Nine Questions and Answers Students want to know about Social Media before they enter the Workforce

How cool is this, I do my best to help out students whenever possible, it’s great that college students are focusing on Social Media and how it’s changing communication, business, and society. Rather than just answer in email, I prefer answering him in public, this way others can benefit from the knowledge sharing.

Chris must have found me from this post I wrote about Wait till the MySpace Generation hits the Workforce. At the time, there was a lot of bashing of blogs and social sites as fads. I was quoted in Ted’s book on blogging, I’ll post up some pictures of the text soon, it ties into this trend.

I encourage YOU to answer the questions, either on your own blog, or in my comments section!

Dear Mr. Owyang,

I am a 21-year-old Interactive Media student in Amsterdam. I’m currently writing an article for a school assignment about the MySpace generation.

In this article I will try to visualize how MySpace is going to affect our lives in the future 10 years from now (when the MySpace generation hits the workforce). Also I am trying to find out the future of MySpace itself. Is MySpace going to keep up with all the technological improvements on the internet?

For this article I am supposed to interview (preferably an expert) on the area, but my choice of subject has made it difficult to find someone to interview (not a lot of experts on MySpace here in Amsterdam)..

While I was googling for information for the article, I came across your website and I absolutely love it. I think it’s great that you make a living out of the internet and I hope some day I can too. I already read the article “When the MySpace generation hits the workforce.”

I was hoping you would maybe want to answer some questions? If not I understand and I will try to find someone else. I will refer to your website in my article ofcourse but as it is just an assignment for school it will not get published anywhere.
In advance I apologize for my bad english, my dutch is better.

1) Do you have an online profile on MySpace, Friendster, Hyves or another social networking site?
2) Have you ever googled a person you just met to find out more about them?
3) If you would consider to hire someone, would you google them or trust the information they gave you in person?
4) Can you imagine a future where people will only communicate through online networking and not socialize face-to-face anymore?
5) Can you imagine people getting married through MySpace instead of in real-life?
6) A lot of people say MySpace is a crappy website. Do you think MySpace will be able to keep up with all the technological improvements or will it remain a simple website?
7) Do you think what people write in their blogs now, will affect their future lives?
If so, in what way and how much will it affect their future lives?
I recently found out there is a book thats called “Hacking MySpace” by John Pospisil.
What is your vision on this? Are people taking this too far?
9) What is your opinion on TyP!ng 7!k3 th!s?

If you have any other interesting views to share apart from answering these questions, ofcourse I am very curious for your opinion!

Thank you

Kind regards,

Chris

Thanks so much Chris for reaching out to me. Social Media has become my passion, and I’ve recently started a job at Podtech as a consultant where I’ll be helping Fortune 1000 companies understand Social Media. With that said, my focus less on MySpace (I’m NOT a MySpace exper) than on tools like Blogs, Wikis, Forums, RSS and whatever comes next. Anyways, I’ll do my best to answer your questions, others will provide knowledge in the comments.

MySpace is a trend, it will not keep up with the ‘technological improvements’ as you suggest. With the Marketers bombarding so heavily (the fake Red Passion girl is a good example of this) the cool kids (early adopters and trend decision makers) will leave, and take the followers with them. I highly doubt MySpace will exist in it’s current glory, something new will come, or it will evolve and look nothing like it is today. (think Internet TV and Mobile)

Questions and Answers

1) Do you have an online profile on MySpace, Friendster, Hyves or another social networking site?
I have a MySpace profile, Friendster, Flickr, LinkedIn, YouTube, Gather, and too many others (that’s actually quite a problem, too many identities). There is very little content on them, as I redirect them to this site you’re now reading.

2) Have you ever googled a person you just met to find out more about them?
Yes, quite frequently. I’ll also use Technorati to see what folks are saying about them, sometimes Sphere, and I’m waiting for Spock. I do Flickr searches to find out what they look like.

3) If you would consider to hire someone, would you google them or trust the information they gave you in person?
Yes, but a wise hiring manager would be looking at a variety of source to find out about future teammates. Getting rid of horrible employees is far more difficult than hiring good ones. The funny thing is, many people I’ve interviewed works or worked at a company where I know someone in the web team, quite often, I can get a reference or opinion. (Tip: don’t ever ever burn any bridges) One should always follow the law here. See why I wish/predict we could bury the resume and cold interview.

4) Can you imagine a future where people will only communicate through online networking and not socialize face-to-face anymore?
That type of world is not going to happen. Social Media has let passion groups assemble online then meet offline, and also the other way around. I ran a family project and have been connecting Owyangs from around the globe using web tools. Also, web tools (and mobile) will start to provide richer experiences, we will be communication face-to-face digitally in the next few years. I was in Japan last month and witnessed mobile tele conferencing.

5) Can you imagine people getting married through MySpace instead of in real-life?
People are meeting online and then meeting in real life. I’ve heard of cases of people meeting and marrying online before ever meeting. Have you read about Second Life’s Virtual Pals? Humans are social creatures and need belonging, they’ll use social media tools to find others.

6) A lot of people say MySpace is a crappy website. Do you think MySpace will be able to keep up with all the technological improvements or will it remain a simple website?
MySpace lacks a unified consistent user experience, but does well with personalization and customization, which humans often require in social structures. MySpace will evolve, although other sites will build better features.

7) Do you think what people write in their blogs now, will affect their future lives? If so, in what way and how much will it affect their future lives?
Oh yes, you found me didn’t you? Shel Israel has interviewed folks that don’t get jobs because of their poor online persona and embarrassing situations. I credit getting my current job a great deal to my blogging activities, which reflects my passion for web.

The web can archive much of this information forever. Go check out archive.org. Also know that RSS pushes data out and indexes (like Google and Technorati) will track it. MySpace servers may hold data for a period of time as well.

I recently found out there is a book thats called “Hacking MySpace” by John Pospisil. What is your vision on this? Are people taking this too far?
I don’t know this book, but it’s not really about hacking, it’s about customizing and personalization. That’s cool, I’ve done this to my blog and many others have and will modify their online persona. Humans like to belong, but also be unique.

9) What is your opinion on TyP!ng 7!k3 th!s?
iTz cUl wIt mE! Every culture has a language, Leet speak is a counter culture designed to break away from the norm and yet again show belonging to a group, as well as being different from the norm. What’s funny is that 100 years ago the English language was written and spoken very differently than now. 100 years from now, the English language will continue to evolve into something more efficient and will probably be tied with technology. Typing may become a lost art.

Hope this helps, good luck!

Chris, and your English is great, my Dutch is horrible!

This entry was posted on Monday, December 4th, 2006 at 6:23 am and is filed under Ruminations, Social Media, Web Theory, Web Usage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.