Multi-use of social networks
17th August 2009
There are many crimes that are on the increase. If you watched the BBC’s excellent (in my opinion) three part series called “The Truth about Crime” a few weeks ago, you will know that is true (although the people of Oxford, the city that was the focus of the series, may not agree). It was reported today that the police are cracking down on people who drive while under the influence of drugs. We are told that it is just as dangerous as drink driving (I would have thought that was obvious).
However, one of the ways that the police are doing this is by using social networks, they are jumping on the bandwagon and using a successful medium with a massive captive audience – many of which may be the exact people they need to get the message across to. The one(s) that will be targeted have yet to be specified, but I think it is a great way for them to be used.
As you may have read in some of my previous blogs, I have an up and down opinion of social networks. I find it difficult to understand why normally private people would detail their personal lives and every move on the internet for all (well, too many people) to see. But then, I don’t understand why some countries would try to discourage their citizens from using social networks, or the Internet generally, as it is such an amazing learning, communication and socialising tool.
Whether the Police will be able to monitor how successful the use of social networks has been to their drug driving campaign is yet to be seen. But it must be a better use of them than the mass of advertising that is now becoming their sole income generator. Facebook is also being used by Environmental Health officials to try and contact hundreds of people who may have been exposed to an E-Coli outbreak at a dance camp in Pembrokeshire. Another example of how public agencies are using social networks to benefit their own work.
Another development that interested me at the weekend was that a well known soap is now including social networks in its storylines. I will not divulge which soap it is, but it is based around young people (mainly at school, college or university) in the north of the country. Although the network is fictional, it bears an uncanny resemblance to Facebook. It appears that the scriptwriters and producers of the programme believe that these tools are an integral part of young peoples lives, and therefore must be included in a fictional portrayal of life in the 21st Century.
