Social Media and Its Future

Once upon a time, about ten years ago, there was no such thing as social media. It was a completely different time back then No one was worried about having to check in and update statuses and tweets, uploading, editing, or liking pictures. Myspace, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram were not prevailing like they are today. As of January 2015, the average use of social media was found to spend 28% of their day on social media. 28% of the day equals out to a little over six hours (Adweek.com). I found this number shocking, especially because of how this number keeps on rising over the years. This number also boggles my mind on how social media use will be in the future. I am not only interested to see the predicted use of social media but just the future of social medias in general. We keep on advancing and evolving, I just always wonder when we are going to hit that “dead end” or if we ever will. All these questions are what lead me to research this topic for my paper and website.

The marvel of social media started back in around 2003 and 2004 when two of the most popular social medias were launched. Myspace (created by Tom Anderson) and Facebook (created by Mark Zuckerberg) were just the beginning of how social medias completely changed our world and how we communicate. A few years later, in 2005, Youtube came out and abled users to upload and share videos with people all over the world. By 2006, Twitter became available along with the new trend of “hashtagging.” Over the next few years, “Other sites like Tumblr, Spotify, Foursquare and Pinterest began popping up to fill specific social networking niches” (Smallbiztrends.com). Today there are an incredible number of social media sites. With some being more popular than others, they all serve a variety of purposes. 

Clearly the power of social media can be outstanding, depending on how it is used and because of how many people use them. To start off, there are now 7.2 billion people on the planet and of those the following numbers make interesting reading. There are just over 3 billion active Internet users (45% of the world’s internet users). Nearly 2.1 billion people have social media accounts. 3.65 billion mobile users have access to the Internet via smartphones and tablets. Close to 1.7 billion people have active social media accounts. As of 2014, we can see that social medias are so dominant because of the number of users each media has. To go even further into statistics, Facebook has about 1 billion active users. Twitter has about 560 million active users. Instagram has about 150 million active users. And Google+ has about 400 million active users. These numbers are huge and I am sure they are going to keep increasing as our generation grows up and the younger generations become as reliant on social media. One prediction I found says, “In just four years, eMarketers projects [social media usage] will nearly double by 32.7%. By then 2.44 billion of the worlds population will be on social networks” (cnbc.com). Will these are only predictions, all specialists correspond that social medias will be everywhere and very involved in our daily lives. It is hard for me to imagine social media more integrated in our lives than it already is right now but I guess we will just have to wait and see! 

A couple guesses that will come with the advanced social media are many virtual experiences and holograms. Another prediction is that the mobile and entertainment will morph. The Google glasses (a wearable social media) and the Tesla Model S (social media in your vehicle) are just the beginning of this futuristic change. Along with what the aspects of the future social media will look like, another way social media will change in the future is it becoming a required skill set. Many businesses will be looking to hire employees for social media management due to how big it is going to boom with in the next 10 years. And lastly, the visual side of social medias is of course going to continue to flourish “– the fodder of social media was traditionally words, as in status updates and tweets. However, the trend we are seeing more of now is that of visuals – for example, Twitter recently introduced photos into the feed, rather than having to click on a link, which was previously the case” (Klood.com). Although these are all just simply predictions, they are very foreseeable because of the rapid rate social media is growing at.

I am sure I am not the only one who has wondered what the future of social media will look like, and this research project was a great opportunity to look more into the topic. It is crazy to think and wonder how long and far social medias will keep advancing, but after researching I doubt they will end anytime soon. One thing is for sure; the future use of social media is going to definitely surpass the average six hours on social media a day users practice now. It is amazing to see how far social medias have come just in the past ten years. Back then, Myspace, Twitter., Facebook, or Instagram were not prevailing like they are today. It was a completely different time back then No one was worried about having to check in and update statuses and tweets, uploading, editing, or liking pictures. No matter how much time changes in the future, I highly doubt we will ever go back to a time like this.

