Social Networking Online – short version

This writing assignment is to write a discussion essay about social networking.

• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages with social networking online. Try to write it as a journalist; be both objective – show different aspects of the topic and give your own opinion and experience about it.
• Refer to at least two of the articles that you have been given.
• Use formal English.
• Length: 500-700 words. Quality before quantity.

1. Watch the trailer for the film “The Social Network” to get you thinking about Facebook and other social networks online.

2. You can use  the following questions as a help when writing the essay (refer to the four articles used at the exam when you can):

1. Do you use social networks online? What kind? How? Why do you use it?
2. What benefits are there with social networks online?
3. Does social networks online change the way you interact with your        friends?
4. Do you think it steals time from other important things like work and studies?
5. Are there any dangers with social networks online?
6. What will social networking online be like in the future?

Instructions for how to write a discussion essay

See instructions below.

https://smedjeback.wordpress.com/discussion-essay/

Read the articles below and refer to at least two of them in your essay.

 

http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/notreadyforsocialmedia.html

http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/networkschangedworld.html

Former Facebook executive: social media is ripping society apart

Chamath Palihapitiya, former vice-president of user growth, expressed regret for his part in building tools that destroy ‘the social fabric of how society works’

Tuesday 12 December 2017, The Guardian , Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco

A former Facebook executive has said he feels “tremendous guilt” over his work on “tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works”, joining a growing chorus of critics of the social media giant.

Chamath Palihapitiya, who was vice-president for user growth at Facebook before he left the company in 2011, said: “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth.” The remarks, which were made at a Stanford Business School event in November, were just surfaced by tech website the Verge on Monday.

“This is not about Russian ads,” he added. “This is a global problem … It is eroding the core foundations of how people behave by and between each other.”

Palihapitiya’s comments last month were made one day after Facebook’s founding president, Sean Parker, criticized the way that the company “exploit[s] a vulnerability in human psychology” by creating a “social-validation feedback loop” during an interview at an Axios event.

Parker had said that he was “something of a conscientious objector” to using social media, a stance echoed by Palihapitaya who said that he was now hoping to use the money he made at Facebook to do good in the world.

“I can’t control them,” Palihapitaya said of his former employer. “I can control my decision, which is that I don’t use that shit. I can control my kids’ decisions, which is that they’re not allowed to use that shit.”

He also called on his audience to “soul search” about their own relationship to social media. “Your behaviors, you don’t realize it, but you are being programmed,” he said. “It was unintentional, but now you gotta decide how much you’re going to give up, how much of your intellectual independence.”

Social media companies have faced increased scrutiny over the past year as critics increasingly link growing political divisions across the globe to the handful of platforms that dominate online discourse.

Many observers attributed the unexpected outcomes of the 2016 US presidential election and Brexit referendum at least in part to the ideological echo chambers created by Facebook’s algorithms, as well as the proliferation of fake news, conspiracy mongering, and propaganda alongside legitimate news sources in Facebook’s news feeds.

The company only recently acknowledged that it sold advertisements to Russian operatives seeking to sow division among US voters during the 2016 election.

Facebook has also faced significant criticism for its role in amplifying anti-Rohingya propaganda in Myanmar amid suspected ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority.

Palihapitiya referenced a case from the Indian state of Jharkhand this spring, when false WhatsApp messages warning of a group of kidnappers led to the lynching of seven people. WhatsApp is owned by Facebook.

“That’s what we’re dealing with,” Palihapitiya said. “Imagine when you take that to the extreme where bad actors can now manipulate large swaths of people to do anything you want. It’s just a really, really bad state of affairs.”

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

FBI using Facebook in fight against crime

The Guardian, Tuesday March 16, 2010
Daniel Nasaw in Washington

Any criminals dumb enough to brag about their exploits on social networking sites have now been warned: the next Facebook “friend” who contacts you may be an FBI agent.

US federal law enforcement agents have been using social networking sites ‑ including Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter ‑ to search for evidence and witnesses in criminal cases, and in some instances, track suspects, according to a newly released justice department memo.

