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