Future Trends in Social Media

How do you think social media will change in the future? What other trends would you add to the mix? Are they any specific technologies that you think will gain popularity or emerge?

Looking back on the last ten years social media has expanded and improved the user’s ability to communicate and socialize.

I feel that in the future, the physical and digital worlds will be more highly connected than ever before. We already today are able to run in the park and track our progress online while sharing it with our friends or track our weight loss.

I see human relationships will no longer be as physically dependent and we will befriend and hang out with people from all over the world and all walks of life, all ethnicities and all beliefs, creating a worldwide melting pot.

There will be a shift, where people will begin to find it increasingly more acceptable to expose more and more of their personal details on different forms of social media. Sharing your likes, dislikes, opinions, photos, videos and other forms of personal information will be the norm and people will become more accepting of personal experiences, both corporate and personal.

The future may show more social media tools that are meant for handheld devices or even new forms of technology that users are able to use anywhere in the world. In order for this to happen, cell phones will have to have more memory in order for the tool to run at a quick, convenient speed. Blackberry and the IPhone have gained incredible popularity over different demographic populations because they suit their user’s needs.

Overall, I cannot predict exactly what the future holds, but from relating to past social media and technological trends I can presume that the technology and social media tools will always be upgrading and be successful because of the large market that it caters too.

Social Media is it Socially Challenged?

Do you think that social media has the potential to bring about real social change?

Yes, I agree that sites like Twitter and Facebook are good platforms for social change. Twitter can help raise awareness for charities, and help organize groups that wish to create a way to bring about positive change, all without being in the same room, city, or even country. On the other hand, Twitter also helps create buzz about topics that are thoughtless, unintelligent, or unnecessary. Twitter in some cases becomes an outlet for blabbering on about everyday topics, such as: this movie stinks, I hate mustard, When is Captain Crunch: The Movie the coming out?

It has also helped change the way people think about social interactions. For example, sites such as Facebook is where virtually all of your friends, family, coworkers, acquaintances and even enemies in the same room. You are able to chat with them, send them a message, post a comment, "like", "poke", and more. You are literally able to do this for as many friends as you have on your Facebook. Instead of picking up the phone and calling someone; one on one, the mentality is to interact over Facebook.

This shift in face-to-face interaction is both a good and bad thing. For one thing it allows separated family and friends to stay in touch and stay connected. On the other hand it has reduced the need for social interaction with already close family and friends. For example, I post stuff on my sisters Facebook wall even when she is in the other room as me.

Social media sites like twitter have also help create a place where regular people can interact with their favourite musicians, comedians or politicians. This has created a huge social change. In the past these stars where unreachable now talking with them is only @ symbol away.  This has created a feeling of connectedness, on a global scale.

The level of convenience social media offer will continue to change social interaction. Social media sites will keep finding ways to link us to the rest of the world only making it more easy and accessible.

News on the Blog

Do you believe that social media has increased the quality of news and information or decreased it?
 

Yes and No. Can I say it's done both? With social media there are a lot of bloggers/social media sites out there that spread and share false, terrible quality, and downright wrong facts about things. If you can sort out the ones with a bad reputation or the ones that are untrustworthy, then yes social media has definitely increased the quality of news and information. But there are so many outlets to get news and information online that sorting the false information from the true can be overwhelming. And sometimes information on social networking sites can be the journalistic equivalent of water cooler gossip.

Social media is now probably the fastest way of spreading news and can do so even before a reporter publishes or broadcasts a story, but this immediacy of information can sometimes be error-prone, particularly in cases of tragedies or natural disasters. Breaking news on twitter shouldn’t be taken at face value; it should really be taken with a grain of salt.

And now with social media the average Joe can post theirs opinion instead of big news owned corporations. That is a good and bad thing – should I trust someone I can’t see, and the average joe could just be rambling off any bit of information without sources or proof. But on the flipside, more voices add much more conversation to the story.

Another benefit of social media on news is now most sites, you're able to give your own feedback, thoughts, and opinions and leave comments on what YOU think. Most newspapers have followed suit allowing their users to post comments, and email their favourite articles.

I don‘t think traditional news really had a choice but to follow social medias example.

 I cannot wait to read your responses.

Social Media - Fad or Doomed?

Social media is no fad it's just a vital change in how we communicate, and it's going to change how we communicate in the future. I remember when my dad got a cell phone when I was 8.  It was a large and squarish, it probably looked like he was talking into a microwave. But since then, cell phone brands have gotten smaller and better mobile features have been added.
I think phones are a lot like social media. They will continue to grow and improve with new features added. And just like phones, social media is there for us to communicate. We have fun posting new photos on facebook or sharing YouTube links with our friends.

Just this last year social media played an important political role. Anti-government protesters in Tunisia and Egypt used Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media to help stop attempts at censorship. Through social media they organized demonstrations that got rid of presidents Zine El Abidine, Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak. And just recently in the upcoming US election, twitter and youtube have been used to send questions to follow candidates.So it's not just a fad, it's more a free speech tool that can be used to spread awareness.

I think the term "social media" is a fad, but not the platforms like forums, message boards, instant messaging, - social media has been around for ages. it's the term that's new. In the future, social media will continue to morph and change into different forms because like it or not we are dependent on it now.

At the end of the day we use social media to communicate with our friends and to check what they are up to. Communicating and sharing information will always be important, it was important back when cavemen would write on cave walls, and it's still important with people now writing on digital walls.