It’s difficult to identify the next big thing in social media because recent history has proven that new technologies and services survive because they allow people to do things they never knew they were missing out on. Before Facebook, no one considered needing to know what was going on in other people’s lives at any particular moment, but now people can’t imagine how they ever lived without such access. Similarly, people never considered searching amateur postings for information until Twitter arrived.
In addition, Facebook and Twitter have changed over the course of their short lives, partly as a result of user suggestions, activity, and trends. Steve Levy’s article Facebook Grows Up suggests that Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg made a huge change when he allowed outside companies to create applications that take advantage of Facebook’s connections. By creating their own applications, the companies can use Facebook in a way that will make the most money for them. In Levy’s article Mob Rule! How Users Took Over Twitter, he points out that “the Twitter community created many of the conventions now integral to the service,” including using hashtags for group commenting sessions, dollar signs for financial information, and @ before user names. Levy also mentions that “heavy retweeting by tech guru Tim O’Reilly helped popularize the practice.”
Even as social media continue to develop, they are constantly persuaded to combine with others in order to create even more far-reaching entities. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg turned down a $1 billion offer from Yahoo and Twitter turned down a $500 million offer from Facebook. All the while, Google continues to size up the various challengers threatening to take away its share of the Internet pie.
Pew research shows that among technology stakeholders and critics, most believe that Internet use, often in the form of social media, will continue to have a positive impact on their lives; however it decreases the amount of time spent in face-to-face relationships. Upcoming social media must continue to have a positive long term impact and must deal with the increasing loss of personal interaction. Research also reveals more adults use social media than teens, which means whatever develops next will need to cater to the needs of older generations.
If current trends continue, the next big thing in social media will allow users to communicate with each other and search for information posted by each other in a way that no one understands today. The new technology will force people to consider why they had not been using it all along and will encourage them to find their own unique ways of manipulating their access.
Check out: Levy, Steve. “Facebook Grows Up.”
Check out: Levy, Steve. “Mob Rule! How Users Took Over Twitter.”
Check out: Anderson, Janna. “The Future of Social Relations.”
Check out: Lenhart, Amanda. “Adults and Social Network Sites.”
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