Musings of Erin

Last night my niece came to me asking for some help with her MySpace page, and I couldn’t help but ask what drew her to MySpace to begin with. As I was fiddling around with her page, she deved into these intense relationships she’s developed with other people who have myspace accounts (most of whom she knew in the ‘real world’ beforehand), the feeling of belonging (from having a bazillion ‘friends’), and just being able to post her feelings at any time. Mostly, she said, having a MySpace account makes her feel popular.

This morning, I read Jeremiah Owyang’s blog, and read a post titled, The Internet Country Club:

DJHowatt and I have been discussing the ramifications of the internet, blogging, social media, and it’s impact on society. The other night we even scribbled on a placemat at Birk’s restaurant analyzing and debating Spheres of Influence, and how the blogosphere is the same/difference.He often proclaims that while technology is an enabler and that nothing has really changed. Humans still seek and uplift experts (the A-lister hierarchy) and that massive social networks are still limited to the amount of individuals a human can have in his or her network.

And then, in another blog post (this guy certainly has a lot to say about social networking) he goes on to talk about the MySpace generation entering the workforce, and employers having to deal with the ramifications of potential employees having such a history with blogging, MySpace, and the like:

This will change the Workforce Experience
It starts with getting into college, Wanna Go to College, Watch what you blog says Shel Israel. Soon employees will “Google” applicants to see what their online presence has been like. You can use Opinmind, to figure out what people have said…(give it a shot type in ‘boss’). Be careful students, once you publish your RSS feed is locked in cyberspace, sometimes you may not be able to retrieve it. I consider my blog (this blog) as my resume –I’ll write about that soon.

They will work with you –embrace!
Online personal and online professional content will mix, as sales teams begin to read, learn, and engage prospects using blogs. I know this for a fact, because it’s happening to me. (and I think it’s a good thing too). Employees will communicate with each other using blogs, both internal and external blogs, several of my colleagues are already blogging publicly.

It is quite amazing, now that I think of it, how many of these kids are actively blogging, and becoming more and more technologically advanced than even I was as a kid (and I was a techno-geek, even then). We see people still scoffing at the internet because of the dot-com bust of the late ’90s - and this new wave of people hardly recall what happened 7 years ago. We’re looking at the future of entrepreneurs - who have learned from our mistakes, and who are already blurring the line between the real and the virtual world.

Take a look at How to Be a Successful Intern for the first bit of the next generation - it’s a amazing look at what’s to come.

Tags: MySpace, social networking, blogging