FBI agents have created fake personalities ‑ in apparent contravention of some of the sites’ rules ‑ in order to befriend suspects and lure them into revealing clues or confessing, access private information and map social networks.

The new online efforts were revealed in a justice department document obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based legal advocacy group. The document, a 33-page slideshow prepared by two justice department lawyers, was obtained in a lawsuit the group filed against the justice department, seeking information on its social network policies.

Law enforcement agencies have long used internet chatrooms to lure child pornography traffickers and suspected sex predators and with a warrant, can seize suspects and defendants’ email records. But Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites provide a wealth of additional information, in photographs, status updates and friend lists. In many cases, the information is publicly accessible.

In a section entitled “utility in criminal cases”, the document says agents can scan suspects’ profiles to establish motives, determine a person’s location, and tap into personal communication, for instance through Facebook status updates.

Agents can examine photographs for guns, jewellery and other evidence of participation in robbery or burglary, and can compare information on Facebook status updates and Twitter feeds with suspects’ alibis. Friend lists can yield witnesses or informants.

The document advises agents that Facebook is now used in private background checks. It indicates that Facebook often co-operates with emergency law enforcement requests.

In one section on working undercover on social networking sites, the document poses but does not answer the question: “If agents violate terms of service, is that ‘otherwise illegal activity’?”

Facebook rules bar users from providing false information or creating an account for anyone other than yourself without permission, and says that users should “provide their real names”.

A former US cyber-security prosecutor told the Associated Press that federal investigators working online should be able to go undercover as much as they do in the real world, but said rules need to be developed.

“This new situation presents a need for careful oversight so that law enforcement does not use social networking to intrude on some of our most personal relationships,” Marc Zwillinger said.

In one case that highlights the use of social networking in law enforcement, a man wanted in Seattle on bank fraud charges fled and police lost track of him. The suspect’s Facebook page was private but his friend list was public. Among Maxi Sopo’s friends, prosecutors spotted a former justice department employee who did not know he was wanted. When Sopo posted messages on Facebook describing his easy new life in Mexico, his online friend provided information that enabled Mexican police to nab him in September.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/16/fbi-facebook-crime-study

Watch this interesting TED-talk and discuss what social networking does to our communication with others!

Why I Hate Facebook

The site nurses my worst self-indulgent instincts. Does anyone really care that I love penguins?

By Sarah Kliff | NEWSWEEK
Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue

I don’t know how many hours of my life I’ve wasted on Facebook. When I wake up each morning, with my laptop sitting on the edge of my futon, I check it. Before I’ve thought about brushing my teeth, I have already seen the photographs of my brother’s new apartment in San Francisco and discovered the evidence of my friend’s tumultuous breakup: she changed her relationship status from “In a Relationship” to “Single” to “It’s Complicated,” all while I was sleeping. As best I can figure, since joining the site in 2004 when I was a freshman at Washington University in St. Louis, I’ve been logging on a dozen times a day. When I should have been studying or working, I found myself instead doing tasks like flipping through 400 photos of myself online, debating whether I wanted the picture where I have food in my hair to be on display to the world. (I decided to leave it: while it’s not the most attractive pose, I think it indicates that I am a laid-back, good-humored person.)

I spend an inordinate amount of time like this, worrying about what’s in my online profile. When I graduated from college this May, I decided it was time for a Facebook makeover. Looking to present a more “professional” image, I stripped my profile of many of my collegiate interests—you’ll no longer know from Facebook that I’m obsessed with penguins—and I purged my membership in questionable Facebook groups such as “Scotland? Sounds more like Hotland” (tamer than it sounds). I know I’m not the only one constantly revamping my cyber-image: according to my Facebook account, 109 of my friends have changed something over the past two days. One friend added “goofy dads” to her interests, and another let it be known that he “falls asleep easily” and “loses things all the time.”

