Free Essay

We Googled You

In:

Submitted By akanni
Words 1989
Pages 8
We Goggled You

Case Study

Abstract The CEO of the luxury apparel retailer Hathaway Jones, Fred Westen is planning to expand to China market. He needs someone with the skill sets needed to make it a successful. Fred’s old friend’s daughter Mimi Brewster wants to be part of the move, she believes with her Chinese background and her experience in the field, she would be the right candidate for the job. However, the vice president of human resources, Virginia Flanders found some compromising posting on the internet when she goggled to search information about Mimi Brewster that can jeopardize their plans in china. Fred does not know if hiring Mimi Brewster is the right step to take or not. He believes Mimi is the right person to be on board with them. He thinks internet posting of more than eight years ago is not something to really take serious and at the same time fears that the china plan might fail because of Mimi’s posting on the internet.

We Goggled You

Problem The CEO of Hathaway Jones, Fred Westen is under pressure to or not to hire an applicant, Mimi Brewster for the new branch to be opened in china due to her compromising posting on the internet found by Virginia Flanders, the vice president of human resources.

Assumptions * Virginia Flanders does not want Fred to hire Mimi because of the internet posting. * Mimi Brewster did not think her past internet posting will be against her getting hired. * China’s project can be affected negatively by Mimi’s internet posting. * Fred Westen has no genuine believe that past internet posting about Mimi is a true reflection her. “Google anyone hard enough and you will find some dirt.”

Case Analysis
The issues in this case are:
• It is difficult for Fred Westen to hire an ideal candidate with the company hiring policy.
• Mimi’s Internet posting is an obstacle for her getting hired.
• Fred could not speak with Mimi about the internet posting to hear her side of the story which made him make a decision.

Firstly, it is difficult for Fred Westen, the CEO to hire an ideal candidate with the company hiring policies. Fred made this statement as a conflicting hiring policy between the company and the world of prospect employee out there, “With everyone’s sins out there on the internet, fewer and fewer young people seem to be coming to us without any baggage” (p. 42). Fred Westen thinks that for the human resources to base Mimi’s qualification for employment on internet search engine like Google should not be criteria for selection. On the internet, there is no limit or control of information. They can be posted or falsified by anyone with little expertise (Wathen, 2002, p. 136). For example, “Mimi sitting outside China’s San Francisco consulate protesting China’s treatment of dissident journalist” could be a falsified picture or a misinterpretation of the presence of Mimi at the consulate at that time. The lack of gatekeepers allows anything to be published online by anybody (James, 2010). “Without editorial control, documents flawed by bias, mistakes, lies, scholarly misconduct or any number of other flaws can be circulated instantly.” (Wathen, 2002, p. 137). Therefore, Virginia could be getting false information about Mimi in the same way she could be misinformed about a potential candidate who posted false information about her achievements and qualification online in order to get the job. In addition, technology, internet, and information sharing; “young people are participating in a range of activities, including social networking, blogging, gaming, instant messaging, and other content, uploading and sharing their own creations, and collaborating with others in various ways”(James, 2010). Therefore, it would be difficult for companies to hire young interesting people who don’t have any online presence. Consequently, it is an issue for Fred to hire young interesting candidates if Hathaway Jones is only looking for perfect people who don’t have anything on the web. It will also be a mistake if the company loses potential candidates or hires wrong applicants because of the human resources decision based on misinformation on the internet.
Clearly, Hathaway Jones needs to evolve with the current trend of technology in its hiring policies in order to hire the best employees.

