Hi,


If any of you have read some of my past posts you probably have seen me mention periodically that I do not understand the whole social networking craze and how I am not into it and such. This is partially because I consider myself to be old school having grown up in the 80s and such.



The other main reason I have avoided social networking is because I have just heard so many negative things about those sites. I am a journalist so after hearing so much negativity about those sites I avoided it at all cost seeing it as an unnecessary risk.



I realize that some may think that my fears are unfounded but I am a cautious person by nature. Despite my fear, there is a possibility that I may need to venture into SN for work related purposes but I am clearly reluctant to give it a chance.



As I said I am reluctant but it seems to me that Twitter is the lesser of evils based on all the stuff I’ve heard and read .


I am curious if any of you can tell me anything from your personal experiences with any of the big sites and whether you feel social networking is good or bad? I have had friends, colleagues and, even family frequently get on my case about not being on those sites so I am looking for more opinions.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

I think they are horrible, I've been on Myspace and facebook but quit them both. I joined to see what all the hype was about. Pretty much all your stuff is public, great for stalking people you know or don't know. People end up getting fired by their posts on there etc it also is great for destroying relationships.

As for twitter I never joined that site, I think it should win an award for most pointless site All I see with MySpace and Facebook are just a platform for pushing corporate products while at the same time creating a FBI profile on yourself might as well put your finger prints and SSN up too

Out of the two I'd say MySpace was a lot better, it was fun making layouts on there but was also bad seeing layouts crash your browser from all the stuff people put on there. Facebook is just horrible, absolutely horribly. All those farmville requests and seeing peoples posts that should be private and all the bad stories you hear on it as well.

People should just socialize with instant messanger instead. Or socialize on a site that is not meant for just socializing and profiling yourself and everything about you.

I think the only real good thing about social sites is if your marketing a product that is really the only purpose, else your just looking for trouble and people will use what you say against you

JigSaw :
That is pretty much the gist of all the negativity that I’ve heard for years about social networking (Or at least the PG version of it.) My purpose would be for self promotion pretty much because I am planning on getting a website sometime in the future related to Boxing which is what I cover and such so it would be to market that.


To be honest, I could give a damn about people using social networking for personal vendettas or to just be a nuisance to someone. In my opinion people like that simply just don’t have anything useful to do with their time and that is the real tragedy.


In regard to relationships, I have wondered out loud for years about what ever happened to discreetness in this world. As I said before I am old fashioned and although my opinions may be antiquated but I make no apologies for it.

Yeah, as far as promotion they work okay. Myspace actually I was able to meet over 5 clients on there. None on facebook though. Seems like pretty much every business is using it now and days Its an easy way to reach people so I figure that is why they do it. People are probably more likely to visit a social network then product site unless the site is really good at attention then they don't really need to resort to social networking. Every bit helps though.

JigSaw : Well it is something that I have been putting off for a while to get a website started and running but next year it’s time to take a chance and get this thing going. I am extremely well detailed when it comes to content so that isn’t my concern as much as it is promotion and such.

As I’ve said in regard to social networking I have had friends and family tell me several times that it does have its benefits but all the stuff I’ve heard about it has made me hell bent on not trying it at least. I was planning on going sort of the old school route in terms of promotion by buying ads in newspapers, magazines and even radio if I could.

The problem is with the economy the way that it is; I’m not sure what it would cost just to get it going etc. It will be nice after years of writing and not being paid what I would like to be able to be in control of what I want to and how much I want to do in regard to my online work. It would also be good to have that running while I continue my work in magazines hopefully.

To be honest, I think they're both good and bad. They're good because that way you can keep in touch with friends and family but they're bad because like JS said you can get easily stalked, flamed, etc. Sometimes even privacy settings can't help.

I don't think they're bad at all. What you put on them is what depends. If you put where your going what your doing everywhere you go yes you have the potential to be stalked. But if you're just using it to catch up with old friends and such I think its really good. If it weren't for Facebook I would probably be completely antisocial. As for Farmville and such you can block those and never get a single request or anything. As for promoting your website I think Facebook is really great for that. But its up to you.