Social Media and Social Activism

During the past few classes we have been discussing the different ways that new media can affect politics and contemporary political discourse. Even though some people might disagree, I think new media has an overall, positive impact on politics. A couple advantages the combination of new media and politics brings us are: 

• Being able to search and find the exact kind of news and information we are interested in
• We are able to "share" news, which is a modern way of distributing it
• The liking/favoriting button and the comment sections on most new media can almost work as a poll where voters and electors can give instant opinions on a politicians' web-posts
• Serves as a great place to connect with others and to get information out fast (for example: during the Iran demonstrations, street facilitators would announce the "safe locations" via twitter)
• The ability to donate is fast and easy

Although I think new media and politics are an advantageous combination, I do not post or share about politics myself. Mainly because, I don't have the biggest interest in politics and I do not feel educated on politics enough to put my opinions out there like that. Though, I am friends with and follow people that do post about politics. I think when news articles are shared and informative statuses are made, it is more effective than opinionated statuses. I seem to want to go into political articles that are shared more than I would want to after seeing a political opinion. I think social media is beneficial to politicizing college students. Social media is obviously something most college students are involved with and these websites make it easy to get informed about politics, share news articles, search for political stories, share opinions, likes and dislikes. 

Google!

You know a search engine has become a big deal when they officially turn the website name into a verb. For example, the word "google" is now considered a verb in the dictionary defined as "(often lowercase) to search the Internet for information about (a person, topic, etc.)." Myself along with many others can probably say the use Google multiple times a day to look up whatever they are wondering about. Some examples of things I google the most are: addresses, hours of operation, symptoms, recipes, definitions, homework help, lyrics, etc. Google is a very convenient and reliable website. I believe Google does have a lot of power over our lives now a days just because of how much we depend on it to answer all our questions. I don't know if I would consider the world addicted to Google because we have lived without it so I'm sure we could do it again. I just think people would be a little lost without it for a while due to how advantageous it is. Lastly, I do not believe that Google is endangering our privacy to independence because it is our choice if we want to rely on Google for answers or not. I am sure if we did not have Google, we would find another way to receive all the information we are looking for!

Convergence

During the past couple decades, technology has not only advanced but also converged. Think about a smartphone for example and how many things you can do with it. A smartphone lets you text, call, email, take pictures, take videos, watch movies, watch tv, listen to music, check the news, check the weather, use a gps, etc. Years ago, one would need about 10 different devices to perform all the tasks a smartphone can. If this isn't convergence then I don't know what is! Technology and convergence are making our lives a lot easier and convenient. Yet I also believe it is making the addictions to smartphones grow stronger due to all the tasks you can complete with one small object.

Trine-Maria Kristensen's Blog Interview

I read the blog interview on Trine-Maria Kristensen (http://www.rebeccablood.net/bloggerson/trinemaria.html). I thought her blog name was very unique. In Denmark, the saying meaning "to dare" is "head on the block." In Danish, this saying translates too hovedetpaabloggen; and this is exactly what she named her blog.

Her interesting blog name drew me in to read the rest of her interview. Kristensen graduated from Roskilde University, where she received her degree in Social Science. Kristensen now lives in Copenhagen with her husband, has written a book called Weblogs, and created a start-up called Social Square.

I really liked how inspiring Kristensen's interview was. She talks about how blogging did not come easy for her at first and how she felt very shy to open up on a blog. But once she started, everything else just flowed. She discusses how people of the blog world were very kind and opening to her. I think this gives new bloggers, including myself, hope that anyone can make a successful blog. She also states that although she has a decent number of blog visitors, the numbers do not matter to her. She says, "I prefer to have 15 engaged readers to 1500 who don't care about me or my blog." I completely agree with her and am going to remember this for my blog since I know I won't have too many viewers in the beginning. Another tip I took from her interview answers is to always keep your eyes open when you're searching the web. You never know when you are going to come across a topic or a page you want to link to. I also learned to not be afraid to express your strong opinions while blogging. Kristensen said she writes to provoke reactions often. She says it gets attention, gets many conversations going and is very fun! The last thing I really enjoyed about Kristensen's blog was that she talked about how blogs are great for business. She discussed how she learned to use blogs for her marketing career. This is where I really connected with her, since I am studying marketing also. Who knows, maybe I could continue my blog after class ends because of my majors!

I think Trine-Maria Kristensen's interview was a great read to get my blog started. I took a lot of tips away from her answers and she also gave me a lot of inspiration for the rest of my blog posts! I highly recommend all new bloggers to read her interview!