As we continue into the future with the revolution of social media, you can only expect more. I personally feel that as social media becomes more and more popular with people of all different ages and walks of life privacy expectations will have to change. People have began to be more willing to share more and more personal details, such as sharing your likes, dislikes, opinions, photos, and videos. But what ever happened to less is more? As young adults we venture out into the workforce, and we’ve all heard that employers are beginning to search through social networking sites, checking into potential employee’s personal Facebook accounts and more, and sometimes that can be a very unprofessional portrayal of one’s self. Some solutions have been found with more professionally aimed sites such as LinkedIn, focused at connected and reconnecting past and present colleagues and classmates, and also helping individuals to discover insider connections within the workforce and potential business opportunities. Eventually though I do feel as though some line will have to be drawn between sharing personal experiences and information and becoming a part of the corporate world. Another frequently changing movement is the concept of a “friend network”, as time moves forward I feel there will be a reorganization of social networks, and it has already begun to be introduced with Rogers concept “One Number”, allowing users to keep one number as a representation of them to excess instant messaging, video chatting, calling, and texting, and I’m sure this can be adapted to include social networking in the coming time. Finally, one of the hugest movements happening and that will continue to happen is the use of social media as a marketing ploy, everywhere we look there is advertisements, and companies have began to create social networking profiles of their own to reach more and more potential consumers. With the technological development of the Smartphone, all of this is accessible right in the palm of your hand, all day long the latest news, gossip, or gadget is being thrown right in our face, and furthermore the ability of “Rating” these topics and items is everywhere. Whether it’s tweeting your feelings on a product or service, liking, disliking, or giving a rating out of a potential 5 stars, companies are finally getting back the feedback they need and will continue to develop the next best thing to keep the cycle flourishing. And with that being said, my only suggestion is to become or remain an informed consumer, your opinion matters!