Starting a site is actually pretty cheap just as long as you know how to make your own site. If you don't it can cost a few hundred dollars or much more if your looking for something really big and dynamic. But as far as hosting and domain name those can be cheap until you need a server Basic hosting can be from $30 - $60 a year. Domains around $10 a year. Also you can sign up with some ad agencies to help pay for it by putting ads on your site.

Your in luck as far as promotion goes If you are wanting some ad space just let me know and I can hook you up. I run a site dedicated to poor people who need to market their products for free.

I think they can be good, as long a people don't start doing stupid things mostly by being on them excessively

Since you're a journalist, why not see if you can get a blog set up through your company (I'm not sure if you're print, TV, or radio)? Just about every major outlet that I've visited has blogs set up for their correspondents. From there, you'll get the media traffic, and when you finally get your own site, you can just put up a notice that you're moving to 'www.bvd1022.com' (I know that won't be the name.)

Oniya : Well, I am a freelance boxing writer but I’ve also covered Pro wrestling and even took a brief stab at politics six years ago. I have worked both online and in magazines to answer your question though this year I haven’t been able to do what I do normally so I haven’t been able to work at my normal pace. The plan once I get the green light is to get a website up and developed professionally that will be exclusively devoted to boxing with fresh and original content. News, rankings, schedule for cards on television, online as well as local listings so people can buy tickets and such, columns etc.


It is and will be a big undertaking but I am ready to take a chance and see what happens. I definitely don’t want this to be just another website because there are millions of websites and such. I want this to be something special that everything linked to the sport of boxing whether they be fans, fighters, promoters and, writers etc. can be proud of and enjoy.


I take a lot of pride in my work and as I said I am extremely detail oriented so much so that a good majority of articles that I have written for magazines have been two-page spreads. I am very proud of that. Some people think that articles are too long but I go with the philosophy that length has absolutely no barring on quality and if the quality of the content is immaculate that’s all that really matters.


I started my career as a kid in 1995 so I was writing columns long before the term “Blog” came into popular culture and such. So I am a little behind in terms of technology because I kind of have that “Set in my ways” mindset but if it’s good for business and won’t open the door for any unnecessary nonsense I will be open to it.

I like Facebook. You have to make sure you set all of your privacy settings and that stuff. Also, only add people you have met in person. There are scams and spam everywhere on the internet. You're just as likely to get a spam email as you are to get spam on Facebook. I like Facebook for staying in better contact with high school friends. Just pay attention to what you do and check your privacy settings once a month and you'll be fine (when Facebook updates they sometimes reset privacy settings so you have to stay on top of that).

I highly suggest it for staying in contact with people you know and like.

BNuge : I have heard it is good for keeping in contact with friends and family but at the same time I have also heard that it can potentially be used by some to start up nonsense with others. This is the main problem that I have with social networking.

I see no problems with people keeping in touch or contacting friends or people they may have been close with at one point that they eventually fell out of contact with but, I do see a problem with people with nothing else better to do with their time than to cause problems for others. I have also seen countless stories on the news where people have lost their jobs because of things posted on social networking websites.

Whether it be right or wrong for someone to lose employment for something that is posted on a website is a whole other topic for discussion but, I feel it is an unnecessary risk. It’s just my opinion and I understand if some may not agree with me but, as I said I take my work very seriously and I wouldn’t want to tarnish that. I’ve been writing almost 16 years now so it is something I’ve dedicated myself to etc.

The thing that comes across my mind thinking about it is, is it worth it and such. It may be good in terms of promoting stuff but, the negative things I’ve heard and have even seen at times makes me very reluctant.

The other obvious thing that troubles me is that for all the negative things I have heard and seen with regard to social networking, it seems that those who own these websites have little if no control in policing the activity and conduct.

They are useful for me, as I don't talk to people in person much. It's not that I have no life, it's just that I'm unsure of what to do in offline conversations.

Good way to keep in touch with people from other countries and cities who I can't see in person daily. Not that I'd like to see everyone daily
But basically yes, like someone said, depends on what you put there and how much and why you use them.

