will continue to engage in their media outlet because of their loyalty but in order to protect their public image and maintain its status as a social media platform, Facebook must strive to protect the rights of its users.
Links
http://www.quitfacebookday.com/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/15/delete-facebook-account-q_n_576956.html
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/this_week_in_online_tyranny_6.php
http://blog.goodideas.org/2010/05/19/social-media-and-government-five-good-ideas-for-effectiveness/
http://facebookprotest.com/about/hello-world/