Secondly, Mimi’s internet posting is an obstacle for her getting hired. Mimi’s qualification and experience shows she is qualified for the position. Fred Westen knows that she is the best candidate for the job but the internet postings portraying her as an anti-China trade protester is an obstacle for her job application.
With the new digital era, internet is playing the most important role in informing human resource managers about jobs applicants (Solvensky, 2011). Diverse electronic journals and social networks like Facebook and twitter simplify the publication of information about people online (Davidson, 2011, p. 3). Details about professional and private information such as marital status, age, beliefs, activisms, personal opinions and pictures are broadly exposed on these media; there is no more privacy like before (Solvensky, 2011). Therefore, people need to be careful about their activities on the internet, even in their daily life in public because human resource professionals in the USA considerably rely on internet to find information about candidates before making their hiring decision (Davidson, 2011, p. 4). Careerbuilder.com has reported in its survey statistics that “the percentage of 2,600 managers who look at social networks profiles as a way to screen candidates has risen from 22 percent in 2008 to 45 percent in 2009” (Solvensky, 2011). Nearly 11 percent more has the intention to use social media to screen candidates. Nearly 29 percent affirm relying on Facebook, 26 percent relying on LinkedIn, 21 percent relying on MySpace, 11 percent search blogs, and 7 percent use Twitter (Solvensky, 2011). Smith and Kidder stated that “Almost 35 percent of US employers in one survey report that they have found content on social networking sites that caused them not to hire an applicant” (Solvensky, 2011). According to Rowell’s reports, “70 percent of HR managers say they have rejected a job applicant for his or her internet behavior (Solvensky, 2011). For example,
“Mangla (2009) recounts the story of a 22-year-old master's degree student from California. The student allegedly posted on her Twitter feed, ‘Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.’ A Cisco employee saw the tweet and responded by asking who the hiring manager was. The exchange attracted commentary from others; the student ultimately turned down the job, perhaps because she believed that Cisco would have withdrawn the offer anyway.” (Solvensky, 2011)
Because internet is the new virtual world that attract young people of this new generation to expose their private life and activities, human resources professionals understood that they can use search engines, Google and other search engines “to get a sense of ‘who’ the candidate really is” (Davidson, 2011, p. 4). This method of assessment is frequent in our time; while it might be advantageous for employers, it is clearly disadvantageous for job seekers (Davidson, 2011, p. 9).
While Hathaway is looking to expand in China, hiring Mimi with an anti-China trade activism internet presence can be an obstacle for the success of this project.

Thirdly, Fred could not speak with Mimi about the internet posting to hear her side of the story which made him make a decision. In order to really evaluate the information on the internet, Fred stated, ‘”Let’s get Mimi back in here to tell her side of the story”’ (p. 41) but Virginia said it was impossible because the company has not yet defined a legal position related to human resources internet screening of job candidates. This failure of bilateral discussion about the problem has restricted Fred from making an ethical decision about Mimi. A lack of communication between parties involved in a situation cannot help the resolution of problems (Spaho, 2010). This explains how communication is essential in the world of business when managing business in effective way (Spaho, 2010). Hathaway Jones is a professional firm; therefore, it should handle this issue with maturity and professionalism by discussing the issue with Mimi in order to bring light to the information.
Having an effective communication between parties involved in a business encourage new ideas, bring more alternatives for problem-solving and simplify the decision-making process (Spaho, 2010). We never know; having a discussion with Mimi can bring ideas about how to pull this information from the internet. It also can give more clarity about the postings, which may prove that Mimi wasn’t really involved in any of these protests. Bilateral discussion may also help the company to find a suitable way of hiring Mimi in a way that won’t hurt the company’s project.
Communication is a vital way to make an ethical decision, and people with a personal ethical standard hardly make unethical decisions (Eid, 2012, p. 389). Obviously, Fred has a personal ethical standard and making a decision without having a discussion with Mimi about her internet postings is unethical and a mistake. A unilateral decision about these postings is like a bias and a shortsighted decision-making for Fred who also doesn’t want to lose a talented candidate like Mimi. According to Tompkins, “the five ethical values of Human communication are: truth, justice, freedom, care, and integrity” (Eid, 2012, p. 390). Therefore, as an ethical person, Fred needs to rely on truth to make his decision, and this truth cannot be found without communicating with Mimi. Therefore, not able to discuss the issue with Mimi is hindered Fred from making an ethical and a clear decision.

RECOMMENDATION I would recommend that Fred Westen speaks with Mimi about the internet posting to hear her side of the story even if the company has not yet established a legal position about screening candidates based on the internet search findings. Mimi might not know that internet postings can affect her from getting hired. She probably has no knowledge about the postings. It is also possible that her presences on the internet are falsified informations. Therefore, having a discussion with Mimi is important to bring out fact about the information that Virginia found on Google. I believe that best way to go about it is to speak with Mimi.

