Privacy? What's Privacy?

Society’s expectation of mass media has certainly changed with technology and many examples can be seen in social media channels. Before modern day technology, networking was mostly done face-to-face (Film Connection). Nowadays, a very large part of networking is done virtually. For example, the first place I turn to for professional networking is on LinkedIn, an online professional social media network. Before technology and the Internet, we didn’t have the option of regularly keeping in touch with people across the nation, never mind across the world! Technology has made all of this possible and has eliminated those geographical boundaries. “In fact, about 40% of the world population has access to an Internet connection. In 1995, this number was only 1%” (Internet Live Stats). “If telephones and airplanes shrunk the world, the Internet shrunk it many times more,” (Film Connection). 

We live in such a connected way of life that everyone knows what everyone else is up to at any given moment of any given day! I suppose in a way, this has made us a slightly more ‘nosy’ society. We like to know what’s going on with whom and when. Information is rarely kept private nowadays without careful action.

Resources 

Film Connection. (n.d.). How the internet has changed movie business. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.filmconnection.com/reference-library/film-entrepreneurs/how-the-internet-has-changed-the-movie-biz/

Internet Live Stats. (2015, January 1). Internet users. Retrieved March 28, 2015, from http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/

Look Up

Technology is completely transforming people’s expectations of the culture around them. We’ve grown to trust technology more, and trust each other less. When we’re lost on the road, we turn to a GPS instead of asking a neighbor for directions. When we want to find restaurants nearby, we google them instead of asking people nearby for recommendations. When we’re bored on the train ride to work, we play games on our smartphones instead of striking up a conversation with the person next to us. People are even finding their spouses online nowadays! This is not to say that technology is bad or evil in nature, because it’s not. Technology, however, is not being used in moderation and is therefore becoming dangerous. Some perfect examples of this can be seen in the educational video, “Look up”.

Resources

Davos. (2012, October 11). Counteracting our obsession with speed. Retrieved March 28, 2015, from https://paulbarsch.wordpress.com/tag/decision-making/

Turk, G. (2014, April 25). Look up. Retrieved March 28, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY

Right Here, Right Now.

Technology has (and will continue to) change society’s expectations of mass media and culture. We’re in the Twitter Era, which means everything has to happen right here and right now (Captivate, 2011). We’ve grown quite impatient (and frankly quite spoiled) because of the speed at which information is delivered through technology. There’s really nothing but time that will tell us how far technology will take us.

Consuming information, reading the paper, watching the news: These are all items that we used to consciously take time out of our day to complete. It almost seems as if nowadays information is consumed subconsciously on our smartphones whenever we get a spare minute. I sometimes worry that our culture is actually too concerned with mass media on smartphones. How many times have you looked around a restaurant only to see 75% of people on their smartphones? I used to take the train to work every morning and was amazed that the train had hundreds of people on it, but it remained completely silent. We’re becoming overly familiar with mass media and technology and less familiar with each other.

Resources

Captivate. (2011, March 23). ITunes killing the music industry. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SB6YXZye_8 

Hackers Not Welcome

Part of training for communication professionals nowadays also includes social media training. Business professionals actually use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. to scope out potential candidates. I once heard the quote, “Don’t put anything on Facebook that you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see!” I believe it’s best practice for communication professionals to actively monitor all social media accounts tied to their name. Additionally, people should ensure they are the only ones with access to their account settings and passwords. Changing passwords regularly is also a good idea. Hackers nowadays are pretty advanced! Personally, I found these 5 Tips for Managing Your Online Social Media Presence very helpful.

Work/Life Balance

Communication professionals also need training on ‘balance’. Because we live such a ‘connected’ life, we must also know when it’s appropriate to ‘disconnect’. Technological communication should never outweigh human contact and interaction. Just as the video “Look Up” portrays, we become worse communicators if we are always hunched over our phones and tablets. A training on when and how it’s appropriate to disconnect would be very beneficial for communication professionals. As Sherry Turkle expresses in her Ted talk, are we connected, but alone? Just because the Internet has made it possible to check in 24/7 does not mean we should.

A great example of this is seen in a recent article where FullContact’s CEO decided he was going to pay his employees $7,500 to go on vacation and ‘get off the grid’ (Jack, 2012). He made this decision after he saw a picture of himself texting while riding on a camel by the pyramids. He was deeply ashamed he was not taking in the beauty around him and that he was a slave to his smartphone. Part of the training for this company revolves around knowing that’s it’s okay to ‘disconnect’ in order to keep a good balance in your life.

Jack, R. (2012, July 16). FullContact CEO offers bonus to take vacation on CNN. Retrieved March 6, 2015, from https://www.fullcontact.com/blog/fullcontact-ceo-offers-bonus-to-take-vacation-on-cnn/

Turkle, S. (n.d.). Connected, but alone? Retrieved March 6, 2015, from http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together?language=en       

Privacy on Social Media

Technology has certainly influenced the training and work of communicators over the past several decades. Part of the training they receive should be around privacy of personal information and publications on the Internet. Nothing uploaded to the web is private anymore (Jameson, 2014). Word spreads around on the Internet and social media so fast that. Even if something appears ‘private’, it’s not.

Just recently, Amy Pascal of Sony was fired because her personal e-mails were hacked. She used ‘less-than-ideal’ language and attached some of her co-workers and clients (Donnelly, 2015). The introduction of technology has made it absolutely necessary for communication professionals to receive IT training on how to protect personal information and publications from hackers.

Donnelly, M. (2015, February 11). Amy Pascal says she was fired. Retrieved March 6, 2015, from http://www.thewrap.com/amy-pascal-says-she-was-fired-talks-leaked-sony-emails-and-angelina-jolie/

Jameson, D. (2014). Crossing public-private and personal-professional boundaries. Business Communication Quarterly, 77(1), 7-30. Retrieved February 16, 2015, from http://bit.ly/15VIuUp

Mizra, A. (n.d.). 5 effective communication tactics/tips for designers. Retrieved March 6, 2015, from http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/effective-communication-tactics-for-designers/