Predicting the future in the development of social media applications can be very difficult because it depends on the IT brains all over the world. Who would have thought that one day we would have online banks where we can store our money and make purchase without physical more (He, Zha and Li 469). Twenty years ago, nobody would have thought that we could have almost all commodities sold online.
Today, the car trade has gone online. However, the only challenging issue in the field of technology is the human intelligence. However, in the near future I predict a situation where our electronic gadgets will have the independence and self sufficiency as humans. The social network data can be used to anticipate human behaviors and their reactions to different situation.
Will there be more or fewer apps?
Through the mobile phone we send messages, e-mails, make phone calls and also we have watches and calendar installed inside. Going by this trend, I believe and hopefully anticipate for an application that will make all these downloads unnecessary. Our needs in the social media include sending videos, video conferencing, sending picture, and chatting with friends (Okazaki and Taylor 67). However, I believe as life moves on, other needs might arise in the process. However, I believe one brainy IT guru might very soon discover a way to consolidate all our needs in one application and make thing easier for social media.
Currently, almost everything we used to do manually in the past can be done electronically. For instance, online banking has had a very significant impact on international trade. If online trade can be optimized fully to reach it maximum stretch, creation of a single apple to help people with all their requirements can be easily achieved. Online transactions are increasing and the different commodities displayed on line markets have different dimensions hence the numerous apps to access such services. Currently, money transfer is the most amazing technological development and it is soon going to replace the physical banking industry.
Is there a saturation point in advertising?
In every development technology or otherwise, there is always the saturation point. Like today, some social media platforms are almost losing their market and viability. Other applications that are more entertaining are coming up and the existing ones are fighting for relevance in the market (He, Zha and Li 467). Facebook recently purchased WhatsApp in a move to stay in the market since the latter is rapidly growing globally.
Another issue that will greatly affect the existing social networks is the point where the young people using these platforms will reach their saturation points. There are things that entertain the young generations today but later in life they will not be interesting.
Advertising has a saturation point and in technology this point comes sooner than expected. Innovations and new strategies are some of the characteristics that define the current technological world. Therefore, within a short period of time some of the applications that are ruling the market today will be obsolete in the next ten years. Therefore, social networks have to keep reinventing their applications to match the current consumer’s needs. Microsoft is one of the few companies that have lasted for decades and it still is a force to reckon with in the world of technology.
This is amidst new and upcoming innovative organizations that have tried to penetrate the market without notable success. The company understands hat in every innovation there is a saturation period. With this in mind, Microsoft keeps inventing new products to keep up with the growing demand and to satisfy the ever changing need of customers. Similarly, facebook is one of the few social networking organizations that seem to have its strategies set in right path. The recent purchase of the WhatsApp messaging application is helping the company to beat its saturation point and to avert the cost implication of reaching that point.
Transparency and privacy issues
One of the biggest challenges in the use of social network is its ability to expose our privacy. Privacy issues are matters of global concerns and recent events have proved this. People post a lot of information on their facebook pages in the name of securing their accounts. Such information can easily be hacked and used to cause harm to users.
These are events that have taken place recently and the situation will be dire if it persists. Facebook and tweeter have been used as perfect platforms to launch cyber bullying activities (Kaplan135). Transparency is okay especially considering high tech the world we live in. For security reasons I believe transparency can be a good thing for us all.
However, there is a thin line between the extent where transparency ends and intrusion of privacy begins. It is difficult to justify transparency without offending privacy. The need to keep private space private is as important as it is to keep surveillance for security purposes. However, good strategies can easily be used to pursue ill motivated ends if control is not enhanced.
Networking can be a brilliant idea but if left unchecked it could be disastrous. This is proven the rising number of terrorist attacks around the world. Such attacks have been greatly enhanced by the ease of access to information that compromises the privacy of the victims. In addition, the internet has become a hub for information and this has also enhanced terrorist activities as it has become very easy to create homemade bombs.
The expected timeline for this issue to arise
So far the kind of infringement is insignificant and that is why the approar is not as loud as it is supposed to be. Naturally, humans will always wait until the effects of an action takes place in order for them to react (Chaudhary et al. 69). As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. If we do not stop the issues of privacy infringement now, it will be much more difficult to stop it ten years from now. We have the chance to make a difference and prevent a possible infringement of human rights on a global scale. Ten years from now, things will have changed greatly and technology will have evolved to the better or worse.
Most of the current technological milestones were achieved in ten years of hard work hence the prediction above. However, it could take longer or even take a shorter time to realize these unpredictable milestones. But considering the current competition in the market and technological industry, I expect such developments to come earlier than expected. The world is rapidly changing and people are more creative and knowledgeable today compared to earlier on in the last two decades.
Dominance in the online market
In the online market, it is impossible to maintain dominance in the sale of online product especially applications for social interactions. Big companies are competing for dominance in various markets. However, this can be a major challenge with the new upcoming IT professionals and innovative young stars (Chaudhary et al. 66).
Young computer engineers are very good at reversed engineering which enables them to learn and decode the programming methods used in the creation of an app. Later, they create their own application and they make it better than the original one. Therefore, it becomes very difficult to have a single company dominating this market. The plan by big multinationals to monopolize the market cannot work in the online platform.
Handling the changes
A change is as good as a rest as the saying goes. Therefore, in handling future changes one has to be open-minded and accept that changes are inevitable in this generation. There is no better way of handling changes that to embrace it and familiarizing yourself with it as early as possible. Dealing with changes is not very easy because it disorients our way of doing things but avoiding it is also not easy.
When the world makes a move towards better or improved technologies, one has to follow through and accept the changes (Chaudhary et al. 82). Another way of handling changes is by updating your technological knowledge regularly so as to remain abreast with new offers in the market.
Works Cited
Chaudhary, Kaushnik, et al. “The contemporary framework on social media analytics as an emerging tool for behavior informatics, HR analytics and business process.” Management-Journal of Contemporary Management Issues 2 (2012): 65-84.
He, Wu, Shenghua Zha, and Ling Li. “Social media competitive analysis and text mining: A case study in the pizza industry.” International Journal of Information Management 33.3 (2013): 464-472.
Kaplan, Andreas M. “If you love something, let it go mobile: Mobile marketing and mobile social media 4×4.” Business Horizons 55.2 (2012): 129-139.
Okazaki, Shintaro, and Charles R. Taylor. “Social media and international advertising: theoretical challenges and future directions.” International marketing review 30.1 (2013): 56-71.