Gantt chart of Hathaway Jones Description | Start Date | Duration (Days) | End Date | Research (Web) | 7/26/2014 | 2 | 7/27/2014 | Meeting (Ceo& Hr) | 7/27/2014 | 180 | 1/26/2015 | Change follow ups | 7/28/2014 | 365 | 7/27/2015 | | | | | | | | |

References
Davison, K. H., Maraist, C. C., Hamilton, R., & Bing, M. N. (2011, 07 14). Springer Science+Business Media. Retrieved from ABI/INFORM Complete: http://search.proquest.com.proxy-s.mercer.edu/abicomplete/docview/923969376/97461C113B6647B3PQ/3?accountid=12381

Eid, M. (2012, June 14). Springer Science+Business Media. Retrieved from ABI/INFORM Complete: http://search.proquest.com.proxy-s.mercer.edu/abicomplete/docview/1037280799/3A24B8918BB349F1PQ/2?accountid=12381

James, C., Davis, K., Flores, A., Francis, J. M., & Pettingill, L. (2010). Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice. Retrieved from proquest.com: http://search.proquest.com.proxy-s.mercer.edu/docview/853889764/F6FBBE8597D84CFBPQ/5?accountid=12381

Slovensky, R., & Ross, W. H. (2012, February 2). Info : the Journal of Policy, Regulation and Strategy for Telecommunications, Information and Media. Retrieved from ABI/INFORM Complete: http://proxy-s.mercer.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.proxy-s.mercer.edu/docview/915974179?accountid=12381

Spaho, K. (2010, May 29). An Enterprise Odyssey. International Conference Proceedings. Retrieved from proquest.com: http://search.proquest.com.proxy-s.mercer.edu/docview/734617306/F881FDB5D88A46D7PQ/22?accountid=12381

Wathen, C. N., & Burkell, J. (2002, January 15). Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. Retrieved from proquest.com: http://search.proquest.com.proxy-s.mercer.edu/docview/231407928/5C692A7292B4686PQ/21?accountid=12381

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

We Googled You

...An analysis of the Case “We Googled You” Submitted to: Prof Madhusri Shrivastava Submitted by: Abhishek Rungta Roll No: 2013PGPUAE002 In partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Written Analysis and Communication (WAC) course April 1, 2014 Memo of Transmittal 1-Apr-2014 Prof. Madhushri Shrivastava IIM Indore India Sub: Submission of WAC report on the case ‘We Googled You’ Dear Madam, As per your instructions, I have prepared a detailed analysis report on the situation faced by Fred Westen. I suggest that Fred should not hire Mimi for the company’s China operations. Instead, he should hire Mimi for another position in USA. The following pages present a detailed analysis of the situation and available options and their evaluation, recommendation and action steps to be followed. Yours sincerely, Abhishek Rungta PGPUAE: 2013-15 IIM Indore (Dubai Campus) U.A.E. Executive Summary Fred Westen was contacted by his old roommate John Brewster to consider his daughter Mimi for Fred’s company’s decision to expand into China. When Fred forwarded Mimi’s profile to Virginia, she did a normal Google search on her. The search revealed Mimi’s involvement in protests that included China’s treatment against a dissident journalist. Based on these findings, Fred is in a dilemma whether to hire Mimi for China operations. He has to take into account various factors like the success of expansion plans, both company’s and his personal reputation. Considering various evaluation...

Words: 1319 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

The Dance

...the thing I so eagerly awaited, "We will, we will rock you!" Finally it had come; at last the anxiety for the past two months was over. I was ready for it and so I sprang like a cheetah at his prey, and so it began. It had all started two months ago on a black dreary week. I had been having a horrendous day that Friday, but then it happened. We had been working on “We Will Rock You” that morning. As we progressed through learning all the steps, the pounding of the music came to the guitar solo. The choreographer stopped the music to ask me and Daniel Hinkson to do gymnastic tricks while the guitar solo came about. Speechless, as I was, is all that I can say to describe how I felt at that moment. Even though I was extremely flabbergasted, my mind was going five millions miles per hour thinking; What to do? How to do it? As I asked myself these questions, the plan came to my mind of presenting the front flip for everyone to gasp over. I came to Daniel with the idea and he was extraordinarily astonished about it. So now that we had our main attraction presumably completed, we were ready to fill the other thirty-five seconds of the solo with other exclusive tricks. We began brainstorming like mad men throwing ideas here and there; we finally had conducted enough to start practicing. Hours of agonizing flipping and falling, we had it down to an art. Easily for a month before the show, we could do the flips with ease, but we weren’t done yet. As we finished flipping our masculine...

