#sjsu24611future

It will be interesting to see how social media evolves over the next decade and on. Libraries need to certainly be a part of the change to maintain their relevance.  As long as they keep abreast of changes and continue to come up with innovative ways to use social media to market the library they will be in good shape.

Hopefully, it won’t be like this:

We’re always excited about the new and coolest thing in technoloy and on social media. However, this article on the Internet of Things mentions the one thing that librarians should always be wary of: secutiry and privacy. It’s great to be able to offer our customers ways to interact with the library collections, databases, and librarians outside of the library building itself. However, librarians also have an obligation to protect or, at the very least, warn our customers of the potential security and privacy risks. 

With the estimate of having 26 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020, it’s no wonder why I start to notice more virtual crimes in the news I read. The above “Car hacking” was just an experiment by two “white-hat” hackers that demonstrates the vulnerability of our internet connected devices. Out of all the connected devices I use, I think having the vehicle I am driving in would be the scariest of them all. It put not just my life at risk, but that of all others on the road as well. 

I don’t think vulnerabilities like the possible car hacking will deter companies or even consumers to have an increase in internet connected devices at their disposal. Devices are booming left and right from the rise of smartphones, activity trackers, WiFi TVs to the whole house being connected. Companies will just have to become more vigilant in correcting loop holes in their device’s security or they’ll lose out on their consumer’s wallets. 

The Internet now feels like it is reverting back to how it was in the 90s. It may not be as rapid a regression as the progression of the Internet was, and it most certain wont completely back track but there seems to be a lot of pre-millennials out there that are disconnecting. But beyond that, the Internet of Things, as it is called, consist of everyday objects that have been computerized, which in effect has made a fact of the adage “everything runs on computers these days.” Jared Newman talks about the Internet of Things as not showing its potential just yet, similar to how the Internet itself was perceived during its inception.

 I bought a body scale recently because, well I guess I’m a grown up now and have to start caring about that stuff so I can be healthy. This scale was a tad bit more than I wanted to pay but there where very few other option at this particular store. The reason it was more expensive? Bluetooth. The scale has the ability to sync with your computer and smart phone via Bluetooth to keep track of your weight progress, or regress in my case. Sigh. Anyway, does one really need a scale that can connect to an app that can one can look at whenever one wants to? Not really. But the technology has reaching applications. The body scale example is a small device, but the concept of the Internet of Things as a greater potential in larger items, such as cars, bicycles and homes. Smart Homes are becoming all the rage and as the Internet of Things advances the more it will affect our daily lives.

 I think that the Internet of Things appears as more of a curse than a blessing to some right now. Just as the Internet seemed like a flash in the pan fad when it was introduced. This is possible why some people are choosing to disconnect, and why going “off the grid” is so chic right now. The future of this technology relies on the focus being shifted away from the smaller devices to larger objects. Perfecting the Smart Home to give families security, electronic vehicles to decrease our ecologic footprint, or any medical would boost the approval of what is now thought of as more of an invasive technology than a helpful one.

Social media is something that is constantly in motion, changing all the time. New platforms are being created every day and it’s just a matter of time for one of the little known platforms makes it big in everyone’s daily lives. Because of the rapid pace of changes and popularity based on what people are using, it makes it hard to pinpoint where a future direction of social media will take society. 

That said, I think that it’s evident that social media is in fact here to stay. I don’t necessarily think that it will die down and people will always use social media. While everyone’s use of social media is different depending on their interpretation of how they would like to use social media, I think that we as a society are headed towards a time where it’s hard to get away from social media. It’s everywhere. People use it. Organizations use it. School use it. You name it, it probably has a social media affiliation attached to it. 

I think the main point of the future of social media needs to be first and for most the future of people’s privacy. As more and more people are using social media for more than just personal use, there’s bound to come a time where privacy is seriously compromised. It’s a drawback of social media that’s for sure, but it’s not one that stops people. Looking towards the future I think that people need to be more aware of terms and conditions of social platforms they are using in order to gain a better understanding on how their information will be used. 

So, where do libraries fit into all of this? I don’t see library usage of social media slowing down anytime soon. In fact, I think that there will only be discoveries made that will enhance the way that libraries use social media and will really make the library’s online presence an extension of library services. After all, it’s technology. The future holds so much and there will be new advancements that will blow everyone away and make people wonder how we ever survived with out it. 

