“The Internet – technology that both connects and isolates”;
Have you ever been left wondering at the puzzling thought that technology has connected us globally, yet isolated us locally? As of 2017, more than 3.8 billion users were connected to the Internet globally with 75% of those users frequenting at least one social media platform (1). The number of Internet users is expected to leap past 5 billion by the year 2020 as the global population continues to rise and developing countries increase their Internet penetration (2). Social Media is defined by Webster as, “any website or application that allows the user to create and share content or to participate in social networking”. Some popular social media platforms include: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit with other professional services such as LinkedIn, and even content-sharing nexuses such as Youtube falling under the same classification as well. In this paper, I will discuss how social media has fundamentally changed the way we interact and communicate with each other by limiting our interpersonal interactions, exposing us to a broader spectrum of information and allowing individuals to become their ideal selves.
We are beginning to see a growing number of people unable to secure jobs, not because of their lack of knowledge or qualifications but their lack of interpersonal skills and their online presence. In 2015, the Association of American Colleges & Universities sent surveys to both employers and recent college graduates asking them to assess college graduates’ preparedness for the workplace across 20 skills (4). The results from the study showed that the college graduates thought that they were prepared for the workplace, however employers disagreed with them across the board. The skills that were amongst the highest differences were “oral communication” with 62% of college students feeling prepared and only 28% of employers agreeing, and “applying knowledge/skills to real world” where 59% of college graduates thought they were prepared yet just 23% of employers agreed. The culture and workings of businesses are shifting towards maintaining strong customer relations to support brand loyalty and develop long-term customers that keep coming back for the superior services offered. Networking hardware giant Cisco is an example of a business that has recognized and placed significant effort emphasizing the importance of developing a relationship with the customer so that they feel they are treated like a valued individual, not just another account. This emphasis drives an unwavering requirement for employees to be able to have strong interpersonal skills and demonstrate the ability to be able to manage relationships both remotely, as well as locally because some customers you will never meet face to face whereas others you will interact with every day. Interacting with customers every day also means that you are representing the company every day because their impression of the company is going to be dictated by the professionalism you exhibit. This professionalism does not end when you leave the workplace though, the Internet has now expanded that domain to include your online presence. According to a study performed by CareerBuilder, the number of employers using social media to screen candidates has increased 500 percent over the last decade and that 49% of hiring managers say that they’ve found information while investigating a candidate’s social media presence that caused them not to hire them (5). Some of the top reasons that these hiring managers listed were: Provocative or inappropriate photographs or information (46%), Information regarding illicit drug use or illegal activities (43%), discriminatory comments (33%), and poor communication skills (29%). The article also suggested that employers occasionally check up on employees’ online profiles to ensure their behavior is still in line with company values. An extreme instance of social media negatively impacting a professional career was when U.S. House of Representative member Anthony Weiner was forced to resign after a social media scandal exposed him sexting a minor. While that is not a typical example of social medias negative impacts things such as shorthand abbreviations have dissolved the English language and most people’s ability to utilize it properly. When combined with the fact that almost nothing is written, everything is typed there is a huge shortcoming in the ability to communicate effectively and the future is not looking any brighter. Whether we like it or not, Social Media has become a quintessential element in determining employment and has reminded us that acting professionally at all time is an expectation in a world that is interconnected.
Social media has exposed us to a broader spectrum of information and opinion while also allowing an individual to recreated themselves as anything they want to be perceived as. The creation and evolution of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Reddit have fostered the development of a variety of different viewpoints by connecting people who normally would never be able to interact with one another. Social scientists Walter Quattrociocchi, Antonio Scala and Cass Sunstein found quantitative evidence that supports the notion that on Facebook, “users tend to promote their favorite narratives, form polarized groups and resist information that doesn’t conform to their beliefs.” (6). This sort of behavior on social media is formerly known as the “Echo Chamber Effect” and has been identified to be one of the root causes of extreme viewpoints, conspiracy theories, and general misinformation. Reddit is a social news aggregation and discussion website that boasts over 200 million unique users each month and has “sub-reddits”, discussion pages for nearly any topic imaginable (3).