BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.

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?

We have already established that social media is likely here to stay, in its current form or another future one, with its foundations continuing to be connectivity and participation.

With this in mind, here are my predictions for the future of social media (disclosure: I am not a technology expert nor do I play one on TV): 

·      Increased leveraging of social media tools at the secondary and post-secondary level. Teachers will begin to recognize the need to engage students in a medium they are comfortable with to keep them interested. Tools will be used both in-class, perhaps using Twitter for answering lecture questions, in Learning Management System integration using wikis and real-time video conferencing with professors and fellow students. These tools would be especially useful in distance learning programs.

·      Increased use of social media tools in mainstream media. More journalists will adopt blogging to augment their reporting. More publications adopt or partner with social media companies to engage a younger audience.

·      Increased accessibility protocols to make it easier for those with vision impairments to access the full social media experience.

·      Real-time visual chatting through Facetime or other video platform incorporated into applications such as Facebook.

·      Increased use of crowd funding by artists, community-based social agencies and non-profits.

·      Increased use of social media marketing by businesses as a means to engage potential customers and solidify brand recognition. One such example: you sidle up to the checkout counter at your favourite clothing store. But before you make your purchase, you use the store’s tablet device to tag yourself on an app which is linked to your Facebook and Twitter. For this, you receive 5% off your purchase. When one of your Facebook or Twitter friends then visits the store, makes a purchase and links themselves to your purchase, they also get the 5% off plus an extra discount. It follows the whole “I’ll tell two friends and they’ll tell two friends…” theory made famous by the classic 1980s Faberge TV commercial:

Faberge Commercial

Finally, given the information gathering predictions for the coming of Web 3.0, I can only foresee an increase in the Big Brother Syndrome (referring to George Orwell’s novel NOT the TV series) where we are constantly surveyed, watched, analyzed, categorized by our browsers and the social media tools we know and love.

Will they come to know us better than we know ourselves?

Social media and elections

U.S. President Barack Obama has been touted as "the social media president" and the history books will certainly mark the 2008 election as the first to be influenced by social media. Do you think that social media will continue to play an important role in the 2012 election, or is the phenomenon over-hyped?

Through the first blog post, we have already established that social media is here to stay. By now, it has been inextricably woven into the fabric of our society.

From an advertising perspective, placement is everything. When we speak of real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. In politics, voter participation is key. Even if you are the most popular politician since, well, Nelson Mandela, it won’t matter how many people say they love you if you cannot translate those expressions of love into votes.

I am no mathematician, but I have come up with a simple equation just for this blog post:

Excitement + Participation = votes 

In Canada, voter turnout is on the decline. The 2011 election drew just 61.1% of voters to the polls. This was only a fractional increase from 2008’s 58.8%, the worst turnout since 1898. The American statistics are even more dismal.

Luckily for U.S. President Barak Obama, his election team knows their stuff; the 2008 election result is evidence of that. So, they understand that in order to get voters excited enough to participate and get out to vote, Obama needs to be where the action is. Not only that, but he needs to be the action.

How do people get excited in 2012? Without letting this thread go to the dogs, let’s just say that social networking gets people excited. Joining in on conversations, in groups, seeing what everyone is up to gets people excited.

And how do people participate in 2012? By talking, reaching out, connecting, conversing, opining, discussing, debating, questioning, contributing – all online.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that where the people are, is where the candidates should be too. And, in 2012, the people are all on social networks. By having Obama positioned on every major social network, his campaign team is tapping into the power of conversation; and not just idle chit chat with anyone and everyone, but two-way conversations with any potential voter who cares enough to participate.

Frankly, I’m amazed Romney’s campaign is not recognizing the full potential of social networking. Perhaps it has something to with a misplaced notion that social networking is only for teenagers with nothing better to do, not for respectable politicians.

So to recap: if you are a politician and you place yourself in a position to excite people, get them to participate in the conversation and the process, then maybe – just maybe – you stand a better chance of getting those people to cast their vote on election day. And maybe – just maybe – they’ll even vote for you. 

The Dangers of 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?

Social media has allowed people from all walks of life to participate in newsgathering and the dissemination of news. No longer is it the exclusive domain of the professional journalist to inform the public.

While social media has certainly made it easier for people to report on news and events, I believe it has not increased the quality of news content and information for the following reasons:

• typically, citizen journalists are not accountable to any governing body or public editor
• citizen journalists are not held accountable by strict journalism industry ethics. These industry ethics guide professionals to deliver content in a truthful, respectful manner so that the public can maintain their trust in the validity and accuracy of the news
• citizen journalism lacks the critical editorial process for fact-checking, sourcing and referencing
• professional journalism standards are often not met, such as grammar and writing styles
• errors in judgement, factual errors, omissions, manipulation of quotes and facts – all these can result in misleading information
• a tendency for citizen journalists to pontificate and be subjective instead of objective
• a tendency for citizens to incorporate their natural biases into the reporting

Certainly having many voices is a progressive and positive shift in media: more voices around the world results in increased awareness. However, I don’t believe more voices equals better quality journalism, it simply equals more opinions. The frequency of something doesn’t necessarily increase its quality.

My fear is that there is a tendency among young people to rely on inexperienced and non-professional bloggers and lay-people (citizen journalists) for their daily news information. This is creating a cycle of mis-informed individuals guided by opinion, pontification and subjective reporting, even sometimes, outright manipulated information.

Social media - fad or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?

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"The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty - a fad." 

- President of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Horace Rackham (Henry Ford's lawyer) not to invest in the Ford Motor Company in 1903. (Wikipedia)

As was the automobile, so too is social media.

Social media is not a novelty.

It will not be gone tomorrow.

It is here to stay.

Social media, I believe, is the biggest shift since the automobile, not the Industrial Revolution.

The invention of the gas-powered internal combustion automobile in the late 19^th century eventually allowed people of all walks of life to connect like never before; they could reach destinations in record time - of their own accord - giving them access to places and experiences they never would have seen otherwise. Their city, their region, their country all became smaller and more accessible. Cities were built around the use of automobiles.

Like the automobile, the Internet and social media have opened up a whole new world for people where they can have access to any kind of information they desire. They can connect on a global scale and meet people from all walks of life. They can rediscover lost friends, create new client contacts and build a brand.  The delivery of higher education has even integrated social media components and tools into the curriculum to bring students and faculty together in the learning process.

“The medium is the message”  

- Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964

In McLuhan’s classic work, Understanding Media, he proposes that a medium is "any extension of ourselves.". The message he speaks of is not the actual content. He writes the message is "the change of scale or pace or pattern". It is what is brought about by the existence of the medium itself.

Like the automobile, the pervasiveness of social media has had unintended consequences. As more and more automobiles were built, they began contributing to global pollution: this is just one of the automobile’s messages. It has taken over a century but companies are finally designing greener automobiles. Social media has allowed us to communicate and reach out in new ways but it has also influenced our speech and our grammar. Although we feel connected, it has also divided us: this is one of social media’s messages. We feel connected through devices but we are losing our ability to connect on a basic human level.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog created specifically for my Social Media course at Durham College in Oshawa where I am in my first year of Contemporary Web Design.

At the tender age of 45, I have returned to higher education after being a freelance photojournalist for 18 years. I'm looking forward to using my photo and video skills to enhance my future second career as a web designer.

So settle in and let's see where this ride takes us....