The Leap from web 2.0 to 3.0, and what it means for Social Media

Technology is advancing in an exponential rate. The easiest way to see this is by looking at yard sales. Nothing in a yard sale is necessarily bad, broken, or old. It’s just merely lost its purpose. Computers are another great example. Computer processing power doubles every 2 years. The computer sitting in people’s homes 3 years ago now sits in the palm of your hands and we call it a cell phone. Not one bit of exaggeration too. With this shift in technology becomes a more dependence on it. This is where social media comes in. Social media was created because of the ease of computing on the web. Social media usage today is astronomical. With ever changing applications and integration with mobile devices users experience only gets better, however a new thing called the semantic web or web-3.0.

What this would mean for us as users is the fact that we will experience the web in in a whole different way. We would find exactly what we were looking for as a result from searching using a very basic search, or exactly what movie would suit us best. What 3.0 would mean is that the whole internet would be indexed so that computer programs can search through them with great accuracy. With social media this means that we would be able to find groups of people exactly tailored to a specific niche, whether it be a certain type of music, or sport. This would also mean that you could potentially pay money to meet the girl/guy that would be your ideal soul mate. Switching to the bad this could also mean that advertising will be extremely persuasive and would find everything and anything that would suit your needs. Music, personal files, and videos will all be stored online and you’ll end up logging into your own personal account within the web to access it all. The beauty about this is that you can do this through any computer, cell phone, and tablet without ever losing your data due to computer theft or damage.

Big businesses that will emerge from this change will be ones that give you access to your personal search account, which will integrate your email, files, and music. These companies will have all the control over what you view. So again the media and advertising continues, unless you pay for your own personal account.

Social Media....Do you do any good for us or just waste our time?

I firmly do believe that the loose ties of people that do not really know each other can actually make a positive change in the world. Eat that Gladwell.

Over the past decade from social media’s infancy to where it is now, I have seen plenty of positive social change. From Earth Hour’s Facebook campaign, Occupy Wall Street, to this developing kony2012 movement. All of these positive initiatives could not have had the support and following if it wasn’t for social media. Do you remember seeing the ‘Homeless man with the golden voice’ on Youtube? Soon after that video went viral a TV station brought the homeless man in and gave him a second chance along with reuniting him with his long lost mother. Every news report covered the story! While it may only be one person that was changed in this case our popular friend in the south – Ellen has been doing this type of thing for a while. She would see these videos that went viral and bring them on her show. This would help the individual or group seeking support, or raise awareness for the cause. The question is did Ellen help these people out? Or the power of social media creating a blast of views to the video that made it catch national attention, or world attention in the Kony2012 case.

It’s great to see that some people still have their doubts in social media because I’m not a particular fan of how much it’s used in everyday life and the time it consumes to stay on top of it, but I do see its benefits.

I think that social change from social media is getting better. Social media and the way it’s received are still only at the tip of the iceberg. I do know that there is still plenty to go for understanding how we can harness it for good but right now viral Youtube videos may be the best thing.

Fact! social media lacks in quality information!

Has social media increased the quality of news and information? Not a chance. Social media has helped the general public become more aware of what is going on out there in a more worldly perspective but to only basic credibility. Sure these blog posts, tweets, Facebook postings, may attract attention by others, but I think if readers are really interested they will do further research which, in our case ‘Googling’ for a more credible source’s opinion. In too many cases the people who speak out or write a post are often one sided and have blurred the truth to increase that WOW factor. Most people will realize this but the problem lays in the cult followers who accept this. Kind of like the tabloids for celebrities.

Now I won’t leave out the fact that social media has helped raise awareness and support for things like the Tsunami and Earthquake disaster helping to fund the recovery of these places that were in need. And I’m a huge fan of Facebook’s ability for helping raise awareness on global initiatives like Earth Hour. These things are made possible by regular everyday people posting and helping create a bigger following but this is different than the latest and greatest dirt on Justin Beiber or Political drama that people make up.

I feel that articles and postings that involve truth and point to a direction for further reading are an asset and will continue to be a part in how the modern world gets there information . But there’s nothing like watching TV news Like the Agenda or the National and getting full detail on touchy articles and you know they’re going to be fairly accurate with their reports.

The days of believing one information source are over as new websites and gossipers take charge on the internet. It will even be increasingly convenient as you can have full time coverage of their actions with smartphones! But people will still want to have information they don’t have to cross reference to make sure it’s correct. For that reason I can say that while social media has made it easier people to contribute to public information, they still will not hold the accuracy and accountability that a proper Newspaper or TV broadcasting can provide. How far do you think I’m off?

Day 1: My Flow on Social Media

Social media…. Pretty nuts to think that its spread faster than any disease this world has seen. It’s been almost 10 years since Myspace was first launched which was one of the leading pioneers for internet gossip and global connection. It was one of the first sites to have personalized webspaces for each account holder. You could have your own personalized website! And anyone could see it! Other account holders could post messages on your wall, you could add songs if you were a musician or artist, it was pretty much the bee’s knees of the new generation of computer savvy people who weren’t afraid to get down and dirty with all the cool features the internet had to offer. Nowadays I bet you won’t find anyone under 80 that hasn’t heard of Facebook.

Gosh hate Facebook!

I hate Facebook because it steals my time and attention, being tagged in one picture that may not even be of me, or one of those best friend multi character picture things can turn into 2 hours of browsing the news feed creeping on other peoples recent happenings. It’s disturbingly addictive. This wealth of unneeded knowledge of your whole extended network. Maybe societies’ obesity problem isn’t from eating unhealthy large portions of fast food, it’s just social media talking the time out of the day to do the harder things in life, everyone is way too busy with their social lives and the drama of other people that they forget to have some one on one time with them self, maybe walking, running, any some sort of physical activity.

In my opinion, social media isn’t a fad, it’s a lifestyle, some people can handle it, some people choose to ignore it, and others don’t even know about it. One thing is-it’s becoming more and more business incorporated. Way too much marketing involved with it. Knowing that Ashton Kutcher can make tens of thousands of dollars just by mentioning a product in one of his tweets is crazy! I wish I could do that, but that means I’ll have to play this whole social media game and build a clan of followers.

Well here’s my chance, if you like this reach me @jukespeets