The main point that libraries will need to consider going forward is as I mentioned previously, the topic of privacy. Library systems are heavily run on privacy laws and there are restrictions of data that can be given out if the cardholder isn’t present. Social media will always have that danger of privacy being violated, but there are ways to minimize the likelihood. While a lot of privacy concerns fall directly to the user, as it’s them who is ultimately deciding what and how much information to share, it’s still a concern libraries should keep in the forefront of their planning for future use of social media. 

Ted Talk Johanna Blakley 

This Ted Talk by Johanna Blakley is super relevant to the discussion about the future of social media since it addresses gender – a hot topic in the media today. Blakley makes some interesting points about the way traditional media companies have historically grouped us into little demographic boxes based on our age, income, gender, and ethnicity, etc. – categories that don’t necessarily have anything to do with our tastes or habits. Social media is changing that.

Because of social media, says Blakley, “We're able to connect with people quite freely and to redefine ourselves online. And we can lie about our age online, too, pretty easily. We can also connect with people based on our very specific interests. We don't need a media company to help do this for us.” We now have the ability to send out tweets or update our Facebook statuses, asking friends and followers to recommend restaurants, products, services, or anything else we might need. We can join groups on social media to discuss our favorite books or movies or television shows.

Traditional media companies are finding it difficult to determine who we are based on old-school categories such as age, gender and income. Instead, they are learning what we like. The upside: “Suddenly our taste is being respected in a way that it hasn't been before. It had been presumed before.” And isn’t taste the most important factor in media and advertising? Certainly it is.

According to Blakley, women are at the wheel when it comes to driving social media. Since women are the biggest users of social media worldwide, they will have a huge impact on quashing these traditional categories that have been far too simplistic.  “The future entertainment media that we're going to see is going to be very data-driven, and it's going to be based on the information that we ascertain from taste communities online, where women are really driving the action.”

I think that social media will continue to evolve.  There will always be a new app or website that people will flock to because it’s new and exciting.  Whether that website or application will be around for a few years will depend on those users.  In this past year, I’ve joined Tsu because it was the next ‘big thing,’ but the people I follow haven’t posted new posts in months, so when I log in, my newsfeed it BLANK. But this can happen on any social media application.  

I would love to one day see an application that connects all of your social media accounts, so if you post on one, you post on them all.  Now I know that I can post on my Tumblr, my Twitter, and my various other accounts and it will show up in my Facebook Newsfeed, but my Facebook posts do not show up on my other social media accounts.  Now this could be my fault or it could be Facebook’s settings, but I want one where I can post to and have it show up everywhere.  But that’s what I want, and maybe someone will create that for me, or maybe not.

Since I’m studying to be a librarian, so as a librarian, I would hope that Libraries continue to expand their social media presence.  I’m not talking about having an account on every social media application, but staying current with what they have and to continue to expand to the applications that their patrons use and are appropriate for what they do.  I do not expect to see my Library on Tsu, because it does not seem to be very popular, but having an account on Tumblr or Instagram, not just Twitter and Facebook, may be more appropriate.

My Social Media Plan was an interesting concept for me and I think if I am ever presented with the opportunity to present it, I will.  It would also be easy to change the social media application to another one, but stick with the same concepts and overall plan.  That’s the great thing about social media; they are relatively the ‘same’ but can also be different, meeting the needs of their users.

It might be because I just recently watched Ex Machina (which I thought was fantastic and beautiful) but my knee jerk reaction to the question “What is the future of social media” automatically gravitates to visions of a society where AI is the norm and people have relationships with computers like in Her (also fantastic if you haven’t seen it).  Robots are something humans have been dreaming of in the future for decades.  I’m not sure if you and I will ever live to see sophisticated robots or computers with AI that pass Turing tests impeccably, but we also are on the brink of having self driving cars, so who knows.

In our not so distant future I think wearable technology will continue to infiltrate our lives and begin to connect us to each other and to our networks in which we communicate.  I don’t see luxury items like Google Glass or the Apple Watch necessarily taking over as rapidly as smartphones have, but health industry items like FitBit have certainly found their market.  I think virtual reality systems Oculus may come into the mainstream at some point, and the potential for virtual reality within the context of education and libraries is interesting to think about.  There is so much talk about how online education loses something without the classroom experience, but would a literal virtual classroom (not just SecondLife) be able to change that?  Maybe.  Virtual reality would really shift the ‘social’ part of social media.