Social Media in the Future

                  I think that in the future Social Media is going to govern people’s life as much as it’s does now and more.  It will do this in three ways, Companies will monitor your postings to get jobs and after you have them, People will be accountable for all there actions do to tracking updates and it will increase the gap between the rich and the poor even more.
                  Companies already use social media to track future employs and current ones.  Some companies have even asked employees for the account information and passwords so they can monitor their feeds even more then they already do.  So in the future I can see this becoming an even bigger issue for companies and their employees.  I know that even when I get an email from a potential roommate I type that email into everywhere just so I know about the person.  This could be one of the reasons I can see social media failing in the long term but also one of the reasons I can see it lasting.  That sounds confusing; basically companies will continue to use it.  The benefits are about the same as the withdrawals for them.  Bot for the employees sure you can argue it breaches your right to free speech but anyone can see why companies don’t want to hire people who misrepresent their company.
                  People are already feeling the repercussions for using social media.  A good example is the recent St. Patrick’s Day riots in London, ON.  They just proved how stupid some people could be.  By posting videos on YouTube, Facebook, twitter and many other sites from there phones.  These people just admitted to being involved and it resulted in countless arrests on the ones involved.  This isn’t a bad thing as these people deserved to be caught, however there are some clear other cases that have killed relationships and gotten people in trouble for far less.  People are being held far more accountable for there actions and in the future with GPS etc. it can only get worse/better.
                  The gap between the rich and the poor is already very apparent and will only increase with riots and other causes gaining a larger following thanks to social media.  The gap may grow for other reasons but social media seems to be used by everyone who owns a computer.  What about the ones without one? They will continue to fall further and further down into poverty because people view it as more and more of a requirement for anything.  Some jobs require you to have a large social media following to even apply…
                  So yes it will change greatly in the future from the use of GPS and computers enabled with Voice and Motion Tracking technology will usher in the new era of it.  Technologies like the Microsoft Kinect have shown great potential in both these fields.  The Kinect is planned to be integrated into windows 8.  Having this technology readily available makes a huge difference.
                                                                                                                                                                      
  Mark Hammond

Social Media, Potential for Social Change?

        Malcom Gladwell has a fair point, almost all of us have over five hundred “friends” on Facebook but none of us actually talk to more then twenty on occasion.  However I find his assumption that nothing can happen from these loose networks to be flawed.  He didn’t account for the power of popularity, especially in younger teens.  There is always the urge to be cool so when someone posts about their day and someone on their list sees it they are more likely remember the location.  People are very easily influenced over the Internet, as most people don’t take the time to check sources they just blindly follow the latest trend.  A case of this was the recent KONY 2012 campaign, it became huge and I don’t think there was a single person with Facebook that didn’t hear about it.  However if you check your sources you would find that the organization behind was kind of sketchy and had been doing these campaigns for years.


       People have almost no accountability while online and thus don't get involved or feel attached to stuff started on the internet, people like and dislike causes on the interent.  This doesn't accomplish anything but allow the person to seem like an activist to there hundreds of "friends" they have acquired.

       Although Malcom is right as trends only last for about a week it still has potential to bring change like bills in congress through trending petitions.  This grew very common in the last couple of years with ACTA and SOPA going through.  But in the long run these social media sites have very little potential as they are built on weak ties to acquaintances.

                                                                                                       Mark Hammond

Social media has allowed everyday citizens to become authors, editors, and publishers of news and information. Do you believe that social media has increased the quality of news and information or decreased it?

The world of news has changed in the last decade.  News sources such as fox or any other major broadcast stations have major biases when it comes to the news.  The reason for this is they have their own agenda and reputation to look out for.   This led to many poorly reported major stories or stories being featured that had no truth to them.  In the last decade we have seen the rise of the Internet and with it the rise of the blog/vlog as well as “news” sites.  Some of these sources provide a more truthful outlook on situations and some are just as biased as the major broadcasters.  An example of one such site that has risen among the airheads is TMZ.  This site is all about actors and scandals and with the Internet have made a fortune off of it.  There is however some good reports that have come from it.  YouTube has sprung up countless people reporting stories they have found on the Internet.  My personal favourite is SXEPhil and his channel as well as “sourcefed” offers different view on a lot of issues. 

The world of news has come along way from the past when nobody new what was going on overseas aside from what the media would tell us.  Now we have soldiers taking videos and people finding stories.  The free flow of information has become far greater in the wake and in some ways it is quite scary.  Pages like wikileaks who realised government documents to the public are a very dangerous step forward.  Sites like these can threaten security of a nation but they also give some control to the people as they can see what their government has failed to share with them.  One great example is a page on wikileaks stating that Canada is considered by America to be there slave and does what they want.  This sparked a lot of controversy and ended with and apology in 2011. 

Overall social media has changed the way a lot of younger generations get their news.  In some ways their information is more accurate then what there parents would get.  This said it would only be this way if the individual keeps an open mind and doesn’t believe everything they hear or read without first looking into sources.  Any good you tuber, news site source their material and this makes it easy to read exactly were they have gotten their news.

                                                                                                                                      Mark Hammond

What is your perception of social media, do you think it is a fad or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?

        

In my opinion social media is great and has brought the way people connect with each other to a whole new level.  That said I still think it has a lot of shortfalls.  Children now grow up to be more antisocial than ever and while social networks allow the already popular and successful to thrive it punishes the socially awkward.  Some forms of Social Media have amazing benefits to society however such as You-tube.  I am one of the many that only gets their information from You-tube and Stumble, Reddit etc.  However sites such as Facebook or twitter serve very little purpose and I think they are going to be the cause of many issues in the newer generation.  These issues range from attention span to obesity to plan inability to communicate in the workplace.  Honestly how can you get a job when you text and IM more messages in a day then you speak.  Yes I grew up with it,  yes I can say I have been drawn to the addiction of Facebook.  You can learn to moderate the use of these websites.  I've seen people that can sit and stare at Facebook for hours just to see if someone will update there status or post something of warrant. These people in truth could be doing much more productive things such as listening to the lecture (as not to bother their classmates later with questions or doing homework) so they don’t have to freak out last minute (blaming the teacher for their bad marks).  It along with text messaging has brought socializing to a much lower level and will cause major problems in the future generations.  Therefore I think that it will be split between people who realize Social Medias worth and don't abuse and the ones who use it as a drug and can't handle the distraction of it.  

                                                                              Mark Hammond