As someone who chooses not to partake in social media (except to meet the odd class requirement or two, thank you very much Liberal Arts education), I tend not to follow developments in said media unless they make the headlines.
The only platforms I know are Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Myspace (if that still counts). I suppose by some definition blogs are a form of social media, but they aren’t quite a mass function in which the general population chooses to engage.
In discussions with my peers, I’ve observed a few things. The lifespan of social media platforms seems to be pretty short. Social media is a relatively new thing, and yet we’ve already seen a few things wax and wane in popularity (myspace, I’m looking at you!). These days, social media seems to get integrated with EVERYTHING, whether on the web or not. Augmented reality even offers the potential to integrate social media more completely with your natural body functions…because that’s just so necessary. All of this really just feels a desperate push by social media platforms to stay relevant. After all, relevance is what keeps the big bucks rolling in.
Oh yeah, I forgot Google+…that flared out quicker than a hollywood child star’s adult “comeback“.
Thoughts? Where do you see social media in 5 years? 10?
I see it being nowhere. See, if social media becomes a part of everything in this world, what do we really even have? Eventually people will realize that life is better when it’s simpler.
But what do I know…
words, letters, and sense 