What is with all this time we’ve spent, thinking about ourselves and creating well-planned lists of our interests? Facebook is much worse than e-mail, cell phones, instant messaging and the other devices that keep me constantly connected. It nurses every self-indulgent urge I could possibly have. I hate that Facebook encourages me to home in on each of my idiosyncrasies—that I like running in Central Park, for example, or that my favorite forms of punctuation are the dash and semicolon—and broadcast them to a largely uninterested world. I have a sneaking suspicion that very few people want to know that I am particularly fond of bagels. And no one really cares when I change my Facebook status, a fill-in-the-blank feature where users can let people know what they’re up to at any moment. Mine is currently set to “Sarah is trying to write an article about Facebook … but is ironically too distracted by Facebook.” The network is as much about obsessing over the dull details of my life as it as about connecting with others.

As a recent college graduate, with my friends scattered across the globe, I understand the communicative value of Facebook. Right now, I have 469 “friends”—though I admit many of these virtual relationships are tenuous at best. Still, I would be hard-pressed to give up my four-year-long membership or leave Facebook out of my early morning routine. But who knows what I’m missing out on in the real world while sitting at my laptop, debating whether penguins or bagels are more respectable?

© 2007

http://www.newsweek.com/id/32332

Using Twitter and Facebook to Find a Job

TIME

By Barbara KiviatMonday, Jun. 08, 2009

Brian Ward lost his job on a Friday afternoon. Eleven days later he had a new one. With nearly 1 in 10 people out of work and the typical job search lasting 12 weeks, how did the Cleveland-based software architect pull it off? In a phrase: online social networking.

Welcome to the new rules of the job hunt. Gone are the days of simply posting your résumé on CareerBuilder, e-mailing former colleagues and trolling company websites for open slots. These days, if you’re serious about being hired, you really put your computer and PDA to work. That means getting word out on social sites like Facebook and MySpace, sending instant job-search updates via messaging feeds like Twitter, and meeting new people who might be able to lend a hand through Web-networking outfits like LinkedIn and Ryze. (See 10 ways Twitter will change American business.)

Why? Because for all our technology, the best way to land a job is still by having someone who already works at a company mention your name. Each year, the staffing consultancy CareerXroads surveys large firms about where they find new hires, and since at least 2005 the top spot has held steady: some 27% come from referrals. (Job boards, by comparison, have fed firms a consistent 12% of new hires; the rest come from recruiters, company websites, etc.) The difference today is that a lot more of those recommendations start with connections made through online networks. A recent report by market researcher Nielsen found that people now spend more time using social networking sites than they do personal e-mail. (Read “Your Facebook Relationship Status: It’s Complicated.”)

That doesn’t mean the classic strategies have all been tossed out the window. Persistence, self-branding, professional presentation — the things a career coach would have steered you toward two decades ago — are still necessary. Social networks alone won’t get you a new gig. But as Brian Ward’s 11-day job search makes clear, they can go a long way to help. Here’s how to do it:

ACT FAST
As the sole breadwinner for his wife and three kids, Ward knew that he had to get a new job quickly. He found himself unemployed at 5 in the afternoon; by 8 that night, he’d called four people he knew in Ohio who did the same sort of computer work he did, as well as his college buddy Lyell, down in North Carolina. “I’d been using Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn, but in a very passive, extracurricular way,” says Ward. “I knew Lyell was big into the Twitter scene. He immediately began blasting information out to contacts he had, sending them back my way.” Over the weekend, Ward updated all of his online profiles. He uploaded a fresh résumé to LinkedIn, the professionals’ networking site, and sent out a message to all 200 of his Facebook friends, letting them know he was looking for work. (See TIME’s cover story on how Twitter will change the way we live.)

One of them, a pal from high school, wrote back Sunday night. He now worked for a tech company in Louisiana, and asked if Ward would be interested in being put in touch with the Web-development group. Ward eagerly agreed and had a phone interview the next day. “Here I was four hours into being unemployed and I already had a phone interview,” he recalls. “I was like, Wow, this is going to be impressive.”

TAP YOUR NETWORK TO STAY UPBEAT
Except it wasn’t. Ward’s skills and what the company needed didn’t line up. Intellectually, he knew it was that simple, but the rejection stung, especially coming on the heels of having lost his job the week before. “You’ve just been told, We don’t want you. That has a crushing effect on your soul,” says Ward. “Then as you go out and look for a job, most of the jobs you look at you’re not going to get. You’re going to be told no over and over again.”

