Myths and Risks of Social Networking

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  josephmartins09/11/08 Report as spam
  1

  not entirely true

  Time sucking isn't a myth. It's a reality. Frankly, many people suck at managing time in their offline lives. Online social networks exacerbate the problem and make it easier to mismanage time by turning the Internet into on giant watercooler.
  
  Sites such a Facebook and MySpace are, for the most part, anti-productive. I've seen the effects firsthand within my social and professional circles.
  
  Professionals should stick with professional networking resources (i.e. sites such as LinkedIn) and avoid the other sites during their work day. What they do on their own time at home is up to them.

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  kokdemir09/11/08 Report as spam
  2

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  Actually they will be first stage of the
  network society or network humanity. Then more
  professional and more complicated networks will
  arise. but everybody (users and providers) has
  to learn what networking is.

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  ranchogordo09/11/08 Report as spam
  3

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  I avoided facebook, thinking it was another myspace. Once my 12 year old godson explained that "facebook was like myspace for old people", ithought I'd give it a try. It's been great. The more people you have, the more interesting and helpful. My business has it's own page and my blog as well.
  I'm surprised. I like it.

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  onoropu09/11/08 Report as spam
  4

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  "Nearly every social network has ways of ensuring that
  your profile data is only viewable to those you have
  invited to see it."
  
  Not entirely true. Since I have seen no evidence that
  my data is encrypted, I have to assume that the folks
  that host the system can see everything.
  
  Right now, Google knows more about my areas of
  interest than my Wife (which may, or may not, be a
  good thing, now I come to think about it).

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  Motioneering09/11/08 Report as spam
  5

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  Joseph Martins has it right.

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  gonca.telli@...09/12/08 Report as spam
  6

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  I think it depens on personality and trust of these kind of social networking. Some of the statements could be evaluated as a myth some of them couldn't in different circumstances.
  On the other hand "wave of anger" could also arise in general life however we live in an age of speed that the users rapidly acquire the knowledge.

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  livethakly09/12/08 Report as spam
  7

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  Of course social networks can be a time-suck, but thats only if you let it. Like anything else. Mine-sweeper was a time suck when it first came out for a lot of people.
  
  The interesting thing Ive seen about facebook is how it can reconnect people who have for a variety of reason been separated by location, time or a myriad other factors that is this thing called life. Sometimes thats a good thing, and sometimes, not so good, but thats up to each individual to decide for themselves.

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  CallMeKoala09/12/08 Report as spam
  8

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  when your social networks (both personal and professional) spans across 20 different countries Face book, Linked in and above all Plaxo saves you tons of time.
  If all your contacts live in the same village then probably youdon't need those
  Technology is only a tool. Would you think a hammer is a bad tool because you could hurt yourself ?

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  S-DUser09/12/08 Report as spam
  9

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  I tried to use 2 facebook accounts, but found my professional life continued to collide with my personal life. Now i keep three separate site accounts. Facebook is for personal, LinkedIn keeps my resume clean and Ittoolbox is the place I keep my professional profile and colloboration with other professionals.

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  al_star_baby09/12/08 Report as spam
  10

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  I agree with livethakly, social networks are only a time-suck if you let them become one. I understand how time can fly by while you're reading up on everyone's status updates, but with time management this can be prevented.
  
  I set aside about 15 minutes each day for each network I belong to, and only interact with that network during that period of time.
  
  In addition to that, I have also started using Ping.FM so that I can continue to update my status throughout the day in multiple networks without having to take the time to log into any of them. The only word of caution, if your updates are more on the personal level, only setup your Ping.FM for personal networks. No reason to let all of your Linked In contacts to know you're going to get a haircut. : )

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  Lucio Dias Ribeiro09/14/08 Report as spam
  11

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  You better own your identity online rather than someone else to get ownership of it.
  I strongly advice anytime talk to someone to get the ownership of their identity
  
  
  Cheers
  Lucio Ribeiro
  The Online Circle
  Australia SEO and SEM

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  thumbarger09/25/08 Report as spam
  12

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  If you are experimenting with Facebook, you need to make sure that your Facebook profile is not boring or a barren wasteland.
  
  I recently wrote a blog post that lists five simple things you can do to polish your Facebook image - http://tomhumbarger.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/are-you-boring-on-facebook/
  
  Let me know if you have any other suggestions.
  
  Tom Humbarger
  http://tomhumbarger.wordpress.com

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  shermanmohr09/30/08 Report as spam
  13

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  Excel spreadsheets, powerpoint over creation,
  and other applications are time wasters that
  have stayed under the radar under the auspice
  of "business tools". My primary consideration
  when I meet someone is not always what they
  know but who are they connected to. I am one
  that googles all people, employees, prospects,
  etc. "owning one's name as best as possible is
  imperative". The easiest way to do so is to
  control your online presence. I think the
  article is dead on for the most part. I now
  use a social networking site for my own domain
  site. The tool kit is robust and the SEO is
  great.
  
  http://shermanmohr.com

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  Physician Dispensing09/30/08 Report as spam
  14

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  There is clearly value in social networking, even for "old" people. Undoubtedly though, separation between personal contacts vs professional contacts is critical, as I am very selective about even which professional contacts I include in Linkedin. If I have had even more than a mild acquaintance on a personal level, I tend not to include in Linked in, but rather make that a facebook contact.
  
  http://www.medxdispensing.com

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  victorseo10/01/08 Report as spam
  15

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  Social Networking is just the tip of a big iceberg. Learn why IMS is BIG and seo is little at ims-seo.blogspot.com or www.seowins.com An interesting internet phenomenom is unfolding and it will be interesting to see how far it goes.

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  Iansc00710/22/08 Report as spam
  16

  RE: Myths and Risks of Social Networking

  The question of whether it is a waste of time or
  security risk for you is I believe a personal thing. If you
  are self-disciplined and wise about how much time
  you spend on social networks and what kind of
  information you put there social networking should
  not be a problem. One also needs to ask oneself why
  one uses such media. Is it for business only or
  pleasure also? Is it used as an escape from problems in
  the 'real world'?
  
  I am not a defender of social networks per se, but I
  think we all need to ask ourselves if our criticisms of
  social networks are a case of a bad time manager
  blaming his or her time management tools?
  
  Some social networks really are pathetic and have
  significant problems but are the problems we have due
  to the social networks or us or are they a mixture?
  
  If we really want to maximise our quality of life and
  time management and hence productivity I believe we
  need to be ruthless in searching our hearts and lives to
  see if we are not to blame and whether we don't need
  to do something about ourselves or lives that are not
  nice or easy to deal with.
  
  We need to look at ourselves and our lives and make
  sure we are doing our best with the help of others if
  necessary, to have the best life we can have and
  interact with others and the business world etc. as best
  as we possibly can and are not running away from
  demons or skeletons in the closet or other nasties.
  
  I personally don't believe it is correct or fair simply
  blame one or the other completely. Rather I believe we
  need a wholistic approach to this.