University of Sunderland: Social Networking and Globalisation Essay

This essay, written for the University of Sunderland in London, examines the profound impact of social networking on globalization. It begins by defining globalization and social networking, then explores how social networking has transformed communication, education, and the labor market. The essay discusses both the advantages and disadvantages of social networking, highlighting its influence on communication methods, educational practices, and recruitment processes. It also delves into the role of digital technology and social platforms in shaping these changes. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of balancing traditional and digital social networking and its overall contribution to a more connected world. References include works on globalization, social networking, and their effects on various aspects of life.

“Social networking has become a large part of everyday
life for many people. How has this changed
globalisation”.
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Francesco Buturo
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FDN016
Contemporary Global Issues In Business and Tourism
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BH66LZ
STUDENT No. 199214776
University of Sunderland in London
September 2020
Module Leader: Joseph Opoku
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Contents Page
Table of Contents
1.Introduction..................................................................................................................................................3
2. The social networking impact on people’s lives at globalization time.......................................................4
2.1 Social networking and communication...................................................................................................6
2.2 Social networking and education............................................................................................................6
2.3 Social networking and labour market/recruitment.................................................................................8
3.Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................................9
Reference list.................................................................................................................................................10
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1.Introduction
In recent decades, habits and ways of doing business have changed. The
increasingly rapid evolution of technology, digital and otherwise, has and
continues to push the labour market to follow this evolution to avoid being cut
off. Two aspects are fundamental to ensure that they are not excluded from
the competition. We are talking about globalization and social networking.
According to Peng (2016), globalization is the close integration of countries
and people of the world. According to Kennedy and Sakaguchi (2011), the
term social network originates Barnes work in the 1950s in Sociology, and
originally referred to an informal system of personal contacts that cut across
organizational boundaries. In this essay, the advantages and disadvantages
of social networking will discuss, description and some example of social
networking. At the end, how social networking impacted on communication,
education and labour market and recruitment.
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2. The social networking impact on people’s lives at globalization time.
As explained in the introduction, the term social networking means any
connection between people within society, digital or otherwise. Social
networking was born with the birth of man. As mentioned, any social
connection can be considered social networking. Each new person you come
into contact with becomes a potential new element of the existing network.
Around us, at all times, we are surrounded by different groups or social ties
that can be defined as social networks. Each new element that is added to
one's social network leads to the expansion of the network mentioned above.
So many examples can be considered as social networking: the business
connections, kinship connections or connections of interest. Business
connections can be those between work colleagues or between workers and
customers that open exchanges of products, services, information or
knowledge in general. Kinship networks are those that are related to the
family, which can be expanded as in the example of marriages or ties
between people, putting people from different families in contact. Lastly, we
consider, for example, the connections of interest, for example, created by a
common interest that can be various, sports, art, commercial areas and
hobbies.
Regarding social networking, as in everything, there are the benefits and
disadvantages that derive from this practice to be evaluated. According to
Baber and Waymon (2007), social networking is an essential professional
competency for employees because it is crucial to improve their skills and to
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capitalize on the cross-functional relationship that gets things done. As a
professional benefit, social networking is a must-have capability. The
professionals need networking to take advantages from meetings and
conferences, and to bring back new ideas and inspirations into their job place.
There is also a human aspect between the benefits, and the social
networking could be a method for personnel retention because it creates
feelings of inclusion and helps people feel parts of a network also if they have
different backgrounds and ideas. Social networking is the best way to find
new jobs, new hobbies, new careers or new stimuli. In recent decades, the
traditional way of doing social networking has adapted to the progressive
development of the internet and digital technology, giving rise to platforms
specifically dedicated to the creation and growth of social networking, moving
from the offline world (physical) to the online world (digital).
A possible disadvantage related to social networking can be the constant
investment of time that this practice requires. By including the use of physical
and mental resources, it has an impact on personal life by impacting on the
person's mood and satisfaction. The more one has built an extensive network
in one's life, the more there is a need to manage and take care of these
connections in such a way as to use them as a potential and not as a limit.
The correct management and construction of one's social networking can
also be critical on the present and future impact it has on globalization. As a
widespread practice on a global scale, social networking can therefore
change habits and relationships between individuals or between relevant
parties (countries, cultures, religions). The social networking changes every
day how to communicate, how to educate people and how to conduct labour
market and recruitment.
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2.1 Social networking and communication.
As previously mentioned, social networking can be understood as a tool for
acquiring or sharing everything, knowledge, information, objects, products,
services or emotions. This practice, in order to work, one needs a vehicle
thanks to which everything can happen, this vehicle is communication. as
already discussed, the development of digital technology has contributed to
change habits and communicative language radically. There remains the
need to separate the arguments on the topic of social networking inherent in
communication, linked to digital and traditional social networking. Regarding
traditional social networking linked to communication, empathic factors linked
to physical presence influence; the way of speaking, gesturing or merely the
tone with which one faces a discussion can weight sharing or acquiring
knowledge towards one's network. According to Coyle and Vaughn (2008),
humans are societal and require relationships with other humans in order to
survive. Digital technology has helped to convert this human need for bonding
into something within reach, accessible to all and with extreme ease.