Words: 1462 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Knights Tale

...Learning Team B Week 4 - A Knight's Tale HUM150 October 29, 2013 Learning Team B Week 4 - A Knight's Tale Complete the following matrix by filling out each category. Provide a brief description of each component and how that component was used in the film you selected. For example, if you selected the film The Shining, under setting, in the first column, you would describe one important film setting, and in the second column, you would explain how that film’s setting was used to impact the audience (how was it presented, what information was provided, what mood was established, etc.). 1. Name the film you watched. A Knight’s Tale 2. What genre do you believe it falls under? Romance and action In a short-answer format with a minimum of 50 words, answer the following question: 1. Did the film fit the mold associated with that genre? Why or why not? All members of the team agreed that this movie definitely falls under romance because it’s a very traditional love story and is predictable as you know that they will end up together in the end. They are also from opposite side of the “tracks”; she is royalty and he is a peasant trying to become more. Most of the team members decided that the movie should also fall under action because the joust competition throughout the movie provided a dose of action as it was fast-paced, and exciting. There is enough strategy and good against evil drama to justify calling this movie a romantic-action film. ...

Words: 1170 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Martha Stewart Case Study

...position of power that she was in. As stated in the We Goggled You article “There are no secrets now, and we’re just going to have to learn how to live with that,” (said Martha ironically). There was one mistake that Martha Stewart made, which was: lying to federal investigators about selling a stock just before its price plunged, and it still haunts her to this day. I believe that if Martha Stewart was not in her position of power and this information was out there she would have trouble getting a job because now, “qualified candidates can be Googled out of contention for a job before they even get a foot in the door for an interview, and it’s difficult for them to leave their baggage behind,” (stated by...

Words: 748 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Checking

...An analysis of the Case We Googled You In partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Written Analysis and Communication (WAC) course April 1, 2014 Memo of Transmittal 1-Apr-2014 Prof. Madhushri Shrivastava IIM Indore India Sub: Submission of WAC report o the ase We Googled You Dear Madam, As per your instructions, I have prepared a detailed analysis report on the situation faced by Fred Westen. I suggest that Fred should not hire Mimi for the company s China operations. Instead, he should hire Mimi for another position in USA. The following pages present a detailed analysis of the situation and available options and their evaluation, recommendation and action steps to be followed. Executive Summary Fred Westen was contacted by his old roommate John Brewster to consider his daughter Mimi for Fred s company s decision to expand into China. When Fred forwarded Mimi s profile to Virginia, she did a normal Google search on her. The search revealed Mimi s involvement in protests that included China s treatment against a dissident journalist. Based on these findings, Fred is in a dilemma whether to hire Mimi for China operations. He has to take into account various factors like the success of expansion plans, both company s and his personal reputation. Considering various evaluation criteria and options, I suggest Fred should not hire Mimi for the expansion plan in China. But given her credentials, he should hire her for a position in USA. Table of Contents ...

Words: 1347 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Social Networking

...The internet was once seen as a medium that diminished social capital (Kraut et al, 1998). Now it is seen as a way that maintains social contact (Wellman et al, 2001). In the article Opening Closed Regimes, the writers wondered whether Mohammed Bouazizi believed he would play such a role in releasing a wave of protest for democracy in the Arab world. His story of stepping in front of a civic building in Tunisia and setting himself on fire in protest of the government was one of many that were retold on social networking sites in ways that stirred protesters to organise protests and criticise their governments. (Howard et al, 2011). Residents of the Arab nations used social media to help inform Western news teams about events on the ground. Social networking helped put a human face on political power and became a causation of the Arab Spring. Of the online tools, social networking sites have experienced the most prolific growth (Diffley et al, 2011). People spend hours connecting to others on social networks (McGrath, 2010). This evolution of social networking could not escape the corporations’ attentions, which are in constant search for new instruments meant to help them increase their market shares (Chis and Talpos, 2011). Studies by Forrester research show that spending on social networking will increase from $455 million in 2008 to $3.1billion in 2014, a 335% increase (Horovitz, 2009). Based on the above, my paper will focus on how social networking has become an indispensable...

Words: 2894 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Googled: The End Of The World

...First Critical essay about Google According to the article, "Googled: The End of the World As We Know It" which was written by Ken Auletta, Google became influences on peoples' to use it instead of the traditional media such as newspapers, television in information and advertising. Recently, they have become afraid of Google since it reduces the number of people who were acclimatized for a long time and it affects their achievements that succeeded from long years ago. The internet made people's lives easier by awarding them the opportunity to obtain the information while Google assists them to access to it (Hal Varian). If you are trying to find an answer for any question or looking for a new job, you can just type it in the search box that...

