Subconscious facts that needs active consciousness

The super powers of crime solving and life evidence that social media allows, is going to create new societal norms and etiquette. We are going to be the first generation of people who will begin to set these parameters.

We also will be witness to crime solving with a few clicks on our profile pages. The gold is in the specifics. An alibi for suspect? A time stamped photo from last night’s party on Facebook with suspect bearing a silly grin. Have a friend who has a habit of getting into violent arguments on Twitter? Might not look the best when he is being character analysed in response to a physical fight he had in real life. What are some of the larger discussions we need to have around social media?

The cyber resume 

This isn’t a myth. It’s less dramatic than a court house, but more a more frequent reality. Your CV or resume can be as primped and perfect as Shirley Temple’s curls, but if you have credibility destroying pictures or arguments splattered on social media, chances are your future boss will see it. Taking strong stances on political issues or companies (good for you, we like people motivated by critical opinions) might be tracked by your not-so-ethically-inclined company.

Do you have well written blogs or press releases about your previous work or projects on google search?Testimonials and previous life achievements on the internet? Well those usually work in your favour. All we are saying is that your life fingerprint is much more nuanced than your resume saved on a word document, and it’s advantages and unfairness are worth discussing and thinking about as privacy becomes a historic term.

Tracking each other is the new way to be safe and social

With cabs being the new hot way to travel in urban India, safety is always a concern. There are dozens of safety apps available, and many of the taxi apps themselves have options for you to alert your friends if your taxi driver seems to be doing something sketchy. You also can monitor your friend’s entire trip from start to finish via the GPS tracking on the app.

So has Orwell’s 1984 taken a twisty turn? Have we made stalking and constant knowledge of each others whereabouts the new normal? Is this the new urban way to create safety? With check-in features on Facebook we can literally account for hours of person’s day. We might not meet a friend for months, but have a good idea of the places he has been to with exact time frames. Now, calling in sick to work to go play hooky and watch movies with friends might be a much more complicated deal.

It takes one common friend to tag you in a “fun” post, or god forbid your auto-gps tags your location when you message your work people. Perhaps it might make us better story tellers. Perhaps we are entering a social media world with new rules for boundaries, judgements, and privacy requests.

Social SOS

From letting your friends know you have been locked out of your house to facilitating life saving help, social media has become a tool to seek immediate rescue and spread instant awareness on developing situations. It can become a micro-news channel for a particular circle of friends. A tweet or a Facebook status has been used to dispatch rescue teams to a forest to find a lost triathlon participant, find injured snowboarders and even help parents find kids they thought had been lost or kidnapped.

Your social media presence can be used to facilitate help, seek help or to get involved in a situation that stands to help someone or a group of people. Social Media has allowed all of us to become first responders of sorts. We can respond with opinions, thoughts, by dispatching resources, or showing up physically.

This might be a worthy thought to hold on to:  how far can social media stretch its wings to make larger more meaningful impact on others? How can we super organise ourselves and come up with more effective platforms to help in emergencies?