Task 3a: Current Networks

It took me a while to understand the concept of this task and how it differed to tasks set as part of the first section, particularly 1b. I broke down the question and picked out the key words which I believed were, “current”, “professional” , “networks”. 

‘Current’: belonging to the present time; happening or being used or done now

‘Professional’: engaged in a specified activity as one’d main paid occupation rather than an amateur 

‘Network’: a group or system of interconnected people or things

(Oxford English Dictionary)

Networking is very important in any profession but I would argue that it is even more relied on in the performing arts industry. There is a particularly strong sense of “it’s all about who you know”, and often teachers in college would tell us how they had just been speaking to a choreographer or director asking about how a past student worked and whether they were reliable etc. So if we are using this as an example, the network used here was most likely to be via phone or email.

When I think about my own networks that I use professionally I would initially think about my blogging site which is obviously important to help me develop throughout my studies, but also if a prospective employer was to type in my name on ‘Google’ this would come up above social networking sites and (hopefully) show me off in an intelligent manner. When I first started thinking about this as network and how it fits in with task I thought that despite it being a ‘Current’ and ‘Professional’ , it lacked the aspect of communication that you would expect in a network. But then I realized that, actually, me commenting on other blogs and others commenting on my blog, is communication, thus making it a very useful ‘Network’. 

Another site that I had heard about but never looked into, was “LinkedIn”. When I first came across it I just thought it was like Facebook and so discounted it but after discussing it with family friends I became aware that, although a similar set-up to Facebook, it was, in fact, a networking site used by professionals to articulate there skills and achievements and connect with past, present and potentially future employers or employees. Like on Facebook, in order to connect to people you have to send them a request which can either be accepted or ignored. Furthermore, if you wanted to get in contact with someone, you have to do it through the messaging service ‘LinkedIn’ provide and the persons email does not show up so you would have to personally ask for it. This makes it a safer environment to display information as you only have to show details that you are happy to be seen and only with the people you accept.

Sites that are more commonly known to me are ‘Twitter’, ‘Facebook’ and ‘Instagram’ and as well as used socially to share pictures or thoughts they are both used by the majority of celebrities as a way of promoting themselves. These sites, however, are very informal and you do not have as much control over them as you would with ‘LinkedIn’ and as a result you tend come across a lot of spoof accounts and often you hear about “hacking” going on. Whilst you can make your page ‘private’ (and that does seem to be happening a lot more) you have to activate this setting yourself, posing a risk to the safety of private details.

More and more people are joining these examples of current networks but equally, I hear of more and more people deleting there accounts as they don’t want people they don’t know looking at their site. However, for professional use they are an ideal way of making contacts and networking and there are even examples of professionals being offered jobs through these sites or sharing job opportunities/auditions through ‘open groups’. Especially with the way technology is advancing and the majority of people owning a smart phone or tablet, an increasing number of people are using the internet and online networking sites to connect.