Words: 308 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Female Offenders and Their Experience of Criminal Justice

...Female offenders and their experience of criminal justice Before I choose to reply to this exact question of my essay questions I googled “Female offenders”, and I am honestly going to admit that as soon as I saw the search results I knew this is what I want to write about. The reason for this is because the first five articles that came up were not just about female offenders, they were all about black female offenders. You see, I think this is a pretty clear picture of the face that our stereotype criminal is black, either it is a woman or a man. In this essay I will look at how women experience criminal justice today, and despite the fact that google is trying to make it look like all offenders are black, I will include all nationalities. And then I will discuss what can and what needs to be changed for the criminal system to be better and more functional. A particular issue that I am going to have a further look at is if and possibly why women from suburban societies are treated differently in criminal settings than women from lower social rankings, e.g. homeless or prostitutes. The biggest question right now is, how does the justice system treat females? Obviously they are treated different than men because males are considered to stand more and to be built completely different physical and psychological, not to come across as a feminist or something even though that is pretty difficult in this case, but is that a fair game? I am aware that my task in this essay is to...

Words: 529 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Btec

...“ Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today “ says Benjamin Franklin What is procrastination? The first thing that I did was that I googled it and this definition came up. It is the avoidance of doing a task which needs to be accomplished. It is the practice of doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, like carrying out less urgent tasks instead of the more urgent ones, thus impending tasks to a later time. But I’ll give you a more brief definition of procrastination in my own understanding and for me It means: *not being able to get started *staring at the wall * watching your favorite tv show or teleserye instead of accomplishing a certain task that needs to be done. * Using your mobile phones; Instagramming, twitter, facebooking, chatting etc. * stalking your crush on social media instead of doing your homework * killing the time by sleeping, eating and other activities like basketball, volleyball etc. that makes you avoid the priorities * gala ng gala kahit alam mong may project na dapat tapusin. But my point here is there are a lot of definitions of procrastination. Adults, young adults, and teens are very familiar with this type of attitude, because as a person it is one of the most basic norms. Let me tell you something about my own experience of procrastination, just recently when doing this speech I had a lot of excuses, Staring at a black word document page with no ideas of even starting my speech, so I got a little...

Words: 677 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Iipm

...Published 8.3.2010 by Bärbel Schwertfeger IIPM not permitted to confer MBA degree For years, the Indian government hasn’t taken any action against the controversial Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM). Now the University Grants Commission (UGC), which as a higher Federal authority in India is responsible for the administration and recognition of universities, has issued a public notice that the business school is not authorized to confer degrees like the MBA and that these degrees are not recognized by the government. The official announcement has already been published in numerous newspapers. But for the University of Buckingham, this is not a reason to break off its talks with the IIPM. “We are aware of the latest developments concerning IIPM and remain in discussion with them,” writes Jane Tapsell, Dean of the University of Buckingham Business School. The school has been in discussion for the past year about the accreditation/validation of a BBA and an MBA. The fact that the IIPM is not a recognized university also does not play a role for some German universities. According to the website of the Mercator School of Management (MSM) at the University of Duisburg-Essen, the former is still cooperating with the IIPM. The university was already informed in 2009 that the IIPM is not a recognized university. The University of Duisburg-Essen, however, is sticking to its cooperation. The school had “assessed beforehand whether the IIPM comes into the question as a partner...

Words: 536 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Cis179

...1) Describe a terminal. Compare it to a microcomputer. A terminal is a device with a monitor and keyboard but no central processing unit (CPU) they don’t participate in the processing of data. A microcomputer or todays `Personal Computer (PC)` have a CPU, Memory, Hard drive, and is capable of doing intensive processes. 2) Describe the idea behind “client/server”. Give an example of its use from our text. Client-server architectures attempt to balance the processing between the client and the server by having both do some of the logic. In these networks, the client is responsible for the presentation logic, whereas the server is responsible for the data access logic and data storage. The application logic may either reside on the client, reside on the server, or be split between both. If a user requests a list of all employees with company life insurance, the client would accept the request, format it so that it could be understood by the server, and transmit it to the server. On receiving the request, the server searches the database for all requested records and then transmits only the matching records to the client, which would then present them to the user. 3) What is the function of the Application layer for the TCP/IP model (Internet model)? The application layer (also called layer 5) is the software that enables the user to perform useful work. The software at the application layer is the reason for having the network because it is this software...

