The Social Media Persona

As a graduating senior, I've come to realize that pretty soon I will be entering the oh, so fun real world. The real world requires a lot of preparation and adjustments to be made before your average college kid can transfer into this new realm. One of these adjustments is learning how to cope with a new Facebook strategy: only presenting the photos and personal qualities that you want a prospective employer to view. That means taking down beer cans and late-night shenanigans. The use of social media in helping prospective employers discover you is crucial to presenting your professional strengths. In referring to social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, Lee Miller says in an article that "those profiles should be consistent and focused on those things you do well which would be valuable to potential employers." In one of his tips for maintaining a professional Twitter account, Miller says to "shoot for a 75 percent to 25 percent professional-to-personal tweet ratio."

The fact is, as we all grow up and change, there always comes that point where you'll have to leave behind the juvenile (at least partially) for a more distinct, professional presence on the web. Employers already are able to peruse through the Facebook profiles of potential job candidates with unfettered access to profile content. Coping with this change is easy. Don't post anything too dumb, and take down any pictures that make you look just a little too dumb. And like I said, if you really want to preserve your memories, leave behind the juvenile partially. You don't have to delete the photos from those fun nights, just make sure you clean up your professional profile by keeping them off the internet. And what do you replace this content with? An article by Thursday Bram suggests using sites like Brazen Careerist, which allows users to create "social resumes." Think of these social resumes as profiles where you post special work that you have done or commented on. Throw up a link to your latest blog post, write about a team project you worked on with a team, it's all there. As we get older, it's time to learn the value of just presenting what matters over the extra, unnecessary stuff. Using social media to network and post your latest work is extremely useful in career searching as long as you keep in mind the size of the field you're playing on in dealing with the internet.

Technology for the kids

The entire Web 2.0 concept of virtual integration and teamwork are parts of many businesses today, and schools are attempting to keep pace in order to prepare students for these environments. A 2009 article by Kristen Alloway discusses the use of online collaborative tools in classrooms ranging from elementary to high school. Some students participated in video conferencing with Spanish classes in different schools, while some classes discussed the use of keeping blog posts to constantly update class wikis with new information. While some may worry about the social implications of conducting classes in less personal and face-to-face interactions, I believe that it is a useful means of teaching children how to work together in an online community. With many jobs today, the candidate with the most diverse skill set, particularly concerning technology, will likely be the person chosen for a job. Skills that are representative of multimedia or technological talent will be valued by an employer, and will be common in the workplace.

However, there must be some sort of restriction if these technologies are going to be used in the schools. One concern is the quality of the writing itself. While weekly class blog posts in an American Literature class can work well to make sure students are keeping up with their work, the longer form essays must be balanced. Also, with a number of students posting up to a site, with the material readily available to view, there could exist the possibility of plagiarism or the repeating of the same comments over and over again. These educators must be very clear about making sure the homework and assignments are distinguishable. The distractions than can sidetrack effective use of Web 2.o technology in class rooms can be countered by making sure that children are only using the computer at a specific time. For those who worry about what the children are doing, many classrooms already have monitoring programs that track what each student does on his or her computer. While the temptations to stray from a new technology's educational purpose exist, they can be managed as long as classrooms are run in a smart way.

For those who worry too much about the impersonality of these tools, the fact remains that these skills are necessary for learning to adapt to a changing world. These tools are useful when used in moderation. While we can all benefit from the use of these new technologies, I doubt anyone will ever completely forget the power of personal interaction and just plug an entire class in the whole time.

Impersonal Teamwork: Effective or Not?

In The Strange Beauty of Virtual Teams, Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps laud the success rate of virtual teams in the business world, saying that they tend work "under-budget," "ahead of schedule," and produce "breakthrough results." Using virtual teams eliminates commuter costs, and allows collaboration over broad distances, decreasing the time it takes to coordinate a project and facilitating focused communication.

When looking at the positives of virtual teams, the idea does seem enticing and innovative in the scope of the current technological setting. Everything is available with the click of a button: long reports can be sent in scannable, searchable PDFs or a company representative can update its client from across the country. Every day technology grows at a pace that makes everything easier, faster, better. In this climate, virtual teams seem to be the next logical step in keeping employees and executives up-to-date with the times. The caveat to virtual teams however is to make sure that the value of face-to-face, in-person communication isn't lost.

Working in the same space, or within a short walk's distance is something that can never be replaced. Working together in the same physical space allows team members to see how other members act and interact with others. This refers to situations outside of the realm of strictly work-related business. Over the internet, you can easily send work assignments back and forth quickly. Despite this advantage, you don't really "know" the person fully. Their likes and dislikes, hobbies and general demeanor allow you to know how to approach a person and see what angle that person is taking in approaching their work. This kind of understanding is absolutely invaluable.

Laying a Digital Map Over the World

Imagine you are walking down your town's own version of Main St., a bustling row of shops and restaurants lie before you. You walk up to the window of a Barnes & Noble and, using nothing more than a wear-able computing device on your fingertips. In just a few short hand motions, you can browse through the latest book and DVD releases or simply search for the best deals in the store. After walking through the periodicals section for a while, you pick up a magazine and a video clip plays over an image of the cover story. Programs like MIT's SixthSense are showing how augmented reality applications are rapidly making their way into reality, as described in a BBC article by Jane Wakefield.

For people like TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld, the current technological trend is out with the VR and in with the AR. In an earlier article I looked at how mobile GPS programs could be used for advertising purposes, notifying someone of nearby store deals and commercials. Augmented reality will provide similar services but, in my opinion, be more socially engaging and feel less intrusive. The premise of augmented reality is that you interact with the world using the latest digital information compilers and projected graphic interfaces, instead of having bits of advertisement thrown at you. How is AR engaging?

With programs like SixthSense, users can overlay digital information on objects like books and newspapers, revising the power of paper and the printed word. This way you can have a book narrated to you as you read it, in addition to finding reviews of that book or resell prices on Amazon. Simply look at an article about Obama's latest healthcare meeting and see a video clip from the event play out in a projected form on the paper. Anywhere you go, you can see information without some sort of monitor or screen.

Also, instead of having advertisements thrown at you, you can search the deals yourself by pointing your cellphone at a certain store, restaurant, or other place of interest. You choose the information and advertising you're interested in by choosing the store yourself.

Also, the gaming possibilities seem endless. You can work with an object in the real world while projecting digital graphic interfaces over it to create games such as the Parrot AR Drone for the iPhone. You can manipulate objects in the real world in a virtual world merely by directly communicating with an iPhone. Technology like this has made Avatar, James Cameron's latest hit, possible by picking up motion data from a real object and interpreting it in a digital world with digital imagery. Whether you're a gamer or an avid shopper, it seems that pretty soon our digital interactions with the world might require nothing more than a headband and piece of paper.