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Ira Caminong Contributor When the telephone came about, it changed the world by adding a network for communication. When television became a basic commodity in the home, it changed the world of news and entertainment. And when social networks emerged, it changed the way we interact with our friends.

I am not going to make blanket statements about social networking and online dating and how both changed the world, but I will say that sites like Match.com and Facebook are extensions of the world in which were living, and have changed the way we interact with each other. Instead of changing the game of love and friendship in a negative way, they simply make interacting with others a little easier.

Some people would say that sites like Facebook have the potential of bringing relationships to an end as fast as hitting a dislike button.

But we should look at places like Facebook as an extension of reality where we take things as seriously as we do while interacting with people face-to-face.

On our profiles we can tell the world what we are up to, who were dating, how we feel, what we believe in, what television shows we watch, what music we listen to, our political views; really, the Facebook profile consists of answers to questions that would be brought up in a casual first-time conversation offline.

Social sites also allow for friendships to be maintained and old connections rekindled, because profiles give users the opportunity of connecting with distant friends and relatives in ways they couldnt offline. According to the Pew Research Center, roughly two-thirds of users use social networks to keep in touch with these distant friends and relatives. Also, more than half use it to connect with old friends from high school or college.

In particular, users from older generations benefit from these sites in this way as they can connect with people from their past. It brings joy to them when they find their old buddies.

Additionally, social networking can help establish romantic connections through online dating. The notion of finding a date online, once a frowned upon activity, is now more socially acceptable. The whole phenomenon of online dating is becoming so popular that Lisa Mirza Grotts blogs about online dating etiquette on the Huffington Post. Just as you should in face-to-face interactions, she cautions: Your profile is your advertisement. Be honest from the get-go, or you will be wasting your time with unsuitable candidates.

The same etiquette, relevant to both online dating and social networking, is applicable in real-life situations. In a casual first-time conversation, we also want to be honest. Lying to make yourself look good in front of an attractive person is not the greatest strategy for finding a partner. We are accountable for what we share online in the same way we are responsible for the information we share in our interactions with others in everyday life.

The interactions you have on the Internet may have their nuances, but the important thing is that you have the power to make those interactions in new ways thanks to technology. These developments are advancements in our capacities as human beings. It changes the way we interact with our peers without changing our physiological qualities.

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PRO/CON: Social networking and your love life

March 21, 2012 16:00 PM

Parliament: 716 Complaints On Social Networking Websites

KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 (Bernama) - The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) received 716 complaints on content of social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter last year, says Information Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

Of the total, 289 complaints were offensive or threatening, 247 false, 40 obscene and indecent, 124 hacking while 16 were others.

"MCMC also received 1,112 complaints on websites, blogs and emails," he said in reply to a supplementary question from Datuk Noraini Ahmad (BN-Parit Sulong) in Dewan Rakyat here today.

Rais also said that MCMC also received 693 complaints relating to phishing (attempts to steal data from data groups).

"Impersonation, fraud and abuse of social networking sites are committed for the sake of excitement and to broaden views without taking into account the negative aspects arising from the act.

"Some members of society forget that we have constraints and way of life which should be based on pure and religious values and customs."

He said that no less than 15 cases had been prosecuted in court adding the people still need to be educated and briefed on the matter.

"The use of television and having talks and preventive measures led to a drop in the number of cases. Parents and society must also play a role in enforcing the social constraints," he added.

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Parliament: 716 Complaints On Social Networking Websites

19-03-2012 20:12 http://www.lockergnome.com - Every week (if not every day), people ask me if they should buy the new iPad (and that's been since before there was even a new new iPad). I know that I really like my iPad — but you might not. It really all depends on how you might like to use such a device. Could it make a good replacement for your laptop? Again, that's an answer that can vary from person to person. So, can an iPad really replace your laptop? Here are a few key usage areas to consider. You can watch the entire live TLDR episode here: youtu.be http://www.gnomies.com http http://www.lockergnome.com profiles.google.com twitter.com http://www.facebook.com

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Can iPad Replace Laptops? - Video

Although enterprise social networking (ESN) products that replicate Facebook-like and Twitter-like functionality for workplaces have been around for about five years, Microsoft sees a big opportunity in that market, to which some feel the maker of Windows and Office has been slow to respond.

The value of ESN is undeniable in enhancing employee collaboration and communication, but many ESN implementations have failed to deliver on their promise for various reasons, such as lack of integration with third-party business software and poorly planned deployments, a Microsoft official said.

Microsoft's approach will be to increase enterprise social features in SharePoint, as part of an integrated, organic collaboration platform that also includes Lync, Outlook and its Office productivity applications, said Jared Spataro, Microsoft's senior director of SharePoint product management.

"We believe social technologies will be incredibly important in transforming the way people interact with organizations. But we also think much of the discussion happening in the industry today, led by the pure play, standalone social vendors, is somewhat misguided," he said.

"Social shouldn't be implemented just for social's sake, but for business sake. It shouldn't just replicate Facebook for the enterprise, but rather focus very squarely on task completion, on helping people get their jobs done," Spataro added.

Spataro declined to give specifics about how this vision and strategy will be manifested in Microsoft collaboration products, but said that SharePoint has been gaining enterprise social features since its 2003 version, continued adding them in its 2007 and 2010 versions, and will pursue a "people-centric" model going forward.

"The first 10 years of SharePoint's life were very clearly focused on documents. It was a document-centric system. That's exactly what the industry wanted at the time," he said. "As we look towards the next 10 years of SharePoint, we want to maintain that document strength but we're also going to increasingly become a people-centric system."

Vendors like NewsGator have provided ESN capabilities to SharePoint for years, meeting the demand of customers who weren't satisfied with the native social collaboration features of the product.

"There have always been places where the partner ecosystem has been able to innovate faster than we have, so they produce solutions on top" of SharePoint, he said.

However, some like Forrester analyst Rob Koplowitz feel that Microsoft has been slow on the uptake.

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Microsoft Says SharePoint Isn't Late to Enterprise Social Networking

(AP) SEATTLE - When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password.

Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn't see his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login information.

Bassett refused and withdrew his application, saying he didn't want to work for a company that would seek such personal information. But as the job market steadily improves, other job candidates are confronting the same question from prospective employers, and some of them cannot afford to say no.

In their efforts to vet applicants, some companies and government agencies are going beyond merely glancing at a person's social networking profiles and instead asking to log in as the user to have a look around.

"It's akin to requiring someone's house keys," said Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor who calls it "an egregious privacy violation."

Questions have been raised about the legality of the practice, which is also the focus of proposed legislation in Illinois and Maryland that would forbid public agencies from asking for access to social networks.

Since the rise of social networking, it has become common for managers to review publically available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn more about job candidates. But many users, especially on Facebook, have their profiles set to private, making them available only to selected people or certain networks.

Companies that don't ask for passwords have taken other steps -- such as asking applicants to friend human resource managers or to log in to a company computer during an interview. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign nondisparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about an employer on social media.

Asking for a candidate's password is more prevalent among public agencies, especially those seeking to fill law enforcement positions such as police officers or 911 dispatchers.

Back in 2010, Robert Collins was returning to his job as a security guard at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services after taking a leave following his mother's death. During a reinstatement interview, he was asked for his login and password, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang affiliations. He was stunned by the request but complied.

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Job seekers asked to give Facebook passwords