Social networking becomes extremely popular recently, especially among teenagers. Some of us can not go anywhere without tweeting about it all on Twitter. Many more can not leave the house unless they water their plants on one of Facebook's famous game, Farmvilles, first. The innovation is not only addictive but also very useful for people to get in touch, it's wonderful that internet can be very beneficial. "Where next for social networking?" is an article I came across earlier today in New Scientist, it brings us some predictions of successful website investors about what is next in online investment. A founder member of Google, Ram Shriram, predicts that there will be no e-mail using anymore because people will facebooking instead and that the most popular way to use the internet will be via mobiles. Reid Hoffman, the founder of Linkedin says that in the future there will be the inventing of applications based on people's real information such as the application that can match people with suitable jobs. While, Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, believes that social networking makes people opens with each other and feels involved with the world.
For me, I always get excite whenever new innovations have been launched, regardless of whether I'm going to use it or not. However, I think very less about what is going to be the next best things and just appreciate when the things come out. Reading this article made me realize why these computer geeks are very successful in the business. They have visions, they look into the future. We all are owing people like them for the conveniences we have in life. I never saw social networking as anything except stuff that made for fun but these aspects really made me think about it more and take it more seriously. I started to think how social networking will effect our lives, especially in the future when it is more developed, people would be drew closer together than ever and the world would seem much, much smaller.
Moreover, in online world, people never have to show their real identities, they can have fun disguising themselves or being someone else entirely, but in social networking the users will enjoy it better if they use the websites as their own selves, using their true information, because they can have fun with their real life friends on these website,too. Therefore, I strongly agree with Stone's idea about using real identity like this would make people be more open and more genuine with others , may be when social networking becomes even more popular than today, we could see dramatical changes of people's behavior in society all over the world.
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References
Simonite, T.(2009, November 25). Innovation: Where next for social networking?. New Scientist. Retrieved December 3, 2009 from http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18196-innovation-where-next-for-social-networking.html
Is Google Wave next?
ReplyDeleteEarly this year, I got excited about the next offering from Google, which has just been released on a limited trial basis. It's Google Wave (see http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html for a neat video introduction and more).
Like Roong, I like to try new things. Some are useful to me, and I stick with them, others quickly lose their interest and I forget about them.
More generally, I'm very excited about the unknown future. Only 20 years ago, most people had never heard of the internet, but today, it's almost everywhere, and growing rapidly in extent and offerings. The same for mobile phones: mine now takes a photo (of decent quality) and uploads it to a web site automatically. I don't think anyone 20 years ago had successfully predicted how the internet would become what it has so very quickly, and today is only teh beginning. Where will we be in another 20 years?
And how different the generations. When I was back home in Australia recently, I realised that my young nieces and nephews had never known a world without the internet and mobile phones for everyone - they've never even seen a video tape, which was already a dead and vanishing technology in Australia about ten years ago.
I forgot to mention: in case anyone is interested in trying out Google Wave, I have some invitations that I can send.
ReplyDeleteWhen I watched the presentation video on the page I linked to in my last comment, I was immediately thinking of how we might adopt and adapt it as a useful new tool for use in AEP classes. Send me an email if you're interested.
I'm a bit surprised that Ram Shriram mentioned Facebook ,not Google Wave, will replace email.
ReplyDeleteI also like to try the new things so I got my account in facebook, yahoo, netlog, myspace, hi5, friendster...so crazy!!! but I stick with only facebook. The more hi-teach develops the more people feel convenient, but in the other hand more problem is raising because of it.
ReplyDelete