Proof of Learning Report week 1

After the first week of this class I have found that the online forum is has progressed so much that it is considered to be the go-to medium of communication in many different contexts.  After reading the articles I have concluded that with this comes many benefits in terms of expanding both opportunity and production.  In today’s world geographic location is no longer an obstacle for both work and even some relationships. 

            In the Reputation Management article, it seemed that younger generations are more aware of the detriments of SNS.  Because of this, it was concluded from the data that the primary age demographic who of which is concerned with their online reputation, thus setting more privacy controls and more heavily monitoring their activity consisted of ages 18-29.  I believe this trend is important, for people of this age still have their future careers at stake.  These future career opportunities can wither with a bad online reputation, especially when one considers the employers’ tendency to review these particular reputations.  I myself had received a wake-up call as a result of an ISU student’s assignment.  In brief she played the role of a potential employer.  Her job was to assess her decision on hiring me on the basis of my online reputation, specifically via Facebook.  It turned out I was not to receive the job because of it.  I consider myself lucky that it happened now as opposed to when I actually am looking for a job. The disparity of online reputation management being observed more by the younger folk has to do with their particular activity.  One can agree that the older generations have “less to hide” than that of the younger generation and their particular “extracurricular activities.” 

            In closing, the online forum has given many opportunities, despite the detrimental possibilities explained above.  Social capital, for instance, can contribute to things such as better public health and lower crime rates, because of the ease of networking individuals and ideas (what social capital generally refers to).  Expanding networking opportunity, along with monitoring online reputation will arguably lead to a higher concentration of production in general.