Speaking now of the digital part, therefore online, computers allow, connected
to the internet, to communicate in an often quick and rapid way for to expand
and increase one's social network as it was not possible before. Many social
platforms have sprung up in the last decade. Platforms such as Facebook,
Instagram or WhatsApp tend to keep people belonging to the same social
network and not connected continuously. Communication remains one of the
fundamental factors of social networking also by changing methods and
habits. Multiple benefits have brought about the evolution of communication
in social networking, including the speed of dissemination of information and
the rapid possibility of checking the reliability and truthfulness of the
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information. Therefore social networking and communication are essential
gears in the evolution towards an increasingly global and connected world.
2.2 Social networking and education.
Another area where social networking has changed globalization is
education. Education is an integral part of the growth of a person, a nation
and the whole world. The quality of education inevitably has an impact on the
future of the world. You can refer to school education or professional
education. In both cases, we talk about the land on which tomorrow will be
built. As mentioned above, two different aspects are involved in social
networking related to school education, the offline and the online aspect. The
construction of a social network between students is a useful aspect of
learning and comparison for academic and human growth. These aspects
can, today, be catalysed by the technology to support them. According to
Norhailawati et al. (2019), the growth of the digital social network help
students communicate and socialise with their friends or followers and used
for education. Students can share their activities and interests. Theirs
consider social networks as beneficial tools for social gatherings. The use of
social network site allows students to communicate and collaborate with
others in real-time. The social networking site is a benefit to education. Also,
those instruments are helpful for educators that through social networking site
can share knowledge and monitor or support student learning performance.
According to Abida (2018), social networking sites also helps in adopting new
forms of learning beyond conventional instruction. This technology is not
limited to the use of the internet for online literature researching, instead has
moved to learn management systems, digital games and other. This system
improves the efficiency of the academic institutional process in cost and time
saving and increases the interaction between the institution and their learners
like does in the business the companies. As for other aspects of globalization,
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social networking applied to education allows broadening the vision of the
way and thanks to the comparison to try to improve the general quality of life.
2.3 Social networking and labour market/recruitment.
A sector that has always been strongly affected by social networking is the
labour market in all its phases. Social networking affects all in the phase of
search and selection of work and candidates that best fit the available or
sought role. One of the traditional ways of applying and exploiting social
networking at work is the old word of mouth within one's social network. Also,
in the labour market and recruitment, the advent of the internet first and of
social networking platforms have revolutionised the old processes of
research, profiling and data collection of candidates and companies offering
available jobs. Thanks to platforms such as LinkedIn it is possible to match
available jobs and candidates based on data relating to the skills and
characteristics of the candidate with those required by the bidder company.
According to Melao (2020), the use of social networking sites, such as
Facebook and LinkedIn, helps decisions in personnel selection is becoming
increasingly popular among organisations. Furthermore, the digitalisation of
this way of managing social networking thanks to digital platforms allows a
reduction in costs and expenses for managing and maintaining physical
structures. All these rapid changes have consequences on globalization, as
the speed and ease with which the recruitment processes take place impacts
with different results on the global job market. According to Cummings and
Dennis (2018), social networks sites have changed the way how the team
members meet between them. Due to the increased use of virtual
environments, it becomes very common to start to analyse and evaluate
people on their social network profile even before of meet physically.
Obviously, the greater ease of consultation and comparison of candidates
corresponds to greater competition and a higher level of skills and abilities
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required. The globalization impact of this climb to perfection will certainly
serve to raise the overall level of preparedness of global society.
3.Conclusion
Social networking is an important part of global human society, which is
inherent in human nature as a need to relate to others. Benefits and
drawbacks are part of everything, but indeed, the relationships that can be
created by managing and caring for a social network lead to growth on a
global scale. The hope is that despite the rapid increase in technology and
the digital environment, the traditional ways of doing social networking are not
neglected and that instead, they can keep pace with a virtual world without
losing the beauty and importance of human contact and emotions. As a
natural aspect of life, social networking is part of every field, aspect and
nuance of every individual. It is clear that globalisation changes concerning
daily habits, so it is also the result of social networking and its rapid changes.
The period that the world is experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic is a
testbed from which we can understand what can be improved, what
investments and development in the world must be aimed at. Indeed, the
digital world is part and will make more and more of our recent and distant
future. a more connected world is a world with fewer distances. A world with
fewer distances is a more united world.
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Reference list
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Baber, A. and Waymon, L. (2007) Make Your Contacts Count- Networking Know-how for Business and
Career Success. 2ND edition. New York:Amacom.
Coyle, C. L. and Vaughn, H. (2008) "Social networking: Communication revolution or evolution?," in Bell
Labs Technical Journal, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 13-17,.
Cummings, J. And Dennis, R. (2018) VIRTUAL FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER:THE EFFECTOF
ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ONIMPRESSION FORMATION IN VIRTUAL TEAMS MIS
Quarterly Vol. 42 No. 3.
Kennedy, M. and Sakaguchi, T. (2011) Trust in social networking: Definition from a global, cultural viewpoint.
IGI Global.
Melao, N. and Reis, J. (2020) Selecting talent using social networks: A mixed-methods study .
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Norhailawati, M. et al. (2019). The Power of Social Networking Sites: Student Involvement toward Education.
International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, v8 n3 p549-556.
Peng, M. (2016) Global Busines. 4th edition. Cengage Learning.
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