New Media Awareness

New Media Awareness

In my opinion, the top 10 things (no particular order) that one should be aware about with new media are…

·      E-commerce;

·      E-banking;

·      Advantages of social media;

·      Disadvantages of social media;

·      Cyber-bullying;

·      Search engines;

·      Misleading information online;

·      Spamming;

·      Health issues resulting from social media and/or the Internet; and

·      Age-inappropriate content.

            Electronic commerce (E-commerce) is the buying and selling of different goods and services online. Have you ever seen yourself wanting or needing a particular item but knew that there was no store open at the moment to buy it because of the time? With E-commerce and it’s 24/7 production, instead of waiting until a store open, you can search online and find whatever it is you are searching for very easily. The procedure of buying or selling something online is much easier than having to go through a store because of the availability and pricing. Online, you will either find something cheaper or for the same exact price as in store.

            In addition to E-commerce, there is also electronic banking (E-banking). E-banking is the process of banking where the customer can do different transactions online as opposed to having to visit a bank telling or an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Obviously, you cannot make a transaction where you deposit cash online, but you can do checks which is great. Below is an image from the past that shows a graph that indicates the growth of E-banking over time. With numbers like that in that time period, one can only imagine what the statistics are for the ever-popular E-banking process.

            Arguably, the biggest phase to take over the world is social media. Almost the whole world is avid social media members. But just like most things in the world, social media has advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages of social media are staying connected with family and friends, fast way to communicate with others, and the ability to expand one’s business. According to socialmediatoday.com, the top benefits that companies are seeing from social media are…

·      89% of respondents said that social media marketing has generated more business exposure;

·      64% saw lead generation increase by using social media 6 hours or less per day

·      69% of marketers use social media to gather marketplace intelligence;

·      62% of marketers using social media for 2+ years reported a rise in search engine rankings; and

·      62% of businesses with 10 employees or less reported that social media has reduced marketing expenses.

According to shrm.org, some disadvantages of social media are that…

·      It opens up the possibility for hackers to commit fraud and launch spam and virus attacks;

·      It increases the risk of people falling prey to online scams that seem genuine, resulting in data or identity theft;

·      It potentially results in negative comments from employees about the company or potential legal consequences if employees use these sites to view objectionable, illicit, or offensive material; and

·      It potentially results in lost productivity especially if employees are busy updating profiles, etc.

            Cyber-bullying is bullying that takes place using electronic technology and typically happens online. This happens a lot on social media websites. But according to stopbullying.org, mean text messages, emails, or putting up online embarrassing pictures, videos, or fake profiles are also examples of cyber-bullying. Posted below is an image of the statistics of cyber-bullying as accurate as May 7, 2013.

            Search engines are programs that search documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Examples of search engines are Google, Yahoo, and Wikipedia. These also happen to be the most popular. One should be aware of how to use a search engine. There is a little more to it then just typing in the search. This comes to play in what you actually put in the search. On kidzworld.com, they have an article entitled “Search Engine Tutorial” where they elaborate on how to use a search engine effectively. According to their article, “the more specific you are, the more info you’ll find.” Below is an image from the article that states some others way to use a search engine effectively that some people probably never even knew.

            In today’s age, there is plenty of misleading information online. There are not many ways to tell if what you are reading is misleading, but there are ways of preventing from reading something that is not really credible. According to news.nettop20.com, the top 20 most credible news sources to do research on are…

·      Cnn.com;

·      Cbs.com;

·      ABC News;

·      Google News;

·      Reuters;

·      Yahoo News;

·      BBC News Online;

·      World News;

·      MSNBC;

·      FOXnews;

·      Usatoday.com;

·      CBC News Online;

·      Time.com;

·      The Associated Press;

·      Guardian Unlimited;

·      NewsLink;

·      The New York Times;

·      EmergencyNetNews;

·      Consortium News; and

·      News.com.au.

           

            One of the most annoying things that pretty much take place with anyone who goes online is spamming. Spamming is unwanted email, normally of a commercial nature, that is sent generally to multiple mailing lists, individuals, and news groups. Another name for this is junk email. There are different types of spam. There’s harvested address spam, virus spam, domain name spam, dictionary spam, windows messenger spam, hacked mail service spam, and hoax spam. The most common forms of spam are harvested address spam and virus spam. Attached below is an explanation of what harvested address spam and virus spam is and how to prevent it according to wordsandpeople.co.uk.

            Most people know that too much of anything can be hazardous for one’s health. This is the same when it comes to online activity. Too much online activity can lead to various social problems and/or health problems. According to the article “8 Ways Social Media Negatively Affects Mental Health” from activebeat.com, those social and health problems are…

·      Productivity drain;

·      Distracts from real life;

·      Social phobias;

·      Feelings of inadequacy;

·      Fear of missing out;

·      Promotes inactivity;

·      Makes us unable to be alone; and

·      Exacerbates unhappiness.

            Age-inappropriate content is always among the world. Adults with kids should obviously know what is suitable for their children’s eyes. Unfortunately, when kids start to grow up, they start to become curious about the world they have not seen yet. I know I did. The company Apple, known for devices such as the iPhone and iPod, has enabled the option to set parental controls and block content on their devices if you choose to. On blog.laptopmag.com, there is an article that gives step-by-step ways to enable the parental controls and how to block content.

Works Cited

"Search Engine Tutorial." Kidzworld. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://www.kidzworld.com/article/1900-search-engine-tutorial>.

"News Top 20: The Pick of the Best News Sites on the Net." News Top 20: The Pick of the Best News Sites on the Net. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://news.nettop20.com/>.

"Computer Security Information." How to Prevent Spam. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://www.wordsandpeople.co.uk/security/how-to-prevent-spam.htm>.

"24 Outstanding Statistics & Figures on How Social Media Has Impacted the Health Care Industry." ReferralMD Referral Management Software DoctorPhysician Network RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://getreferralmd.com/2013/09/healthcare-social-media-statistics/>.

"8 Ways Social Media Negatively Affects Mental Health." ActiveBeat. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://www.activebeat.com/health-news/8-ways-social-media-negatively-affects-mental-health/8/>.

"How To Set Parental Controls and Block Content on the IPhone, IPad, and IPod Touch." LAPTOP Magazine The Pulse of Mobile Technology RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://blog.laptopmag.com/how-to-set-parental-controls-and-block-content-on-the-iphone-ipad-and-ipod-touch>.

"Cyber / Bullying Statistics." Statistic Brain RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://www.statisticbrain.com/cyber-bullying-statistics/>.

"University of the PACIFIC." Online Social Networking Dangers and Benefits. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://www.pacific.edu/Campus-Life/Safety-and-Conduct/Safety-and-Security/Online-Social-Networking-Dangers-and-Benefits-.html>.

"The Top Benefits of Social Media Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC]." RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://socialmediatoday.com/pamdyer/1568271/top-benefits-social-media-marketing-infographic>.

"Social Media: What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking Sites? What Should We Include in a Policy?  ." Social Media: What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking Sites? What Should We Include in a Policy? N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://www.shrm.org/TemplatesTools/hrqa/Pages/socialnetworkingsitespolicy.aspx>.