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?

I think there are big changes ahead for social media. I looked back on my social media timeline earlier today and I noticed the leaps that it has made in the time social media has been around. Although I still use some of what is considered obsolete forms of social media, even they have evolved to meet the changing needs of its users today.

It seems that we rely on social media for everything these days. We connect with friends and family using social media; we apply for jobs, and hear about the current events from social media. We are even using social media to find our significant others.

Social media has changed the way we communicate which has forced technology to keep up by allowing us to access our social media tools from anywhere! The creation of lap tops and tablets and smart phones has allowed us to continue to be a 24/7 society.

Where do I see social media going? I see new forms of social media being created and current social media outlets evolving to meet our ever changing needs.  As we are introduced to more, we expect more. What trends do I see happening? I see that we will eventually have no need for office space. It sounds ridiculous but we are headed that way. With the technology we have and the communication tools we are developing we will all be working from home. When I was about ten years old (in 1990) the personal computer began to gain popularity. It was rare for homes to have one and if you did you were one of the lucky ones. Now a day it is seen as ridiculous if you don’t have one. My daughter’s school allows them to bring their lap tops to school if they have one. She is ten. She has a net book.

I can definitely see that in our near future we won’t have to leave the couch for a job interview. You can use the internet and social media to find out basically everything you need to know about someone. We put everything on the internet.

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

I do think that social Media has the potential to bring about real social change. Social Media is a means for information to travel from one person to the next. Social Media spreads news faster, farther and touches more people than traditional media does. Social Media is a very effective way of publicizing an issue that you want some attention on and that attention is given my millions and even if not intended, those millions start the change. I read an article about how Social Media has changed the way of politics. The article that I read was about a safety minister’s divorce. He had divorced over seven years before he received the position of safety minister but a group of people decided they did not like his politics or the way he wanted things to be done or bills he wanted passed. These people formed a Facebook group and publicized his divorce and the details surrounding the divorce and he was forced to resign from his position. The group of people who started the Facebook group did not know everyone that liked or requested to belong to their Facebook group but none the less that “loosely connected” group had power and impact and inspired real change. A small victory, not a large social change like world peace or an end to the sex trade business but it goes to show you that it can be done. Social media has the power to bring about real social change.

References:

http://www.langleytimes.com/opinion/139851013.html?c=y&curSection=/&curTitle=BC+Opinion&bc09=true

Citizen Journalism

Social media has allowed everyday citizens to become authors, editors, and publishers of news and information. Do you believe that social media has increased the quality of news and information or decreased it?

With the increase of citizen journalism in social media I feel that quality of news and information has decreased. Yes you can hear about something as soon as it happens but is what you read always correct? Of course it’s not. It is always distorted. Yes it has some truth to it but the facts are not always correct. For example, I just received a phone call from a friend of mine who informed me that there was a man beaten to death during the Hedley concert in Dawson’s Creek BC. It was all over the Hedley Facebook page. Fans were adding comments informing everyone what happened and every story was different. The only thing that every post had in common was that there was a man who had passed away. I of course was curious as to what exactly happened so I went to the internet and located a few articles by actual reporters and read them. Yes in fact there was a man who passed away on the same day at the Hedley concert and yes he did attend the Hedley concert but he did not die at the concert. He passed away at the hospital from his injuries. If I had taken the Facebook posts as actual news, I would have believed he was beaten to death and found dead in the bathroom of the Hedley concert. This is clearly close to the truth but it is not the truth.  Yes I did find out about the unfortunate death of a young man who attended the Hedley concert in Dawson’s Creek BC before it was reported from traditional news mediums. But it was not as accurate of a report as that of the traditional news reporters.  Social Media has yes increased the speed in which we are able to hear about things that happen in our world but speed is not accuracy!

References:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/HedleyOnline?sk=wall&filter=12

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/02/15/bc-hedley-fight-death.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/man-beaten-to-death-during-hedley-concert-in-bc/article2339458/