I believe social media is going to be around for quite a long time. It’s something that fits right in our contemporary world because it makes everything more efficient and convenient. We can communicate with anyone across the world as long as both users have an internet connection.

Social media has come a long way, from Myspace back in 2005 to Snapchat in 2011, the various platforms of different social media’s has certainly evolved quite a bit. Myspace had the option to customize each user’s profile and pick their top friends, now Snapchat offers the user to send snapshots/short videos to their friends. It is a great way to update your friend’s where you currently are and show them your interests.

This reminds me of the discussion we had on the previous Tuesday session about exploitation; how we are being exploited by these big marketing companies and how our work and creativity is being alienated from ourselves by capitalists. On the surface, all these social media platforms are “for the user” but we are not their priorities. The advertisers, sponsors and investors are their main priorities. At the end of the day, no matter what a company says and promises to their consumers, their main goal is to make money and be more successful. This is similar to what Petersen said according to Mark Andrejevic in his essay, “Surveillance and Alienation in the Online Economy: “…transforming users into commodities that can be sold on the market (page 4.) We use these social media’s service but in reality they are using our service to make money.

In conclusion, I believe the future of social media is going to be extremely advanced. Not only will you be able to communicate through text and video through social media, but perhaps project 3D holograms of each other and their surroundings. For example, Facebook would be able to offer a 3D reality background for a user on the other side of the webcam through a special lens. I also agree with Janna Anderson and Lee Raine in their article, “The Future of the Internet” when they claim that: “the internet will become ‘The Internets’ as access, systems, and principles renegotiated.” Since most companies appear to be copying each other, Instagram stories, vs Facebook day vs Snapchat stories. They all seem to offer the same features nowadays, even though Snapchat offered it first. So it would be interesting to see if the internet will eventually become smaller private networks, rather than one united network.

Do you think it is even more difficult for new startup social media companies to succeed in this day and age? Since a lot of companies are copying each other, what will it take for another social media company to not get lost in the bundle?

Where do you see the status of social media in 10 years?