Facebook was originally intended as a way for people to stay in touch with friends and family members by sharing pictures and status updates on their timeline. As the website's popularity has grown, so has criticism that it is becoming one giant, online high school.

Online Bullying

There has been a dramatic increase in recent years in the number of online bullying cases due to the introduction of social media. Bullying isn't just limited to younger Facebook users, either. Many adult users have also resorted to bashing others online through nasty status updates and cruel comments.

Prior to social media, bullying in high school involved "kick me" signs and toilet swirling. Facebook and other social media outlets have allowed users to take bullying to a whole other level. Victims can no longer escape bullying by leaving school or work. The torture continues online, at anytime and anyplace.

Status "Likes"

In high school, everyone wants to be part of the popular crowd; people who are outgoing, beautiful, and seem like they have everything.  Posting a status update is similar to wanting to be popular. Once an update is posted, many users wait with bated breath to see how many friends will "like" their status. They believe that the more "likes" they receive, the more popular they are.

If that isn’t enough, there are many Facebook games that involve "liking" someone's status. Games like "Truth Is", where someone likes a status update and in return the poster writes how they really feel about the friend on their Facebook wall. This can get touchy, especially if the two people aren't friends outside of Facebook. It's similar to high school where someone desperately wants another person to like them, but when they find out how that person really feels they are crushed.

Relationships Are Difficult to Keep Private

When someone signs up for Facebook they’re asked to complete their profile, which includes a relationship section. Users can select from different options including "single", "married", "widowed", and "divorced". Whenever someone changes their relationship status, the update shows up on each of their friend's news feeds.

It's easy to see how this feature correlates with high school where everyone talks about who is dating who or which couple broke up. It used to be that after graduation, people were able to keep their relationships more to themselves. Not so anymore in the age of social media. Now everyone has the ability to state their opinion on a friend's relationship status, either by "liking" their status change or by commenting on it.

Facebook has presented many benefits to its users, including the ability to rekindle old high school friendships. What one must understand when they sign up for the service is that they are opening themselves up to the same criticism and drama that takes place in a high school setting.

Proceed with caution!

If you are a software developer looking for a slight change, then you have several options available. The process of software development requires multiple types of resources. A software developer performs the construction and delivery of software programs. An experienced software developer gains business knowledge, analytical skills, team management skills and communication skills. All of these skills can be used to divert your development career into a related and slightly varied role in software development.

Production Support Engineer
A developer can easily switch to the role of a Production Support Engineer. This role entails working with customers and technical teams to report, track and resolve production issues. For some, this might be an exciting opportunity to see the software application from a user’s point of view.

Engineering Manager
If you have experience in leading a team of developers, you could take the role of an Engineering Manager. This role requires managing a bigger team of developers. The Engineering Manager is also responsible for ensuring the delivery of software products and meeting the deadlines set by Product Management. You will get the opportunity to develop software, if you are inclined to do so. However, you will also take new responsibilities such as performance management, infrastructure management and vendor management.

Partner Engineer
This role requires some amount development as well as coordination with partners such as vendors and customers. The job of a Partner Engineer is to act as a middleman to help the integration of services with partners via application programming interfaces (APIs). For example, companies such as Twitter and Facebook employ Partner Engineers to integrate their services with customer websites.

Systems Analyst
Many companies offer developers with an opportunity to switch to Analyst roles. This role involves analyzing system requirements by working with business and technical teams. Many Systems Analysts also work on reviewing, developing and testing application code. This role is suitable for developers with strong analytical skills.

QA Automation Engineer
This role is responsible for automating test cases with the help of tools such as Java, Ruby and Selenium. This role is ideal for people with prior development experience. QA Automation Engineers work with developers and product managers to define test cases, and to automate and run the test cases. In this role, you will get the opportunity to work on back-end as well as front-end automation tasks. You will remain in touch with programming languages as well as database technologies.

Database Analyst
Most people gain significant amount of knowledge on databases while working as a software developer. This will help you to switch your role into a Database Analyst. A Database Analyst analyzes database issues, reviews performance problems, writes database scripts and runs queries. This role also provides a path to become a Database Administrator, if you are interested.

Deployment Engineer
This role is responsible for deploying the code developed by software engineers. You may not be developing application programs in this role. However, you will be responsible for code deployments, pushing the code into test and production environments.

Related:

Surprising Ways Viruses, Malware, Etc. are Infecting Computers

What is the most pressing problem in Project Management for a Software Project Manager?

The world of technology moves faster than the speed of light it seems. Devices are updated and software upgraded annually and sometimes more frequent than that.  Society wants to be able to function and be as productive as they can be as well as be entertained “now”.

Software companies must be ready to meet the demands of their loyal customers while increasing their market share among new customers. These companies are always looking to the ingenuity and creativity of their colleagues to keep them in the consumer’s focus. But, who are these “colleagues”? Are they required to be young, twenty-somethings that are fresh out of college with a host of ideas and energy about software and hardware that the consumer may enjoy? Or can they be more mature with a little more experience in the working world and may know a bit more about the consumer’s needs and some knowledge of today’s devices?

Older candidates for IT positions face many challenges when competing with their younger counterparts. The primary challenge that most will face is the ability to prove their knowledge of current hardware and the development and application of software used by consumers. Candidates will have to prove that although they may be older, their knowledge and experience is very current. They will have to make more of an effort to show that they are on pace with the younger candidates.

Another challenge will be marketing what should be considered prized assets; maturity and work experience. More mature candidates bring along a history of work experience and a level of maturity that can be utilized as a resource for most companies. They are more experienced with time management, organization and communication skills as well as balancing home and work. They can quickly become role models for younger colleagues within the company.

Unfortunately, some mature candidates can be seen as a threat to existing leadership, especially if that leadership is younger. Younger members of a leadership team may be concerned that the older candidate may be able to move them out of their position. If the candidate has a considerably robust technological background this will be a special concern and could cause the candidate to lose the opportunity.

Demonstrating that their knowledge or training is current, marketing their experience and maturity, and not being seen as a threat to existing leadership make job hunting an even more daunting task for the mature candidate. There are often times that they are overlooked for positions for these very reasons. But, software companies who know what they need and how to utilize talent will not pass up the opportunity to hire these jewels.

 Related:

H-1B Visas, the Dance Between Large Corporations and the Local IT Professional

Is a period of free consulting an effective way to acquire new business with a potential client?

When asked for my pearls of wisdom on this topic, I was tempted to respond with the excuse: "Sorry, can't comment. My asbestos underwear is out for dry-cleaning."

It seems both the emotions and mis-information surrounding HTML 5 run high.

And some information is just plain scary. Consider this direct quote from the W3C.

"The following elements are not in HTML5 because using them damages usability and accessibility: