The Future of 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?

Like all new inventions, it will continue to grow and change into something new. Without one step the next cannot be taken. Like with tapes, CDs wouldn't exist. Without Computers, downloading and graphic would not have been possible. Without Buffy, or the X-Files, Supernatural wouldn't have become what is it today. Well it didn't probably happen in that order and there was probably a whole lot of factors. The idea is that social media will change and evolve.

Now because all this new technology is coming along, I think people are going to start not talking to each other face to face (ie the movie Wall-e. Now I think thats an extreme). But we are human beings have a need to connect with others, which I believe will see an increased reliance on social media for this connection. With this idea I wouldn't be surprised if the future saw the emergence of more social media sites out there and people having an account on 3 or more of them. Another thing I think we could see come one day to social media is the ability to talk face to face via facebook (unless that has happened already then, well I really don't have a come back for that) since MSN messenger as already introduced that a while ago. In addition to Apple introducing Facetime as well.

A technology I can see growing is the use of social media on cell phones. I have seen and known people who would rather use a cellphone to access their social media rather than a computer. People like the idea of mobile and can post anything any where. Which is probably why the desktop computer is slowly going out. But not completely.

Well its been a good year everyone. Sound off below and........

Reminder to me to relate this to the lesson.

Privacy

"Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance"

Privacy has always been an issue. Its just this century it is becoming more of an issue. And there is many different kinds of privacy. Ever since Facebook appeared, more and more people are creating profiles, thus doubling its original size. The issue of privacy really came into question, when the internet was created and became a worry when people began to spend more time on the internet.

With the invention of social media, people began posting information and pictures of themselves. Unknowingly slowly destroying their own privacy. A survey found that 52% of adults post information about themselves. The criminal side of the internet has noticed this. So every time someone posts something personal about themselves, they open themselves up more for cyber criminals to take advantage of them. In a video, they discuss how Facebook has killed privacy in a way.

All it takes it the wrong person to find this at the wrong time and they could ruin your life. Even those little status updates can hurt your privacy.

If you think about it, we are unknowingly giving our information out today. An example is when we travel with passes, we give away our location when we use transit passes such as Presto. It may seem simple, but within moments, you can be found (if it was found necessary) and your location compromised. So those ideas that happen in movies (ie Borne Identity) could really happen. A study found that out of more than 470,000 Web surfers, 83.6% had left an identifiable "fingerprint".

The key to keeping your privacy is to remain anonymous and keep personal information close. Be careful of the sites that you visit and make sure you absolute want to create an account. Remember whenever you create an account, they ask for your personal information. If you really wish to go in depth about it, there is a really good article to read at the global mail site, read it here. Most sites out there, give you the option to create an account, and allow you to create an profile page. On these pages you can display: Name, Location, Age, Gender, and thats just the tip of the iceberg. Image to the right is an example of a youtube form that users can fill out to control how much information is given out.

Unknown to us, every action we take on the net gives a piece of us away. Think of it like having to pay one cent for every time you look at something. It may not be a lot, but it adds up soon and will eventually become something big without you knowing it happened.