Social media might be a convenient way to connect with other people, but it's gradually morphing into something more sinister. The general public is starting to realize this. When they fully get it, social media as we know it now will fade.
When Facebook started, the great thing was that you could reconnect with your old friends and family members who were far away and meet new people. But as time went on, it just became a place people insulted, shamed, or snubbed each other. Since it could mean losing your job, a lot of younger people bailed. Now, gradually, it's becoming the place grandmoms show off photos of their grandbabies.
Instagram is a place young girls can show off their assets. But I've noticed that once they get into the workforce or get serious boyfriends, their accounts vanish without explanation. When it's time to be an adult, Instagram disappears. It's a little hard to be taken seriously at that Monday meeting when everyone's stating at pics of your butt in a thong bathing suit on their phones.
I think at some point in the future, the next generation will look back on these forms of social media the way we look back on LSD experimentation in the 1960s. They'll think "How stupid can they have been? How naive?"
In the future, people will wonder why on Earth we put out opinions and private pics under our real names AND gave away so much info to corporate America.
I think the future might be anonymous forums like this one. This is, ironically, the way social media started way back in the 1990s, when people posted on message boards (before Google bought them and killed them off).
I'm on Facebook now only as a lurker. But I still have a lot of friends from all walks of life. I have actually seen posts from those I know conferring about trying to get people fired for having "incorrect" opinions on FB. In the real world, these WERE decent people. But the medium has tuned them into jerks. So why bother with it? More and more, people are asking themselves this question.
When Facebook started, the great thing was that you could reconnect with your old friends and family members who were far away and meet new people. But as time went on, it just became a place people insulted, shamed, or snubbed each other. Since it could mean losing your job, a lot of younger people bailed. Now, gradually, it's becoming the place grandmoms show off photos of their grandbabies.
Instagram is a place young girls can show off their assets. But I've noticed that once they get into the workforce or get serious boyfriends, their accounts vanish without explanation. When it's time to be an adult, Instagram disappears. It's a little hard to be taken seriously at that Monday meeting when everyone's stating at pics of your butt in a thong bathing suit on their phones.
I think at some point in the future, the next generation will look back on these forms of social media the way we look back on LSD experimentation in the 1960s. They'll think "How stupid can they have been? How naive?"
In the future, people will wonder why on Earth we put out opinions and private pics under our real names AND gave away so much info to corporate America.
I think the future might be anonymous forums like this one. This is, ironically, the way social media started way back in the 1990s, when people posted on message boards (before Google bought them and killed them off).
I'm on Facebook now only as a lurker. But I still have a lot of friends from all walks of life. I have actually seen posts from those I know conferring about trying to get people fired for having "incorrect" opinions on FB. In the real world, these WERE decent people. But the medium has tuned them into jerks. So why bother with it? More and more, people are asking themselves this question.