Social media has changed the manner in which individuals interact with each other. Prior to the 21st century, the most common means through which people would communicate to each other was through sending of letters. Telephones were also the preferred means through which people would communicate instantly over a long distance.
Consequently, people used to take photographs as a means of storing the memories of their families. However, with the emergence of social media, all this has changed. With the aid of social network sites, geographical barriers have been eliminated.
People no longer incur the high costs of sending letters and making long distance phone calls. Social media has also enhanced the manner in which people represent themselves, their families and friends on the social media platform.
However, technology is usually dynamic in nature. Thus, social media is expected to change with time. Currently, many people interact with each other through social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube and so on. However, with the advancement in technology, the use of mobile phone applications is expected to increase (Kaplan, 2010).
In the modern day and age, people want to interact with each other irrespective of their geographical location or time. This realization has prompted developers to come up with new applications that will enable people to achieve this goal.
However, for these goals to be achieved, people need to have smart phones that are capable of supporting such applications. At the present moment, operating systems such as iOS, BlackBerry OS and Android have enabled mobile phones to support such applications (Neti, 2011).
WhatsApp is an example of a messaging application that has become quite popular in the world. BlackBerry OS, iOS, and Android support the application. With this application, individuals are able to send instant text messages, as well as audio messages. At the same time, users are also capable of sending pictures and videos. Unlike social network sites, once WhatsApp has been installed in a user’s phone, no login is required.
This saves the user the time that would have otherwise been used to log into social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter to access their services. Users are also capable of communicating with each other in real time regardless of the geographical barriers that might be present.
Most importantly, communicating via WhatsApp is free. Therefore, users do not incur the costs of sending messages or leaving voice messages. By August 2012, WhatsApp was handling approximately 10 billion messages in a single day (BGR, 2012).
Augmented Reality (AR) is another technology that will critically affect the future of social media. Other than interacting with each other, people always want to be informed about everything that is around them. Augmented Reality is an application that will enable people to achieve this goal. With the help of AR technology, users are able to enhance their knowledge and perception of their surroundings.
AR technology modifies the sounds, graphics and GPS data that it receives to generate a virtual environment, replacing the real environment around a user with a simulated one (Mackay, 2011). However, the simulated environment is more detailed, as it gives the user specific information that he/she might need to make sound decisions or judgment.
The information that has been generated is interactive and can be manipulated by the user to achieve specific goals. For instance, one may be able to generate a weather forecast report by focusing on the atmosphere and selecting the desirable command. With the development of this technology, people will be able to have a look at the content of a product without opening the package.
People will also be able to examine the rooms of hotels before making a reservation. Consequently, people will also be able to determine the past, present, and future states of a given place, or building. Most importantly, people will be able to generate information regarding the plants, animals, and people they meet.
Thus, AR will enable people to overcome the barriers that are present in the real world by having a chance to view and understand the elements that surround them. The instant availability of information will save users the time required to search for the information in books or online.
The switch to mobile application will definitely reduce the popularity of giant social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter. During the early days of social media, MySpace was one of the leading social network sites in the world. However, with its effectiveness, Facebook managed to take the top position as the leading social network site.
As Neti (2011) asserted, Facebook is the social network giant, thus, its operations are expected to be around for many years to come. Although it will continue to have a high number of users, its popularity is expected to decline.
Therefore, in future, people will have a wide range of social media platforms to choose from.
To make this decision, individuals and businesses will put into consideration the goals and objectives that they want to achieve, the target audience that they want to interact with, the content that they want to share and for businesses, the branding elements that they want to share before the decide on which social media platform to use (Neti, 2011).
These factors will ensure that individuals and businesses become users of social network sites that will yield maximum benefits to them. However, given the current trends, it is evident that visual and mobile applications will become the future of social media.
References
BGR 2012, WhatsApp: We handle 10 billion messages each and every day. Web.
Kaplan, A 2010, ‘Users of the world unite: The challenges and opportunities of social media’, Business Horizons, vol. 53 no.1, pp. 59–68.
Mackay, W 2011, Augmented Reality: Linking real and virtual worlds A new paradigm for interacting with computers. Web.
Neti, S 2011, ‘Social Media and its Role in Marketing’, International Journal of Computing and Business Systems, vol. 1 no. 2, pp 1-15.