With the turn of the century came a new way of communicating... internet social networking. While the concept was not new, the application was. Today, in 2011, social media has exploded into a plethora of sites which appeal to specific groups, such as "blue eyed babes", to "come as you are", such as Facebook.In case you have been "out to lunch" for the last five years....just what is social networking? My take on it is that you take your everyday life and throw it out on the internet for everyone to see! Oh, you won't find that definition in Webster's, but that is really what you are doing.
The issue of "privacy" has been at the forefront in recent months, particularly on Facebook. However, most sites share your personal information one way or the other. It is when this "privacy sharing" goes viral (everywhere) and you start meeting yourself coming back at you that it is evident that you have lost control of your own life.
There are many aspects of social media that you may not have considered to be such. In addition to the well known social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Classmates and LinkedIn (for business), you can add Google, YouTube and all the blog sites, such as Blogger, Wordpress, etc., not to mention all the "dating" sites out there. You will find a lot of companies who have profiles, fan pages and groups on Facebook and other sites. Many companies even have a "community page" that lets their customers converse with them and each other.
It is all about sharing....sharing information, stories, comments, audio,videos, pictures and links to everything under the sun. Our basic human nature tells us that sharing is good...so, we share. Yet, it is through this sharing that we find that we have lost our privacy in the process. When you have only ONE profile with each site, all that you post is viewed by anyone who happens by, not just your circle of friends, family and acquaintances. This can lead to dire consequences....loss of a job, divorce or even worse! How, then, are we supposed to guard our privacy without leaving the internet?
To digress a moment, the earlier social network sites were pretty rudimentary...more like a forum page, so to speak. As more people joined, more features were added. Each new site that came online improved upon the last one with more features and added value. When MySpace was introduced, it was a vast improvement over Friendster. Likewise, Facebook went even further. Today, the feature content of Facebook boggles the mind! Yet, privacy is more of an issue than ever before.
Until now, the internet seemed to treat privacy as "community property" and share it without regard to the individual's rights. While there are ways to limit this abuse on Facebook and the others, we still only have one profile which restricts our ability to control our posts and inhibits our freedom of expression. When we throw caution to the wind and just post what we think indiscriminately the results can be disastrous!
Now, what if someone came along with a better idea? What if you were able to make a post about and to your family....and only THEY would see it? What is you could talk "sweet nothings" to a spouse or "significant other" and keep it just between the two of you? What if you could promote a business just between other like-minded people? What if you could separate your close friends from your professional affairs...and keep your exchanges with them personal? What if you could express yourself in a blog for the whole world could see...without sharing your personal, family and love life affairs along with it? And, what if you could do this.....ALL FROM ONE PLACE?
On January 15, 2011, a new social network launched. Within 5 minutes of launch, over ONE MILLION people logged in! Even with multiple servers and massive bandwidth, this overwhelming response burdened the system beyond its capacity, requiring additional servers to be brought online to expand the available bandwidth to handle that level of activity! What this proved is that people are hungering for more privacy and more flexibility in their online experiences. People want to say who sees what!
Enter a new generation of social media with 5 separate profiles where YOU can CONTROL YOUR VIRTUAL LIFE! Enter ZING SOCIAL network! I will not attempt to go into all that this site offers, since I would tax the capacity of this blog! So, for the whole story, why not check it out? To register for your free account and get acquainted with the site just CLICK HERE ! I am definitely IN...see you there...and connect with me!
Keith Ingram, Founding Member, ZING SOCIAL
