Social media has become a very important part of many people’s daily lives, with platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Discord gaining popularity. Social media has enabled the marginalized to speak out, amplified the voicing and concerns of critical societal forces, and allowed many social movements to conduct massive outreach across the globe. It has bought people together from all walks of life and allowed ideas from diverse backgrounds to permeate through the internet. Many people have a form of PLN on social media where they have a curated list of followers and content sources, where they gather information about various topics, and share their ideas and knowledge with others in the PLN. In a professional context LinkedIn is the most used social media platform[1]. As of 2023 Linkedin has over 500 million in over 200 different countries, which makes it easier to have a diverse PLN. LinkedIn also has good ToS (Terms of Service) enforcement that discourages, hate, harassment, or threats based on race, ethnicity, and religion that allows it to be an inclusive social medial platform with people of many diverse experiences.
How does social media engage communications?
Social media has allowed people nearby and across the globe to connect with each other more easily than ever possible. It allows a person to engage in sharing of thoughts and ideas with a large number of people, ie. twitter post, youtube video, instagram live etc… It has allowed PLN’s to contain individuals with differing ideas, and viewpoints on many issues and problems. It also opens more opportunities for employees, and allows employers to choose form a wide talent pool as employers and employees can better get to know each other and also engage in back and forth communication.
How does social media challenge communications?
A big problem with communication on social media is that there is just too much information on it at any given topic and time. This makes it hard for users to filter though and identify reliable, accurate, and relevant information. Another problem is that many social media platforms use algorithms to feed you only the content and people that fit your worldview. This limits exposure to diverse ideas and viewpoints to your PLN, wich creates an echo chamber that reinforces existing beliefs and ideologies. Because of the potential anonymity granted to users of social media, it can potentially allow people to engage in certain aggressive, offensive or disrespectful behavior that they might not engage in when in a face to face conversation. This can create hostile and toxic environment that hinders productive and thoughtful conversations.
Is it inclusive?
Today ‘s social media is usually very inclusive if you use mainstream platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit etc… These platforms have good content moderation policy, that takes action against users who are hateful, toxic or hostile towards others. You can also curate your information sources and accounts on your feed to the needs and requirements of your PLN. As mentioned already, social media has bought people together from all walks of life and allowed people to engage with diverse viewpoints. However certain platforms like 4chan, 8chan, and rumble can definitely be less inclusive due their poor content moderation and action against individuals with malicious intents.
Does your PLN amplify the views of others?
In my experience, my PLNs on Discord has amplified the voice of others. I make sure that everyone is heard online and everyone regardless of their identity is able to voice out their honest opinion on all the servers that i control. My PLNs on other social media like Twitter have many people from different backgrounds contributing ideas to my feed.
The policies of employer social media communication expectations.
From my experience employers expect their employees to operate their enterprise social media accounts in a very precautious manner. Casual way of expression is discouraged and employees are expected to promote the company brand and message whenever possible. Even when it comes employees personal accounts, employers may still expect a very controlled level of discourse ( you cannot critize the employer or his company). Employers in general expect you to have a very neutral personal image, on controversial topics in politics, media, sports etc…
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