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Social Networking Essay Social Networking A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Technological Institute of the Philippines College of Engineering In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements in Bachelor of Science Industrial Engineering By: Jessica P. Tumambing Approved By: Ms. Federa Acknowledgements The author would like to express his sincere appreciation to all those that have assisted in the completion of this Thesis. Ms. Federa Ms. Federa has been an excellent professor. The author could not have completed the research without her guidance and ongoing support. Respondents Author would like to thank all the people that took the time to respond to the questionnaire and assisted in gathering the primary data. Friends and Family Finally the author would like to thank his friends especially to my very best friend for their great help and for enduring me. Their assistance has been very motivating. I would also like to thank my family for their support, with special mention to my Mom and Dad, for always covering my back and providing me with encouraging words DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to my parents who have always been my nearest and reverse nearest neighbors and have been so close to me that I found them whenever I needed. It is their unconditional love that motivates me to set higher targets. I also dedicate this to my best friend (Jhae Jimenez) who is my nearest surrounder and have provided me a strong love shield that always surrounds me and never lets any sadness enter inside. ABSTRACT Social Networking Sites are experiencing a rapid growth; there seems to be no limit to their size. Many Social Networking Sites boast with millions of members using their networks on regular basis to communicate, share, create, and collaborate with others. Popular examples of these Social Networking Sites are Facebook, LinkedIn and Bebo. Although most of these sites lack decent business models, they are valued at millions of pounds. Google paid 1.5 billion dollar for YouTube when it wasn’t even earning a single penny. The reason successful Social Networking Sites have become so valuable is due to the amount of people that are using it; and people are exactly what organizations are after. This report aims to find out whether Social Networking Sites have the same value in the context of recruitment. Academic literature extensively discusses online recruitment, however not much is said about recruitment on Social Networking Sites: ‘Sociocruitment’ Research revealed that professionals are quite optimistic about Sociocruitment. Although users of Social Networking Sites had a disperse opinion on organizations contacting them on these websites; not many were negative. The contemporary research furthermore harvested information from a range of sources to create understanding of key issues allowing readers to familiarize themselves with the concept. Finally the report makes suggestions on how organizations can engage in this new media. TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval Sheet I Acknowledgement II Dedication III Abstract IV Table of Contents - V CHAPTER 1 Background of study - 1-2 Statement of the Problem 3-4 Significance of the Study 5 Assumption of the study 6-7 Scope and Limitations - BACKGROUND OF STUDY This thesis explores Social Networking sites as a medium of expression for sexual identity construction; more specifically the research question aimed to explore how gay and lesbian individuals use social networking websites as a means to construct and explore their sexual identities through self presentation on conventional social networking sites (SNS) available and used by everybody versus LGB SNS which are primarily used by Lesbian/Gay and Bisexual individuals and groups. Through the conduction of eight semi- structured interviews with an even number of four males and females and a content analysis of each participant’s social networking profiles, the research explored how sexual identities were presented and played out on these sites by the variation and degree of information that was disclosed by the sample study. Overall the aim was to explore the advantages and disadvantages social networking entails for the gay community through a comparison of both types of SNS, exploring how self presentation and sexual identities are negotiated and managed through the two while determining if these sites were in fact a safe location to play out sexual identities if they are a site of identity restrictions. From research up to this point it has struck me that there is limited research concerned with the disadvantages of social networking and identity experimentation for gays and lesbians. Thus this present study aims to acquire if gay individuals feel  they can perform their sexual identities more comfortably and honest in one ahead of the other or if they feel the need to ‘conceal’ their sexual identities on certain social network sites which are accessible to all e.g. Facebook and reasons why. The basis of this study is to get both sides of the story, addressing the positives but also taking into account the negatives and weighting up which SNS is less restrictive on sexual Page 2 of 39 identity construction. Self presentation will be a dominant theme in drawing research, extending on the existing research exploring the differences of presentation between the two sites. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace allow you to find and connect with just about anyone, from a coworker in a neighboring cube to the girl who played Emily in your high school production of â€Å"Our Town† thirty years ago. Browsing these sites can make you feel connected to a larger community, but such easy, casual connection in an electronic environment can also have its downside. A False Sense of Connection According to Cornell University’s Steven Strogatz, social media sites can make it make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media. By focusing so much of our time and psychic energy on these less meaningful relationships, our most important connections, he fears, will weaken. Cyber-bullying The immediacy provided by social media is available to predators as well as friends. Kids especially are vulnerable to the practice of cyber-bullying in which the perpetrators, anonymously or even posing as people their victims trust, terrorize individuals in front of their peers. The devastation of these online attacks can leave deep mental scars. In several well-publicized cases, victims have even been driven to suicide. The anonymity afforded online can bring out dark impulses that might otherwise be suppressed. Cyber-bullying has spread widely among youth, with 42% reporting that they have been victims, according to a 2010 CBS News report. Decreased Productivity While many businesses use social networking sites to find and communicate with clients, the sites can also prove a great distraction to employees who may show more interest in what their friends are posting than in their work tasks. Wired.com posted two studies which demonstrated damage to productivity caused by social networking: Nucleus Research reported that Facebook shaves 1.5% off office productivity while Morse claimed that British companies lost 2.2 billion a year to the social phenomenon. New technology products have become available that allow social networks to be blocked, but their effectiveness remains spotty. Privacy Social networking sites encourage people to be more public about their personal lives. Because intimate details of our lives can be posted so easily, users are prone to bypass the filters they might normally employ when talking about their private lives. What’s more, the things they post remain available indefinitely. While at one moment a photo of friends doing shots at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less attractive in the context of an employer doing a background check. While most sites allow their users to control who sees the things they’ve posted, such limitations are often forgotten, can be difficult to control or don’t work as well as advertised. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1. Informatics Manila Students – The main target of the study, for the students to be aware of the impact of social media to them 2. Parents – This study will be beneficiary to parents of the students, for them to be aware of the impacts of social media usage. 3. Informatics College Manila – The study will also be beneficial to the educational institution for the awareness on the impact of social media usage. 4. Future Researchers – They will benefit from the study through the information they could gather.