Pros & Cons of Social Media and Strategy

Do you use social media? I pondered about advantages and disadvantages of social media and how we use it in a smart way. Facebook and Twitter require engagement that is beyond my capacity at the moment. As I'm working on new picture book projects, while being busy with the preparation of the book launch, the exhibition, watercolour workshops, competitions and so ons. It's enough and good work load, although some people ask me to join it. I'm still thinking of joining it or not, while observing social phonomena related to social media. In this very busy social media era, it's very important to hold the stance firmly and have a direction to go. Yet, we need to have flexibility that balances between catch-up with the trend of time and our own identity or life style. 

In the analysis of advantages and disadvantages of social media,

Benefits 

• Overcome time and distance, cost effective communication 
• Two-way communication is possible eg) one-many, many-one, many-many  
• Little capital is needed, inexpensive = Reduce cost of art sale on market
• Small business and emerging enterprenor can compete with big and established brand name companies
• Direct and wide access with a third party on a global market, networking 
• Great exposure on a national and international market
• Attract potential clients on a global market 
• Intense engagement with clients/site visitors/customers   

Deficits

• Intrusion of privacy and copyrights eg) Naked self-presentation on net. Image theft. Leak of information.  
• Risk of maliciously harmful feedbacks, stalking etc by boudless strangers.  
• Questionable reliability and validity of information eg) Fake identity. eg) How long will information remain on net?   
• Low awareness of responsibility of information sources 
• Laws are behind social media issues. eg) Dilemma/conflict between freedom of speech/individual interest and censorship/public interest.   
• Insecure, unsafe and vulnerable individuals on internet  
• Blurry line between "private" and "public" 
• Incessantly feed information on a daily base = Excessive engagement. Pressure on information senders. 
• Exclusion of a specific group eg) people without site membership or computer skills. 
• Its unpredictable impact on our future lives and society  

What else?
My research has found that current research essays are behind to well discuss the impact of social media and social changing. It seems that our society is rapidly moving away before analysing social media! Or data collection is difficult = Collected data gets out of date = too fast to change. What a busy time we are living! No one knows what's the impact of social media on our society and our lives. If so, we want to use internet and social media in a wise and healthy way.

Some suggestions to be a smart user of social media

• Need to know legal knowledge at least "Copyrights Law," and "DMCA takedown notice".  Study well and stay safe. **Each country has a different national law, but we need to know both national and international laws. 
• Check where to get help in case of hacker, image theft etc. Prepare the worst scenario or prepare rain while a sunny day. 
• Respect the privacy of individuals = Get a person's permission to post something related to personal information. Remember "confidentiality of information".  
• Don't open up or touch fishy information. Access first-hand information and use it. 
• Clarify information sources and show it ( eg. I use a "bibliography" like below). It is a social manner and "fair use" of information protects you from illegal copyrights intrusion.   

What do you think? Or if you have had any headache in your internet experiences and if you have more suggestions, let us share them (*if you can. I respect privacy). In art activities, I'd tell myself, "Have my own colour". The same is true of my internet activities. Being as an information sender, it's important to take the responsibility of sending information. I might be behind a busy time and rapidly changing society though, I'll enjoy my own pace so far. I'm really happy to know regular visitors and new visitors coming to this weekly blog. I appreciate YOUR visits! Thank you for sharing time and pondering about many things in my posts!
Oh, yes, I'm working on the selection of art works for the exhibitions and labelling along the plan and creating more images for the People of Parramatta like above.
Friends, Happy Painting! Let us be smart social media users! 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Edosomwan S, Kouame D, Prakasan K, Seymour, T and Watson J (2011) "The History of Social Media and its Impact on Business", The Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 2011, Vol. 16, No.3 http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.458.6848&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Murthy D (2010)  "Towards a Sociological Understanding of Social Media: Theorizing Twitter" http://www.darkmatter101.org/wiki/lib/plugins/fckg/fckeditor/userfiles/file/lib/scripts/jquery/jquery-ui-theme/images/towards_a_sociological_understanding_of_social_media-_theorizing_twitter.pdf

Pros & Cons of Social Media and Strategy

Sketching is a Hand's Thinking

Thank you, Friends, for a big response to a last post. I'll update the process of picture book illustration from time to time. Stay tuned.  
BTW, how do you use a sketch book? Let me hear your ways. I use a sketch book for two main purposes : practice/experiment and an illustration idea storage, not for a simple record. And of course, they are all for fun! Sketching is my hand's thinking. Active thinking does not need to be perfect. 

 (I sketched a presenter on "social media" at a meeting) 

I'd quote these : 

“It's not about perfect. It's about effort. And when you bring that effort every single day, that's where transformation happens. That's how change occurs.” Jillian Michaels

"If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done." Ecclesiastes11:4  ("Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.") Perfectionism gets us nowhere. In my view, Jillian's say "fits to all" or any area in life.   

(Above, 3D understanding of the head)

Regarding a sketch book's "practice" nature, daily sketching is very much like "strength training" in athletics. If we don't do it, we'll lose muscles. Similarly, drawing skills are fundamental for any art. Without drawing skills, it's impossible to learn other techniques. No excuse. Thank goodness, I love drawing since childhood. Everyday sketching is not a pain at all. Draw, draw first, before my findings/emotions will be gone -- is my motivation.

Drawing is my hand's thinking. No, my brain thinks nothing. I "feel" something and get on work. Instinct. In experiment, I go out of my comfy zone and enjoy something new. Experience is the best teacher. Theory follows Experience. So, I try something first.  My hand remembers sketched subjects well. The more experience, the better my eyes remember subjects.

Talking of "illustration idea storage," a sketch book has a more experiment nature. Very adventurous, more wild and messy. I cannot upload too many attempted drawings with notes and glued pieces etc, etc, on pages. One day, if I could organise them, I might upload it? Of course, I make TONs of mistakes or messes! Sometimes, it hurts me. I feel sad.

But I want to fail better and challenge it again. Make sense? For me, words are empty. No magic, but practice. My hands will find answers. Hands trained by sketch books can enjoy new techniques and express more on papers. Precious fruits, learned skills will never leave an artist. Further, it will open another door to take a higher road.  

I know all my illustrations have been born from daily sketches. Friends, I'm nearly finishing up a black and white storyboard, in the middle of  travails. I'm struggling, working very hard and learning lots. Thank you very much for your big cheers. I'll foster this new born baby to be a picture book! 

Friends, you, too, Happy Painting!!!  

Sketching is a Hand's Thinking