Social Networking and its Implications

What will happen when social networking infiltrates all levels of the society? I put some thought into it and arrived at the following points…

Positives: (I may sound naïve at times but nothing will deter me from being idealistic)

- Disaster recovery – People can get together very quickly to tackle a crisis
- World camaraderie – Just what we need for world peace
- Everyone shares and learns at a faster pace – I can see that happening already though it can be overwhelming at times
- (You may want to debate with me on whether this should be classified as something negative) Individual edge as related to information access…may disappear gradually, because the possibility of getting to know from one source or the other is very high and in most cases the time lag may not be very significant either – Those who get ego boosts out of knowing that they know something that others don’t know will have reasons to feel displeased
- Community building happens naturally – Finding all the people that have common interests happens naturally
- Business implications – Lot easier for employees and employers to find each other and what’s more, at a much lower cost than otherwise
- Matrimonial implications – Closely linked to world camaraderie and finding people with similar interests etc
- Taking anti-social elements to task – This will be made a lot easier because of the potential that collective forces have

Negatives:

- Rumors spread faster. Can lead to losses in cash and kind if wrong decisions stem from these rumors
- Confusion may rein supreme at times. Who’s saying what? What’s the truth? Who’s saying the truth?

What do you think? Hey, I am not actually a blogger who craves for comments….I can go on blogging irrespective of whether people are coming back to me or not because blogging helps me learn and I love to learn. But I may learn a lot more if you give me feedback…...So, if you’re reading this now and have some independent or borrowed thoughts on this topic, please express yourself…and continue to do so at least once in a while! What? :) I know you will. Thanks in advance.

Update: Feb 22nd - I just found this article on the implications of social software from Fast Company Now...!