Social Media and Shelters

The Digital Age has transformed the way many companies and businesses are hiring people. Employers are using online applications, social media, and social recruiting to make choosing candidates easier and more efficient. In a social recruiting survey conducted by Jobvite in 2014, 93% of the recruiters surveyed indicated that they review candidates’ social media profile before making a decision to hire. 55% of the recruiters have reconsidered a candidate based on their profiles with 61% of the reconsiderations being negative. (JobVite)

 Homeless shelters like Central Iowa Shelter Services have a computer lab for the homeless, but are computers a priority? Should the money be spent on immediate needs like food, shelter, and clothing instead? Poverty is a lack of resources and in today’s modern society technology is a resource. Obama stressed during his State of the Union speech that fast internet is integral and needs to be improved, this shows how our society has evolved. In fact, in 2011, the United Nations declared internet to be a basic need. (Jackson, Nicholas)

Access to a computer is a resource that has many other benefits than just obtaining a job. CISS has implemented training programs to help people create and strengthen their resumes and learn how to use a computer. Computers also help build social capital, the network of relationships someone has that are available to help them in times of need. Some see this in a different light as Facebook and other social networks sometimes do the opposite, isolate us. (Online Social Network Dangers and Benefits). At Central Iowa Shelter Services (CISS) we heard stories of families being reunited in the rooms we stood in. We heard stories of people finding jobs in that very room.

Some of those in poverty do not have the financial capital or time to continue to learn new technology. (Dvorak, Phred). Iceland mentions in his book that “some have argued that technological advancements in the 1908s led to ‘skill-biased technological change,’ where workers were increasingly called upon to be familiar with computers...” (Iceland 85). This change from the industrial age has led to less educated Americans at a disadvantage as technology grows and this is one of the gaps these shelters are helping close: technology illiteracy. This started in 2009 when New York began to add computer to it's shelters.(Dvorak, Phred). I believe the idea of what a basic needis, is changing,but the larger issue of poverty is not. Shelters like CISS which provide  free time allow those in poverty to have new experiences (Central Iowa Shelter and Services).

- Jake and Christina

Jobvite 2014 Job Seeker Nation: Mobility In The Workforce Study, and Page 1. "Job Seeker

             Nation: Mobility In The Workforce Study." Jobvite 2014 (n.d.): n. pag. JobVite. Web. 21

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"Central Iowa Shelter & Services." Central Iowa Shelter & Services. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.

Dvorak, Phred. "On the Street and On Facebook: The Homeless Stay Wired." WSJ. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.

Jackson, Nicholas. "United Nations Declares Internet Access a Basic Human Right." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 03 June 2011. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.

Smith, Gerry. "Without Internet, Urban Poor Fear Being Left Behind In Digital Age." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.

"University of the PACIFIC." Online Social Networking Dangers and Benefits. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2015.

Wright, Nigel To. "Social Media Recruitment." THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON RECRUITMENT. (2011): n. pag. Nigel Wright. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.