Reading
through the articles provided to us for this course and looking at
timelines, it seems like the internet has pretty much taken over the
world, especially when it comes to our social lives. In our Facebook
Outline article, the term 'social media' has three (3) definitions.
The definition that put it into perspective to me was a definition
given by Brian Solis, a PR expert, who defined it as “a shift in
how people discover, read, and share news and information and
content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming
monologue (one to many) into dialogue (many to many).” Let's take a
look at the big 'splash!' that Facebook made in such a short period
of time:
The
reason I am focusing so much on social media, is because I believe
this is the part that will continue to have a major role in our
future. If we think about it, when we need to know about something in
the news or want to hear the latest 'gossip,' we turn to social
media. There are very few
people that I know that still watch the news or read a newspaper,
unless something major is going on – like the Superbowl or a
Presidential campaign/speech. I believe that the future, in the next
5 years, contains a lot more personalized media sites. This may be a
little hard to explain, so let me give you an example: when you
search something on your computer (for instance, I've been searching
wedding venues lately), when you go to Facebook, it will give you
'suggestions' for other sites that has something similar to what you
were searching for. I think there will be more websites created as
social media sites, but utilized for other reasons than just
socializing with friends. A good example of the beginning of this is
LinkedIn. This website is used for professionals looking to make
connections via other professionals they know online. I think that
everything, including news, will be delivered through the internet,
but will be personalized to what the site believes the person wants
to know or may need, depending on the websites they visit the most
and the things they search the most. Because of this, I believe the
biggest media companies will be those, like Facebook, LinkedIn, and
Amazon, that make news, entertainment, and shopping a little easier,
faster, and at our fingertips.
