Tech Chapter 5 Blog

1. The Arab Spring has been called the bloggers revolution.  What role did social media play in this revolution?

The Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests that spread across the Middle East in 2011 (Manfreda). The purpose of these protests was to show the anger people felt at the rising unemployment rate, increasing prices (also know as inflation), and the brutality of the security apparatus. But, did you ever look at how social media affected these uprisings? According to Phillip Howard, "...evidence suggests that social media carried a cascade of messages about freedom and democracy across North Africa and the Middle East, and helped raise expectations for the success of political uprising" (O'Donnell). This quote means that the number of tweets on twitter, the amount of gigabytes of youtube videos, and thousands of blog posts, led to the protests in the Middle East now known as the Arab Spring. Although social media did not cause the upheaval in the Middle East, they altered the capacity of citizens to affect domestic politics. Social media carried powerful stories about protests and uprising across the world, that many people in the Middle East saw as an opportunity to eliminate the extremely high unemployment rate, the inflation, and the brutality of the security apparatus. 

2.  Lindsey Stone was fired over a picture she posted on her Facebook page.  Is it fair for 30,000 individuals, most of them probably strangers, to have the power to determine the course of an individual's life and livelihood based on one poor choice made on a social networking site?

To me, Lindsey Stone deserved to be fired. First, a little background about myself. I work for a well known company here in the U.S. When I was at training, my instructor told us that "anything done on the company's grounds, or while on a business trip that ruins the reputation for this company, that person is said to be fired." I respect that. If I were on a business trip, and I was doing something disrespectful, as Lindsey Stone was, that would ruin my company's reputation, jeopardizing my job. Lindsey Stone can be seen at the national cemetery, bending down in front of a sign that reads "Silence and Respect," holding up her middle finger and she has her mouth wide open like she's screaming. First of all, this is very rude and offensive. Here we have veterans who fought for our freedom so we can go to work everyday and have a wonderful life, but to get disrespected at their place of rest. Not only is this disrespectful to the veterans, Stone is now seen as a disgrace to the company she works for, as she was on a business trip at the time the photo was taken. This photo shows the world, on social media, that this company she works for is disrespectful and a disgrace to the world. Since Stone has brought negative attention to her company via social media, she was to be fired, as stated in most and maybe all companies contracts for employment. If she wasn't on a business trip, I would say she shouldn't have been fired. I would still say this picture is unjust and disrespectful, but since she would not have been with her company, she shouldn't be fired for that.

3.  Your online reputation can make or break you.  In fact, college admissions officers and prospective employers look at your digital presence.  Do you monitor your digital presence?  Can you get rid of your digital footprint?  Research and provide tips for managing your online reputation.

When you apply for a job, or apply for admission into a college, most companies and schools research your reputation online. "A survey commissioned by the online employment website CareerBuilder has found that 37 percent of hiring managers use social networking sites to research job applicants, with over 65 percent of that group using Facebook as their primary resource" (HuffingtonPost) The data is based on a nationwide survey conducted by Harris Interactive in February and March of 2012. I know many people have social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Flikr...) including myself. However, with my social media accounts, I monitor my digital presence. Think about it, if you were going to hire someone only to look on Twitter to see they party every night down at the club or they take home software from the work computer and download it onto their personal computer to "save some money," would you hire them? I sure know I wouldn't. I know I don't want to take the risk of my financial records being incorporated onto my employees computers for them to share to everyone, and I certainly don't want my employees being late for work every morning or not functioning properly because they had too much to drink. And remember, what you put online, is hard to remove. Your digital footprint is your reputation digitally on the web. To keep a good digital footprint, you might want to refrain from posting negative comments, or offensive photographs, like Lindsey Stone did, or tweeting a bad tweet. All that stuff is very difficult to remove, yet easy to copy and paste to emails, or other websites. Lauren Riley suggests that you should change your privacy settings on your posts or profiles to keep your information private, and you should also search yourself. Riley suggests you open up google.com and type in your full name to see what pops up. If you find anything wrong, or provocative, ask the publisher to remove it to increase your reputation (Riley).

References:

Deborah Morley Understanding Computers in a Changing Society

Primoz Manfreda Definition of the Arab Spring. http://middleeast.about.com/od/humanrightsdemocracy/a/Definition-Of-The-Arab-Spring.htm

Catherine O'donnell New Study Quantifies use of Social Media in Arab Spring. http://www.washington.edu/news/2011/09/12/new-study-quantifies-use-of-social-media-in-arab-spring/

Huffington Post, 37 Percent Of Employers Use Facebook To Pre-Screen Applicants, New Study Says.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/20/employers-use-facebook-to-pre-screen-applicants_n_1441289.html

Lauren Riley, How to Clean your Digital Footprint and Improve your Online Identity. http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/cleaning-your-digital-footprint/