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Planking Networks.

As I am sure most of you are familiar with, the talk of planking has been phenomenal – especially in online communities.

If I type ‘planking’ onto my Facebook search engine, the amount of pages I find is ridiculous. Some of the pages are:

  • Not planking because I have a normal life (1,205 members)
  • I didn’t pass out I was just planking the gutter (21, 052 members)
  • You know you’re Australian when you can make planking a sport (4,250 members)
  • I prefer the upright version of planking, it’s called standing (51, 490 members)

The parallels I am trying to create between this planking phenomenon and Net Communications is the way Web 2.0 applications such as Facebook etc has the power to speedily communicate a message through creating pages through social networking sites. Further I have listed the amount of members that have joined each page as to reveal what the online community find most popular and what they most find amusing.

I was having a conversation with one of my friends when he mentioned that four people that worked at his local Safeway got fired for planking.  Puzzled I asked how his employers found out. He said they found photographs of the boys planking at work on Facebook.

I decided to Google this and I found an article, http://www.news.com.au/business/business-smarts/woolworths-sacks-staff-as-planking-craze-sweeps-australia/story-e6frfm9r-1226059282699

It’s interesting to see that employers have the power to access Facebook to determine terminating the contracts of their employees.

As the article investigates “A spokeswoman said the company [Safeway] became aware of the stunts when it was tipped off by colleagues and directed to images on Facebook“.

Thus it can be concluded that Facebook as a product of Web 2.0 not only can be used as a social tool but now extends to aiding employers when making decisions to terminate contracts with existing employees.

Is this fair/ unfair?

Tell me what you think.

Posted on May 27, 2011 at 5:47 am in Uncategorized   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL

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3 Comments to “Planking Networks.”

    
  1. hayleystrickland
    May 27, 2011 at 6:10 am

    I think its unfair that these people got fired for planking because i think the whole idea of planking is hilarious.
    However, I do believe that not just in this case but also when it comes to employers looking through job applicants facebook’s as a way of determining if they will be suitable for a job as a fair way to employ people. If people are threatened by this process than you could say that their online identity differs from their off-line identity and therefore they don’t deserve a job if they are misrepresenting themselves. I mean, in this case, these employers were acting inappropriatly and therefore there are grounds for termination.

    On another note, i think it is so strange and interesting at the same time that the phenomenon of planking was able to become so prominent in the main steam media as a result of its popularity on facebook. Now it seems that facebook has power in determining what is news.

    Reply
  2. thebillmachine
    June 5, 2011 at 1:03 pm

    This reminds me of Solove’s argument in our week five readings.
    Solove explains as the probelm he sees with the new media is how our everyones entire online idenity is availablefor eveyrone to see and how any minor mistake someone makes will follow them around for ever.
    I think ultimately, it’s a short term problem, and a sort of social equlibrium will be reached where everyone becomes aware that everyone elses identiy is also accesible and online, and so minor mistakes won’t be a big deal since everyone will have made them.

    Reply
  3. sarahcaitlinmcdonald
    June 6, 2011 at 5:07 am

    Its very interesting that concepts such as planking can turn viral in a matter of days. I think in relation to the issue of Facebook privacy and employers accessing personal information there is a certain extent to which the facebook user has to be aware of what they put on Facebook and the amount of privacy settings they apply to their Facebook.
    The fact that the people who were fired were promoting the fact that they weren’t working but instead planking makes me think that it is slightly their fault for being found and therefore fired.

    Reply
    

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