Using social-networking sites to look for work — in addition to traditional job banks like Monster and Dice — helped with that emotional part of the job search. Twitter didn’t provide many leads, but Ward did come across a lot of other people looking for work. “It turned into a big support network,” he says. While he was looking for a job, Ward wasn’t able to sleep more than a few hours a night. The first thing he’d do when he got up at 4 or 5 in the morning was send out a tweet. (See the best social-networking applications.)

GO BEYOND JOB-RELATED NETWORKING
LinkedIn proved more useful in finding possible positions. Early in his search, Ward watched a webinar by onetime arena football player Lewis Howes on how to better leverage LinkedIn. Sounds hit-or-miss but Ward got a lot out of it. He began joining LinkedIn groups, even those that weren’t work-related, like one for members of his college fraternity. That landed him a note from a vice president at Cisco Systems — a man on the other side of the country who hadn’t even gone to the same school as Ward was now telling him that he’d ask around to see who was hiring. Ward got a similar message from a recruiter in Texas; he didn’t hire for technology jobs but would pass along Ward’s résumé to the folks at his firm who did.

KEEP EVERYONE YOU KNOW IN THE LOOP
Over the course of the week, Ward kept a list of jobs he was working on: about 16 made it to the point of having a conversation with the person who was hiring, but then no further. As things changed each day, over the 12 to 15 hours he was devoted to job-hunting daily he sent out updates via Twitter, Facebook and Gmail to let all of his friends and contacts know who had been helpful. “It was the equivalent of sending a thank-you letter after an interview,” says Ward.

DON’T COUNT ANYONE OUT AS USEFUL
The job Ward eventually landed came from an unexpected direction. A former co-worker sent him a teasing note through Facebook saying she was offended he hadn’t asked her for a job. He hadn’t even though of it: when they had last worked together, she was fairly junior. He’d missed the part of the story where she’d gotten her MBA and was promoted twice. She passed along his résumé and within days he was having an interview. In the meeting he was up-front: he said he needed to find a new job quickly and was interviewing at other companies, too. The next day, he had an offer. “It’s still all about connections,” says Ward. “What’s changed is how you do it.”

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1903083-2,00.html#ixzz0iVkjFZ2R

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1903083,00.html

How social media impacts existing relationships

Lakshmi Kumaraswami  India Today, February 8, 2013

There are three S’s that just don’t mix. Special Someones, Smart phones and Social Networks. If you’re a Facebook addict, here’s probably why it’s so difficult to stay in a relationship:

1. Are you constantly over-analysing your partner’s online activity? Are questions like – Who is that ridiculously good looking person who wrote on their wall? Why do they like someone’s profile picture? Why are they playing Farmville with that person? (Why are they playing Farmville at all?) swimming in your head? Stop acting like a cyber spy and if you have questions that really concern you, ask them offline.2. Keep Facebook interactions with the ex limited and platonic. Being friends with an ex can make a new partner uncomfortable. But everyone is everyone’s friend on Facebook, right? Wrong. There’s nothing wrong with keeping an ex on limited profile or blocking them altogether. And if you are still acquaintances, posts with hidden meanings and favourite songs are a no-no.3. We know you share everything from what you ate to what you saw outside your window. But just because you’re an over-sharer doesn’t mean you have to share your partner’s activities. This includes embarrassing photographs of the person, posting their thoughts and secrets. If you do want to share, for example a long, boring note on how wonderful your date was, check with them first.4. Breaking up is hard to do. But it’s even harder when the whole world ends up witnessing a very, public, online break up. The broken heart symbol on these social networks and maudlin song lyrics as status updates only enhances the embarrassment further. Keep your fights private and stop fueling the voyeuristic tendencies your friends never knew they had.5. Love me, love my family, love my Facebook friends…enough! Just because you’re with the person doesn’t mean you have to be friends with everyone they know and the family dog. Take it slow, if you meet them first offline, then there’s no harm in sending them a Friend request.

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/how-social-media-impacts-existing-relationships/1/249507.html

How to write a discussion essay

Many assignments at school or university ask you to explain and discuss something, for example how advertising and commercials affect you and society, or the role of temptations in your life. When you explain something you need to use specific details or examples to clarify and support your main idea.

