Using Facebook Profile as an Online CV

     This week I jumped into the challenge of creating a Facebook profile for the purpose of producing an online CV.  This was an interesting experience for someone who had never before delved into the world of Facebook.  As I took my first step, I was delighted to find that the Facebook user interface was intuitive.  While adding my interests, thinking about my favorite quotes to share, reminiscing about college years past, I even started having a little bit of fun.  Similar to the experience my classmate Brian Walker described in his own blog, the process of getting my own page up was relatively easy.  

     Following my experience, I would like to share with you my own personal review (Pros & Cons) of using Facebook as a social medium for an online CV. 

      The PROS:

• Facebook represents a powerful and innovative communications platform with broad world- wide penetration and acceptance (with over 800 million active user accounts).  Facebook would be an effective medium to showcase my CV to many prospective employers simultaneously.
• Facebook has an easy to use platform, with huge potential as a tool to link and “socialize” with professional people and organizations in my field.

      The CONS:

• Facebook, as a platform, is controlled by a commercial entity with a profit motive and not a democratic social or governed social mandate, agenda or regulatory oversight.
• Facebook privacy issues have still not been completely worked out.  A simple Google search for "Facebook announces privacy improvements" yields over 8000 results. Privacy concerns and issues have surrounded Facebook since their inception as displayed beautifully in the INFO GRAPHIC by Lisa Waananen entitled Facebook's Privacy Missteps (noted in the article Facebook Privacy: 6 Years of Controversy (Mashable)).

     The bottom line is that Facebook is an effective tool to publish an online CV and I would error on the side of caution with displaying certain personal information on Facebook.  I stand by the common adage in this age of online mania of self-expression..."Just because you can do (publish) something - doesn't mean you should."

Facebook page image credits: 

Mixed vegetable image by Nevit Dilmen

Red apple image by Abhijit Tembhekar

Egg image by Wildfeuer

Bread image by Mgarten

Kiwi image by Samoborac

(Note: Thanks to Dr. Jess Laccetti for her instruction on how to embed an image from Flickr into Blogger using HTML copy and paste.)

Welcome!

Hello everyone!  For those of you who don't know me, my name is PC.  I'm a second year Nutrition undergraduate in the Faculty of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences at the University of Alberta.   Besides ruminating over upcoming assignments and exams, lately I've had ideas brewing about the role of mass and social media in the field of nutrition (and now, thanks to my ALES 204 course, I'm going to share them on my very 1st blog!).   I have a passion for public education in the field of proper nutrition and weight management and I think it's time to make healthy eating interesting, cool, sexy and fun! 

I've noticed that almost every person I know outside the field of nutrition, is actually very interested in nutrition and diet.   What strikes me as interesting is that although they have this concern for nutrition, very few are noticing and heeding what qualified specialists (i.e. Registered Dieticians) have to say!  How weird is that!  I think people generally have a vision of the RD as someone who talks or writes about broccoli, fiber and dietary moderation, using formal and academic communication to convey their message.  That form of communication may be interesting for their dietician buddies, but it's just not captivating for the average person!  

Megan Fox

In contrast, a simple visit to popular web media reveals that Megan Fox is on the Paleo diet  (www.vancouversun.com/health/skinny+celebrity+diets.../story.html and image by http://www.lukeford.net/Images/photos4/071209/211.htm).

The result?  Thousands of people frantically looking up the Paleo diet and eager to give it a try!  Does it matter whether or not this diet is recommended by an RD?  Not at all!  The reality is that mass media generally captures our attention and defines how most of us think, know and imagine about nutrition.  Saturday morning commercials have every mom buying probiotic yogurt for their kids' school lunches - and many others are coughing big dollars to buy Ruby Reds, the "groundbreaking new dietary superfood supplement" advertised on the web (http://rubyreds.aitrk.com/default.aspx).

I think there is a great (and still largely untapped) opportunity for dieticians to effectively communicate and interact with the public about healthy eating and quackery using mass and social media.   We are starting to see more and more interactive dietician websites, like the site for Canadian RD, Leslie Becks (http://www.lesliebeck.com/).   But I think we still have a long way to go.  I have a vision for lots of fun, captivating nutritional mass media campaigns backed by qualified nutritionists.  I look forward to your ideas and feedback to my posts.