Social Media In the Furture

     In my opinion I believe social media will change greatly over the next five year period. Social media is still a fairly new concept to people, and because of that I believe social media will expand even bigger than it is right now. There are going to be so many changes in social media in the future that one person cannot begin to explain or fathom it’s expansion in the future. These are some of the ways I see social media changing and evolving in the upcoming years. One way that social media will change is how individuals access it. Before mobile smart phones if someone wanted to connect through social media they would have to have internet access at home or go to an internet cafe. Now people can access social media within seconds on their phones and tablets. In the future I believe there will be holographic displays that people use to access their social media. Another technology people will access their social media through is 3D. Skype conversations between people will be more realistic, and seem like you are their talking face to face. Trends such as twitter and blogging will continue to grow as more nations get access to WI Fi and devices that allow internet usage. As more developing countries get right to use of devices that connect them to social media, I believe the groupings will continue to be categorized into different languages, but will also have an option to convert text from one language to another (copyright). This will allow for not just communication between people that speak one language, but communication that is truly worldwide. With the ability of this people from every nation can come up with ideas and new inventions for technology and social media that has never been imaginable.

Social Media Causing Real Social Change?

I believe that social media has enormous potential to bring change to the world. The first thing needed to start change is the idea for change. With Facebook alone there are 750 000 users who are checking their pages and frequently come across ideas for change. If the idea for change is big enough and enough people get behind the motion of the idea, change usually happens. A social change in North America happened recently when individuals started checking their smart phones to get up to date news instead of watching the daily news at home in front of the television. This social change was caused by social media tools that informed people of up to the minute news coverage. Although this was a very large social change there are constantly minor social changes that go on everyday because of social media.  As said in this week’s reading, social media has the potential of social change because anybody with an internet connection can reach a global audience. Activist and advocates are some of those people who use social media to bring about social change in today’s world. These Activist and Advocates use social media to help bring support to causes taking action to help humans, animals and the environment.  An example of this is Support the Monks protest in Burma which in ten days received 140000 members supporting them.  Also non profit organizations have started using social media tools to help gain support and funds to help them accomplish charitable deeds. Many non profit cancer charities use social media such as Face book’s causes to raise money for research.  Microphilanthropy is another way social media is bringing change to our societies.  Organizations such as Kiva, facilitates microcredit loans by individuals to entrepreneurs in the developing world. This is a huge social change that has come up using social media. There are now humans helping one another to finance a business projects that don’t even know each other.  All of the above information about the public helping one another through social media proves Malcom Gladwell theory wrong that “social media will never bring real social change because of loose networks where people don’t know each other”. Instead social media has brought huge social changed to our world as people now more than ever seem to be helping their fellow human beings, even if they don’t know each other.  Therefore because of the following information I believe social media can bring about real social change.

Social media has increased the quality of news and information.

      In my opinion the quality of news and information broadcasted to the public has become better in quality when they are from reliable sources.  When looking for information, one is more likely to take a trusted a social media source, such as, CNN, CBC, CP24, as opposed to an unreliable source, like Wikipedia, the material is bound to be poor quality. The first aspect that supports my theory is video sharing applications. Since the addition of video sharing applications on social media, the public is not only getting to hear about the news they are actually getting to see it firsthand. With online social media sites the public gets to witness almost instantly what is going on in a story rather than just hearing a news story on it. An example of this is ABC News that has YouTube application where citizens can upload their videos to ABC that has a live video of the breaking news that has occurred. Secondly, the introduction of blogs to the internet for people to read and write their response back to the posted blog has increased quality. Blogs are said to be the next form of journalism and have exploded onto the social media scene. Blogs that are trustworthy material are usually written by reporters for media companies that allow citizens to comment and add their thoughts on the news being reported. Blogs can also cover stories that giant media companies like Global News, can look over and miss.  GlobalVoices is a non profit blog service that collects interesting stories from around the world that are not reported by big media companies and sorts out what’s worth passing on to readers. This gives the public a chance to read stories they normally wouldn’t hear about which is a quality change in the variety of news stories. Lastly, is the invention of Smartphone’s and the social media tools that can be used to report instant news. Before the public would have to wait for the news, whereas now the citizens are usually first on the scene of the developing story. Camera phone on occasion are the only devices that catch a picture of breaking news or creates the news which is a huge advancement in quality of new information. Therefore based on those facts I believe that if the sources are valid the quality of the news and information shared with the public has greatly improved.

My perception on social media

Social media has been one of the biggest shifts since the industrial revolution, and in my opinion it is here to stay. The reason I believe that social media is just not a Fad, is because of the amount of people currently using it today, and the amount of new people/business continuing to join. The stat that "200 million users signed up to Facebook within the first year" blew my mind. This stat has made me realize how important social media is to  individuals. Facebook may not be the primary source of social media in ten years, but i think people will still being using social media to gain information, communicate, sell goods, market products and many other functions. Humans like to be up to date with recent events, and social media has made it easier than ever to obtain that information. Social media has helped not only individuals, but also business become more efficient. As long as people continue to use social media, Businesses will too. Business keep up to date with social media, and can prosper and grow using social media to attract and maintain customers with their company. In conclusion, Social media in my opinion is the biggest shift since the industrial revolution and will remain one of the biggest advancements in our society for many years to come. The fact that Social media is so quick and efficient is why people will continue using it.

A little about myself

Hey there my names Jeffrey Paul and i am a student at Durham College. I live in Pickering Ontario with my mom, dad, and two brothers. I am a huge sports fan which i spend much of my free time participating in. I enjoy listening to hip-hop, rock, electro, and classical rock. I love watching comedies and stand up, and would like to think i had a good sense of humor. Here's a picture of my cool dog i caught over the holidays.