Social Media is Being Increasingly Utilized in the Job Searching Process

In recent years, social media has heavily influenced the way tasks are accomplished in addition to impacting the way people interact with one another. Social media itself consists of web-based communication and interaction devices, which allow for a dialogue between organizations, communities, and individuals. Due to the popularity, convenience, and accessibility of social networking websites, their purposes have evolved to include more than just the capability for people to socialize with one another. This is certainly true in the field of job searching, which is currently being revolutionized as a result of social media. Older forms of job searching, such as the want ads in the local newspaper, are quickly being replaced by the internet and the use of social networking websites. Today, there are a variety of social media websites that a job seeker can utilize during the job searching process.

Common Social Media Websites used in the job searching process.

There are Multiple Social Networking Websites That Can Utilized For Job Searching
The three main social networking websites used for the job searching process are LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. The most widely used and arguably the most beneficial social networking website used for job searching is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a business-related social networking site, with the sole purpose of helping people connect to potential employers and employees, and obtain jobs. According to the official LinkedIn website, as of December 31, 2011, professionals were signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate that is faster than two new members per second. As of February 9, 2012, LinkedIn was the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 150 million members in over 200 countries and territories. While Twitter and Facebook can be used to aid in the hiring process, these social media websites are more effective at simply exposing groups of individuals to organizations they wish to learn more about, rather than actually obtaining jobs.

listen to ‘Finding Candidates Through Social Media’ on Audioboo

A study by Bullhorn Reach, a division of the Boston-based Bullhorn Inc. recruiting software company, found that LinkedIn is driving the most views and applications among the three top social networks, as 48% of recruiters solely use the website. This is significantly lower than that of Facebook and Twitter, in which only 1% of recruiters solely use each of these websites.

The study by Bullhorn Reach, a division of the Boston-based Bullhorn Inc.

Recruiters Use Social Networking Websites During the Job Searching Process
Recruiters are increasingly turning to social media devices as a way to find and screen through potential employees. They view social media as an effective tool for hiring individuals, because it has made it significantly easier for recruiters to build and maintain connections. According to the 2012 Social Activity Report, the typical recruiter has “616 LinkedIn connections, 245 Facebook friends, and 37 Twitter followers.” Ultimately, this has resulted in an increase of efficiency with which a recruiter can find quality candidates. LinkedIn has the highest adoption for recruiting, followed by Twitter, and then Facebook. The 2012 Social Activity Report goes on the explain, “Recruiters tend to add twice the amount of Twitter followers in a week than Facebook, adding an average of 1.5 Facebook friends, 3.1 Twitter followers and 18.5 LinkedIn connections per week.” This data is consistent with the fact that LinkedIn and Twitter are the two networks used most often for social recruiting and that Facebook is still being used primarily as a personal network.

Recruiters use social media to make connections with potential employees.

Using Social Media During the Job Searching Process is Extremely Beneficial
There are many benefits for using social media networks during the job searching process. One of the most obvious reasons is that social media allows you to reach out to a larger number of people. When you publish information about yourself on the internet, it becomes available to a much larger audience than when you submit your credentials by paper to a few businesses. Social networking tools also allow employers to reach out to you. As is previously stated, recruiters are actively using social media to discover future employees, and maintain connections with those candidates. Putting your information online allows recruiters to sift through employees that are not right for the particular job title they are hoping to fill, and personally contact the people that they consider to be a good fit for the job. In fact, using social media tools can allow people who are seeking jobs to be reached out by recruiters for jobs that aren’t even advertised. Last, using social media websites when job searching is tremendously convenient. Social networking websites allow you to communicate quickly and easily, and update personal information as soon as it changes, all in the comfort of your own home.

Social Media Websites help people seeking employment find jobs.

Posting Undesirable Things on Social Networking Websites Can Hurt Your Chances of Getting a Job
Recruiters look at the social media websites of their potential employers specifically used for job searching purposes, but they also view personal social networking pages. This means that recruiters may be accessing aspects of your personal life not intended for employers to see. These include the web pages created to connect with friends and family and update others about personal events in one’s life. What you post on these websites, even if it has nothing to do with your desired career, can be viewed by recruiters as a reflection of that person’s character, and thus negatively influence a person’s chances of acquiring a job. In fact, statistics show that 43% of recruiters have admitted to eliminating potential candidates for a job position based on the information they found on a social media website. However, you can prevent this from happening by doing things such as removing incriminating photographs, deleting any inappropriate comments or statuses, and eliminating any content that shows radical views.

listen to ‘Reasons People Weren't Hired’ on Audioboo

It is also extremely important to remember that social media not only can result in someone not obtaining a job, but also in someone losing a job they've obtained. A recent Huffington Post report backs up this claim, demonstrating that many people, all with differing occupations, have been fired as a result of things posted on their Facebook pages.