Words: 643 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

153 Dream

...recent MAFFS rotation my crew and I discussed books we were currently reading. TSgt Reed Scott filled me in on a book he’s working on called Leaders Eat Last authored by Simon Sinek. Intrigued however, I googled the title and came across a YouTube video of Simon Sinek’s seminar covering the same material. The video was about 45 minutes and began with Sinek describing a two ship of A-10’s in Af-ghanistan which, despite a low cloud deck, provided troops in contact with a series of suppressive fire until they depleted their ammunition saving all 21 lives of the sol-diers below engaged in the fight. Sinek’s question then was where do people/leaders like these A-10 pilots come from? What are these people made of who serve and sacrifice so others may live? Are they born or are they made leaders? Sinek finishes offers suggestions for his audience to try in their work environment in an effort to increase trust in leadership. The desired outcome being a workplace where people come to work and feel safe. Safe to explore ideas, voice concerns, or suggest a different way of doing things without fear of retribution. What this would look like is rather than a group of leaders/managers in an inner circle of trust with the remaining employees outside of that circle, this circle would encompass everyone in the workplace. Sounds great; sounds simple. But how could we ever accomplish this? Really it boils down to how we treat each other and how we communicate with each other. Take email for instance...

Words: 667 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Descriptive Essay About My Dive System

...which allows you to let your consciousness enter a game. This of course became popular real quick. It was expensive though, it cost 15000 dollar! It cost me an entire 2 years of saving while practically living of nothing to buy the system. There were other cheaper options but they were not that good compared to the 15000 dollar system. There are allot of games for this platform but I mostly only play ARD. It is the standard fantasy game, but it was the first game in it’s genre which did things just right. I of course played the hell out of this...

Words: 731 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Nicholas Carr Technology

...or social medical posts, or blogs now. Reading a paper book or writing a letter are prehistoric practices. Seldom do you see children lost in literature books, nowadays all the trend is cellular phones or laptops. Individuals tend to read on their electronic devices. Individuals have a tendency to find it difficult to comprehend words written on paper. Users find it easier to enable devices to read the books for us. Users are being limited by technology, reading long novels are now difficult and time consuming. Instead we are accustomed to short blogs or online messages we send to one another. In the reading, Nicholas Carr reports his own experience, Nicholas Carr states “that someone is tinkering with my brain and that it is changing. Before I would get caught up in the turns of a narrative or the turns of the argument and now I spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore.” Nicholas Carr is referring to the fact that as an expert writer and as someone who enjoys reading, the technology that he is exposed to has altered one of his talents into a skill he struggles with. Reading and writing is one of Carr’s areas he excels in but due to technology that was created to make situations easier for users, has only limited Nicholas Carr ability to read. Technology has limited all of society, when we write on social media sites we are limited by the technology to a precise amount of characters the users can write. Repetitive constraints on users...

Words: 990 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Module One Case

...Module 1 Case 9/5/2012 The Disconnection of Being Connected Martin Carnoy wrote: “Thanks to a communications and software revolution, we are more ‘connected’ than ever before—by cell phone, email, and video conferencing—yet more disconnected than in the past from social interaction.” In the past, any time you needed information or help doing something, you had to walk or ride into town and speak to whoever specialized in what you wanted to know. Face to face discussion was the only way to tell people things or to find things out. It later developed into calling one another, which no longer needed face to face but still required a decent amount of social skills. Now, social networks, the internet, and texting creates a world that many people can tap into for hours without ever seeing another human being. They can update hundreds of people in the split of a second on Facebook and Twitter using a smartphone, which I’ve seen people as young as 8 years old own. Angela Mollard blogged about this issue and stated, “But, recently I’ve felt disconnected, which is absurd because last year I received 13,506 emails, sent 432 tweets and became Facebook ‘friends’ with someone I kissed in 1989. I’m so connected that I go online the second I wake up. I’m linked in, favourited, retweeted, liked” (Mollard, 2012). As Mollard states, I also believe that all of this technology connection has done nothing but pull us in closer to the virtual people while in all reality, pushing the people in our...

Words: 748 - Pages: 3