Soicial Media and The Future?

Social Media itself won’t change the future. I believe that the future will change to adapt the size and popularity that social media has become. We already, in my opinion, have reached that peak in which social media is able to perform and develop. Now I think its waiting on us to advance so it can reach new heights. Social Media has allowed us to communicate all over the world and with millions of people, in way7s that we never would have thought. But I truly believe the next big step for social media will be the adaption of true Metaverses, which will allow massive virtual interaction within social media. We were all so focused on new types of social media technology over the last few years that we forgot about the technology behind it, and I think from this  we have hit a wall. I'm not saying that there isn't technology to truly take social media to the next level, just that there isn't a business model in place at the moment to allow people to make there millions off the next great idea. That is the true meaning behind social media and the only reason it exists. People make millions off your personal information and page views, and they don't have to do a thing. So until someone thinks up a new way to make tons of cash off your like, dislike, what web-sites you visit or where you shop, social media will be at a stalemate. 

Cheers

Frank. Out

Will Social Media Bring Us Social Change?

Social change has happened many times before. Events like Technological change that led to moving away from manual labor to automated production lines. Or Modernization, which led us into an industrial society. Or even Urbanization, where large populations live in urban areas instead of rural areas. But will Social Media bring about a real social change?

When I think about the examples I listed above, I think about large groups of people and large amounts of time. Technological, Modernization and Urbanization didn’t happen overnight, nor did they come about from the ideas and efforts of a few individuals. Social Media definitely has enough ideas and people driving it to become a “way of life” for some or even part of all of our lives every day. The only difference is Social Media is still fairly new, if you were to put it on a timeline, in relation to the scale of how long Technological, Modernization and Urbanization took to become a true social change, social media would look like a baby.

 I guess talking about Urbanization or Modernization would be a little more of an extreme than true Technological change, we see Technological change all the time. But of the three, Technological change has shaped and even caused social media to exist in the first place.

So it all comes down to will we all truly accept Social Media as a norm, as a way we live our lives, how we communicate, or even how we do business? For the most part I truly believe that we already have. And that we are seeing the social change every day. Sure at the moment it might not seem like all that much has changed, but that’s because we’re seeing it every day. Look at it this way, pretend its 2000 and you just turned X years old. The internet is still a myth to most at home; we all use home phones or the postal service (remember Canada Post?) for communications and the classifieds to look for jobs or items for sale. Now you wake up one morning and its 2011! You have these weird concepts like Facebook, Twitter, Linkden, Flicker. What’s happening in the world is being told to you from people living the events in real time, you can post your resume and network with professionals to find jobs, you can follow your friends or favorite celebrities on their day to day lives, all from your PC or smart phone! Now that would be a change! But that’s because you didn’t live it every day. 

So has Social Media actually brought about Social Change? You bet it has, were the pioneers of that change and living through it as you read this post on my Blog.

Social Media... Ya its still here

Social Media over the last 5 years as taken over our lives and has millions glued to home pages waiting to see what Joe ate for breakfast or why Jane was late for her bus. Sites like Facebook and Twitter have become a more common place to communicate or express your opinion on whatever you like, than say calling a friend or family member on the phone. Like it or hate it, Social Media is here to stay. 

Just take a look at a day in your life, how many times is there some form of Social Media right in front of you? Cell phone… check, advertisements… check, TV… check, links on most web pages to a form of Social Media… check. Just to name a few. Everything now ties Social Media into it; you almost can’t get away from it!

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Well it all depends how much of a dependency Social Media is on your life. Can it be abused? You bet. But it can also be used for very beneficial reasons. Look at what happened in Egypt in January. Facebook and Twitter were used over cell networks as a means for people to tell their stories of the protests and the true accounts of what was happening day-to-day. It gave people a freedom of speech that otherwise wouldn’t have existed. On the flip side, what about the recent riots that dominated Britain for over a week? Again Twitter and Facebook were used as a means for rioters to coordinate looting, violence and planned movements to avoid police. BBM on RIM’s Blackberry devices is also worth mentioning as one of the primary means for this coordination in Britain, but it’s more of an instant messaging service, than Social Media.

I could spend all night posting opinions on the good and bad of Social Media, what it should be used for or what it shouldn’t be used for. I can debate if it’s here to stay, or if it’s just some new fad that will fade out with time, but I won’t. And I really don’t have to, you can see for yourself. Try going a day without seeing some form of Social Media. I bet you can’t. Just look below this post, there's links eagerly awaiting you to click. 

Here it is

Just a test blog to learn the basic steps for creating a blog site!