Social networking has certainly taken off in the last few years and I am sure that many wonder how they managed with out it. It has replaced the art personal interaction such as letter writing, phone calls and meeting people. Where perhaps one once wrote to an individual, one can now write to many and never move from the comfort of a favourite chair. Whilst it is a great way to communicate I cannot help but wonder if something is being lost and if things will eventually turn full circle once the novelty has worn off? Although we can chat away and network for hours, how well do we know these new found 'friends'? Will the professional contacts made make any real difference to one's career? I would be very interested to know if there has been any studies into this area of social networking.
Personally I do feel social networking has made a big difference to my 'career' (though I'm not I can really call it that yet!) so far. Lots of things I've done this year have come about directly as a result of interactions on Twitter, or because I've been blogging.
ReplyDeleteIf you *only* communicated with people online then you would be losing out on a lot, interpersonal skills would fall by the wayside etc. (in fact, think I know one or two people who come under this category!) But I think there's a pretty small minority of people who use social media like this!