Career Counselor Claire E. Jacobson Recommends Using Social Media Websites in the Primary Stages of the Job Searching Process
While Jacobson recognizes the benefits of using social networking websites during the job searching process, she does not recommend this being the only tactic used to obtain a job. In fact, Jacobson believes that social media should only be used in the preliminary stages of job searching. Social networking websites, according to Jacobson, act as effective tools to research companies, job openings, and to get your name out there. However, she believes that after this is accomplished, job seekers should attempt to continue with the job searching process on a more personal level, whether that be a phone call, or even better, in-person meetings.



Things such as informational interviews are recommended in addition to social networking, in which a job seeker meets with a worker at the company they have developed an interest in, and asks questions to obtain more information about the job or business. The facts seem to back up this claim, as studies show that 85% of jobs are obtained through in-person networking, whether it is in combination with social media devices or not. Thus, social media is a tool which is extremely beneficial to use during the job searching process when combined with more personal methods of job searching.

The Past, Present, and Future of the Web

The Web Today

The world wide web is such a popular mass media because it offers access to a vast amount of knowledge at your fingertips. This information can be accessed quickly and easily in most cases, providing convenience for the people wishing to access it.

Today, people enjoy the web not only for the information availble, but also for shopping without the hassle of going to a crowded mall, enjoying various forms of entertainment, for social networking purposes, for storing and submitting information, and even for paying bills.

Thus, the internet is developing more and more functions, and access to the internet is becoming easier and proving to be more vital for everyday life. For instance, the number of internet devices in 1984 was a mere 1,000, in 1992 it increased to 1 million, and in 2008, there were 1 billion. This number is still growing and will contine to grow at an extremely rapid pace.

The web is a much different mass media than other forms of media existent in the past. There is a lot of freedom given when using the internet, much more so than other mass medias, which many people find appealing. For instance, AM/FM and HD radio are all regulated by the FCC, however there is no regulation by the FCC on the internet.

In addition, it took radio 58 years to reach a market audience of 50 million, whereas it took internet only 4 years. With radio, certain radio stations can only be accessed at certain places at certain times, the same internet is open to people all over the world for access at virtually anytime.

What site you visit, what you listen to, and what you watch is up to the discretion of the user when on the internet. When listening to basic AM/FM radio, you can pick only what station you listen to, but not what music or programs are played on that station (although innovations such as HD Radio and Satellite radio are currently changing the way we listen to radio).

Imagining the web

We consider the web to be very “new” mass medium however, the concept of the web began in the 1960’s. Check out this video I found from 1969, explaining a very early interpretation of the ideology of the internet:

While this primitive portrayal seems almost comical, it did touch on some of the functions that our current internet carries out on a day to day basis. Most notably, these include online shopping and electronically storing account information and paying bills.

The Future of the Web
As time goes on, the internet will continue to grow vaster, more efficient, and more prominent in everyday life. For instance, in the next 3-5 years, the internet will be made faster and easier to access than ever. I believe technology will be developed that will allow access to the internet in devices other than just computers, phones, and cars, such as watches and showers. Check out this fascinating video, on the statistics of the internet, it’s growth, and predictions of the future: 

I believe that as time goes on, the need for paper will be less and less. All bill paying will be online, other media such as books and newspapers will be published online, and papers in schools will all be submitted online.

Some credible sources, such as CNN, take it a step further, and predict that the internet available on devices such as smart phones will allow people to carry out variety of roles that we consider only human beings to be able to do. These include parking a car, doing one’s laundry, cooking dinner, and many other chores that most dislike having to do themselves.

Years from now, the web will be more advanced and innovative than we could possibly imagine today. I am almost certain that 43 years from today we will be able to access this post and chuckle at the predictions and relatively “primitive” ideas about the future, much like we did with the video from 1969.