Guidelines

1. The introduction is the first part of the essay. The function is:

• to introduce the subject to the reader in an interesting and catchy way
• to give some background information about the subject
• to state the main idea or focus of the essay in a thesis statement which will govern the body paragraphs

2. In the body paragraph make sure you show solid support for the points you make by describing, explaining and illustrating so that the reader will think you are worth “listening to”. Let each paragraph explain or discuss one aspect using specific details and examples to clarify and support your thesis.
3. Since you are discussing the topic in your essay, it is important to bring up aspects of the issue from different sides and angles even if you might find yourself leaning towards a particular view as the essay progresses.
4. At the end, the conclusion rounds off the essay in one of the following ways:

• By briefly summarizing the main ideas of the essay
• By making recommendations about ideas discussed in the essay
• By suggesting a solution to the problem discussed in the essay
• By offering a personal reflection that grows logically out of the body paragraphs

5. References. Indicate all the sources, such as newspapers, magazines, books, Internet pages, from which you have cited facts, ideas or passages. Show them both in the text and in the list of references at the end.

How to refer to a writer of an article/book etc

In the article ”Why Obesity Abhor” (The Independent, 28 Jan, 2007), Susan MacMillan ….

…says/writes/suggests/demontrates/shows/observes/claims/finds/reports/
discusses/explains/defines/attempts …

List of References (example)

MacMillan, Susan, ”Why Obesity Abhor” ,The Independent, 28 Jan, 2007

http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/dangersofsocialnetworking23,
21 April, 2010

        McClood, Kevin, “The Social network Explosion”, Penguin, 23 April 2010

CHECKPOINTS FOR REVISING

a)   Have I introduced the subject in an engaging way?

b)   Have I given necessary background information on the subject?

c)   Have I finished the introduction with a thesis sentence that cleary shows what the body paragraphs will contain?

d)   Does each body paragraph deal with a differenct aspect?

e)   Have I included enough details and examples in each paragraph to really explain and clarify my point?

f)    Have I rounded off my essay in an engaging way?

Assessment Matrix for Social networking essay

	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Content, instructions, references and register.	Your text is too short to be assessed and/or you haven’t understood the articles.You don’t follow the instructions.The text is too informal.You don’t refer to any of the articles.	You focus too much on only one or two aspects/articles. You show a basic under-standing of the articles.You follow the instructions.You show that you can write in a formal register but you have too much informal language.You have at least two references, but they are not done correctly.	Your show many aspects of the topic and make good use of the information in the articles.You use a formal register with some exceptions.You refer to the articles in a fluent and correct way.	Your text deals with the topic in a nuanced and profound way.You use exactly the right formal register.You show great skill in referring to the articles.
Structure and coherence	Your text lacks a clear introduction and/or ending.The lack in coherence and/or paragraphs makes the text hard to read.	Your text has an introduction and a conclusion.Your text is fairly coherent with clearparagraphs.	Your text has a good introduction and conclusion.Your text is very coherent with linking words that bind the paragraphs together.	Your text has an excellent introduction and conclusion.Your text has a very well-thought through structure with advanced linking words that binds the paragraphs together.
Grammar and spelling	Your text contains many grammar and spelling mistakes, some of which are serious.	Your text has some grammar and spelling mistakes but not too serious.	Your grammar and spelling are good with few exceptions.	Your grammar and spelling are almost perfect.

 

Fluency, vocabulary and sentence structure

Your language is simple and clear and has a certain fluency.Your text has only a basic vocabulary and contains errors in the use of words and idiomatic expressions.Your sentence structure is mostly correct, but simple.

Your language has a good fluency.Your text has a good vocabulary with some idiomatic expressions.Your sentence structure is acceptable, but could be more varied and advanced.

Your language has a very good fluency.Your text has an advanced vocabulary and include idiomatic expressions that are well suited.You write with great variation, both in sentence structure and vocabulary.

Your language has an excellent fluency.Your text has a very advanced vocabulary that you use with great precision together with idiomatic expressions.You writing is full of elegance, creativity and an excellent variation.

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