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?