But until that time, we simply will have to remember our humble roots, and continue to be amazed by the advancement in modern technology.

Banned Books: Have You Read One?

  Usually when someone thinks of “print media”, the first image that comes to mind is books. Books originally came about in the time of antiquity, when the Ancient Egyptians wrote on papyrus, a plant grown along the Nile River, over 5000 years ago. In the 5th century A.D., manuscripts were being written, and in the 15th century, Gutenberg invented the printing press, allowing books to be published more quickly and effectively. Books have traditionally held a lot of power, in that they have the ability to reveal information to a reader, influence one’s opinions, and can encourage one to take action on a particular issue. For these reasons, certain books have historically been banned in the United States, in an effort to prevent the ideas that the book could potentially instill in an audience from making its way to the reader.

 Some of the books that have been banned might be surprising to you. Some of these books might have been on your high school curriculum and others you might have read at leisure, not knowing that reading this certain book was at one time against the rules. Of these, include I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, which has been banned from multiple school and local libraries due to the themes of lesbianism, premarital cohabitation, pornography, and violence, and also for a supposed “anti-white” message which many believed would spread hatred and encourage action against the white race. Also, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck was banned for being “too profane”, and To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee for it's negative portrayal of the white race.
   Another book banned in American history was The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck in 1939, which was banned months after it’s publication in Kansas City and in Oklahoma because of the language that was present in the book. In St. Louis, Missouri, a library ordered its 3 copies to be burned for the vulgar words used by its characters. In addition, Uncle Tom's Cabin published in 1852, was immediately banned in the South as abolitionist propaganda. Throughout the 20th century and even within the recent years, people of all backgrounds continue to challenge the book's inclusion on school reading lists, citing objectionable language and the condemnation of Christianity practiced by white preachers and congregations as prime reasons.
.

 

     The banning of books because of the potential for information to alter or influence knowledge and understanding is obviously not something new, and surprisingly also not that complicated to bring about. In the United States, when someone reads a book they consider questionable, they have the power to insist that the book be considered to be banned. Groups in power, spanning from a local school, a state government, or a censor board such as the Anti-Defamation League, all the way to the Supreme Court, then have the ability to meet and discuss whether the value of the book itself exceeds the objection against it. If it is found that the book causes more harm than good, an order can be made for the banning of the book.
    After reflecting on the concepts of “information overload” and “filter failure”, it is important to remember these cases where pieces of information were not available to everyone in the public. The internet, which provides us today with an expansive amount of information, and which we often take for granted, was not around during the time most of these books that were banned. This means that when a book was banned from the local libraries and book stores, one could not simply go online to download an e-version of a book, or simply click a button and order one to be delivered from a different location. More often than not, that book and the information it contained simply just could not be made available to them. It is important to both appreciate the information we have access to today, and fight to prevent the banning of books and the subsequent information these books have to offer.

Filter Failure in Society

I found Clay Shirky’s speech, “It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure” extremely interesting and informative. One of the most interesting points that Shirky made in his speech is his assertion that “information overload” has existed for centuries, starting with Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in the 15^th century. The introduction of this printing press resulted in increased publication of printed work, allowing information to be available to those who previously were not capable of acquiring it. Even during this time, more books were being printed than a single person could read in a lifetime. (More information about the issue of information overload in the 15^th century can be found in this short article by Cory Doctorow entitled, “Complaining About Information Overload in the Time of Ecclesiastes” http://boingboing.net/2010/11/28/complaining-about-in.html). As Shirky points out, because publishers take an economic risk when they print a text, the information which is published is strictly filtered. The introduction of the internet resulted in the ability for people to publish information with little to no interference, and as a result, without much of a filter. The fact that “information overload” has been around for centuries, and that today much of the information in the public eye is not strictly filtered, this leads me to believe that the problem current day society is facing concerning information is more of a result of filter failure rather than information overload. It seems that there will always be more information in circulation than one single person can possible absorb. This must be accepted as a fact. However, it is imperative that society focuses on filtering information in order to keep the most important pieces at the forefront, while making an effort to regulate the pieces of information that are not significant. That is not to say that I am hoping for an “information police force” to delete and destroy anything that may not be considered important in society, as this would blatantly go against a person’s right to freedom of speech, however, everyone would benefit from a certain level of filtering on mediums such as the internet, where almost anything and everything has the ability to be put in the public eye.