They're good. Only for talking with friends, but you can do without it, and just go the old fashioned way by actually being there with them or IM'ing them. Facebook and MySpace are multiplayer game sites when you look close enough.

I personally dont use the larger ones,they suck. But it is a you get out what you put in deal. You just need to use some common sense and you should be fine.

alexanyways : Well I have been using social media since before Christmas and I have to be honest when I say that I haven’t run into any problems so far though I have denied a few requests on the networks that I am using from friends whom weren’t really good to me years back. I am being extremely selective and cautious about who I am allowing access to because I am as I said on these networks for business purposes and although I have been approachable I am basically just trying to show progress that at the minimum I took the more or less mandatory that I get on social media for work related purposes.

I haven’t really gotten into a good comfort zone with it yet and doubt seriously that I will because I am so use to going about my work in a semi-old-school way and it isn’t really my nature to brag or to update people on a constant basis. I will say though that after I got done covering my first press conference on Monday that I did share it with those whom have been supporters of mine over the years because that was somewhat of a big thing for me that after 15 yrs of work and paying dues I finally earned the trust of those I work with to be credentialed and cover a media only conference. So for a brief moment I allowed myself to enjoy the moment because it took me so long to get to this point etc. I do try to keep whatever I post strictly work related though I have posted things like “Great football games last night” or one time before Christmas I put a status message up asking if anyone knew if a Spanish language channel was available via online stream because I needed to cover a fight on short notice and did not have the benefit of television access.

I was pleasantly surprised that not only did I receive help from friends of mine but how quickly they were able to help me and, how much time it thus saved me after covering another fight card earlier that night because it in essence saved me at least three hours in the overnight looking for internet feeds. In this instance I was very appreciative because it saved me time and I was able to get some much needed rest earlier then would normally have been the case simply because I was able to finish what I had to do early.

For the time being I can say that I haven’t had any problems but I think that in part is due to the fact that I am an admitted neurotic and I made sure I was guaranteed complete control over my privacy before I even signed up with these networks.

I do want to keep this thread active because it is good to keep a healthy dialogue about something like this especially for the younger members of this site. If my reluctance in regard to social networking and a healthy dialogue on the do’s and don’ts of the current “In” thing in popular culture can in some way discourage irresponsible conduct by those who post anything and everything on social media, then I think we will have done something worth while. Besides I am very much still out of my element here and I very much welcome Vizzed members to continue to offer their suggestions and share their experience to keep the dialogue going.

Although I have a good feeling that all parts of this topic had been covered, I am posting this to give an account of my own experience in social networking. I got my own Facebook account in late 2007 at the (friendly) pestering of some of my closest friends who were, or would be, starting college and wanted me to keep in touch with them in a relatively easy fashion. My time spent on Facebook escalated to the point where I would login three times a day, and do very little on the website other than several games. I am the only one to blame for poor time management, as this is part of the reason I struggled through the first few semesters of college (I still have some trouble to this day). The past few months have been better for me. I have almost completely ignored games on Facebook. The only game I do still use, I do not even use it once a week.

As far as friends on Facebook go, I stick to mostly those I have met in real life. I have added some people that I only met once, but anyone I add to my friend list is someone I feel I can trust, who is friends or family of multiple close friends of mine. Some of my friends do post simple, sometimes pointless, statuses on their pages, but I do not have any problems with this.

Your concerns about social networks are certainly not unfounded. I too am someone with a cautious personality. In fact, I need to remind myself about my time management in order to avoid spending too much time here on Vizzed. Here is an analogy for all of us to remember: "And apple a day keeps the doctor away, but 7 a day might do just the opposite." These social networks are good, but we just need to limit ourselves. If you think that using a social network will be beneficial, that is great. If you believe it will be better to avoid them, that is perfectly okay. Whatever your choice is, I wish you the best.

I honestly think they are bad. I have been on FaceBook, and thought it was very affording. And so, I had quit it. It's easy to get people mad on there and such, and it's annoying if you want to avoid people, but you can't seem to stay away. And then there's the hidden backstabbers

But seriously, I honestly think they're bad.