Monday, March 14, 2011

From pictures of pets and ousting Mubarak to ...?

In 2005, very few people knew social media. They then slowly started using it to share their lives with their friends. And by 2011, they have an integral role in ousting Ben Ali and Mubarak. The thought of where the social media would be in 2015 is overwhelming. I asked a few friends of mine for their views on the state of social media 5 years down the line and here's what they have to say:

"What do you think is the future of social media? Where do you see it 5 years down the line?"


Maliha Mariyam: Social media is a communication platform. As the world economy is changing the way ppl use it will change. It will revolutionize a few more industries - like it has already revolutionized - books, retail, travel. Banking is on the way. It's going to be interesting 5 years.

Olivia Mukhopadhyay: The social media is getting better everyday so 5 years down the line it is going to still remain a great mode of communication and it will play a bigger role in advertisement and brand building. We can see emergence of corporate networks for people to direct their questions and grievances and social media will form a bigger role in opinion formation. It will eventually affect politics and maybe open up better policy discussions the same thing normal media should do but cant because they have got to run a business social forum is more open less personal and hence provides a good platform for people to speak up.

Harshika Nahar: It's future still seems to be gloomy. Today the youth have the intelligence to judge,and react, comment but that's it. Given the impact social media may have, most governments would ban it - as is seen in China. Just commenting on a national issue would not matter unless there's someone who would really take action on it. it's just written, "liked", commented and forgotten.

Mithun Karmakar: FBI is going to use it to screw you. Keeping an eye on what you post or share. They might use that information to form your profile; A matter of privacy, I mean. Social media is making the world know about you more - a bit too much. Remember the blackberry case in US? Common people don't always care about what others might use this information for.

It might start voicing people's opinion in a structured manner. Like govt polls on important issues, election polls, etc.

We can already see blogs, mails etc are already integrated into one Google account. This integration is going to be even widespread in simpler words one networks for all your internet needs.

Facebook started with hot chicks pics but now has taken the shape of what we see it now.. if it had stuck to that i don't think it would have crossed the great oceans. While Twitter has become more of a shouting tool than social network.


Pallav Jhawar: Social media is replacing traditional advertising, replacing traditional ways of reading and sharing news, replacing traditional ways in which NGOs raise funds, putting something like RTI on the web. i can go on and on. Five years down the line, it would be possible to take a video of yourself saying something like had a great lunch pointing to your lunch and upload it as a status on Facebook.

I ask the same question to my readers - what do you think is the future of social network is? Where do you see it heading five years down the line? For a change, I'll reserve my comments for a later post

Disclaimer: The comments mentioned above are the sole responsibility of their writers. The accuracy, completeness, veracity, honesty, exactitude, factuality and politeness of comments are not guaranteed.

PS: The interviewees were not given any time to prepare for the interview. In fact they didn't have any clue that I would conduct an interview. The question was asked to them at 1:30 am and they are required to give answers off the top of their head. The answers published are uncensored and picked from chat window - so please pardon the grammatical errors!

9 comments:

Vikranth March 14, 2011 at 12:28 PM  

My mom is on facebook so will ur mom one day..that would be the end of social media as we know it!!

Amen!!
Vikranth

Unknown March 14, 2011 at 3:55 PM  

Generally I keep myself away from making any predictions since I’m not very good at it. However, being an active social media activist, I think of evolving enterprise social networking such as Yammer take over the reigns of social media. It might become an integral part of our daily lives and it’s going to redefine our content sharing habits. The initial response to tools such as Chatter and Yammer has been encouraging and the signs are ominous for the next big “social media for the enterprise” revolution.

VikramAdith March 14, 2011 at 4:02 PM  

Social media is set to get more pervasive -> When you buy a movie ticket, you will be tracked down to your Facebook id, and all your 'friends' will be pushed ads for the movie - maybe even with a 'Prashanth is watching this movie' message!

Walker and Gazer..!! March 14, 2011 at 5:13 PM  

Social Media, the current-in-thing, I believe has an extremely bright future. We are going to see the evolution of far more advanced media of socializing and the death of the present means. It is exciting to write about a topic like this. Man had been considered a social animal and this is the virtual social animal's evolution.
This has indeed brought people from various cultures together encouraging sharing the good.
with its prominently visible cons, I see it as an excellent means of idea sharing and convergence of people from different communities.
It had been a money-turner as well in the recent past and the business class will keep it alive and interesting for the ransom it returns.
It is even one of the most sought after means of advertising.
Big money and technology involved.
Lets hope to see a happening future.

Rishupreet Oberoi March 14, 2011 at 6:00 PM  

Social networking websites like Facebook and professional networking websites like linkedin are the new Search engines for anything and everything. You come to know of a business/cause/issue/recipe/movie/person/band/country/company/job opening/ -- u name it and i can find it on FB. The other day my mom was searching for a prospective-groom for me on FB. So I wonder if matrimonial websites will die down 5 years down the line and people will start show-casing themselves on FB. Well Is that not happening already? there wud be facebook plugins to help u find a dating-partner from among ur friends and friends-of-friends. I wont be surprised if that already exists, afterall don all guys and gals search for that every interesting person they meet on fb and be friends with. Ah enough of matchmaking thots. Sorry I am under some bad influence of my parents.

With AOL laying off Indians in India, I wont be surprised if a anti-AOL fan page begins tomorrow. LOL.

I can think of a facebook mobile application that wud provide u all deals available in ur choice of location as u move across ur city, or cities or countries , depending on ur facebook likes or status messages expressing sinful shopping desires-- gadgets, movies, apparel, etc thus making shopping more interesting and economical.

Prashant Mehta March 15, 2011 at 11:51 PM  

Vikranth ji

Possibly! Who would want to a social media where your mom, your ex, your ex's current and your manager are there!

Viswanath ji

Interesting! Our office also uses Yammer. Maybe, that's the future - 'social media doe the enterprise'

VikramAdith ji
Gosh. That's scary. What about my right to privacy?

Walker and Gazer..!! ji

Very interesting view! I agree. The word "collaboration" has a new meaning all together since the advent of social media.

Rishupreet Oberoi ji

This, indeed, is an era of convergence! Prospective employers and bride/grooms looking for the right match on the social media! Google already has realtime search engine which searches twitter database. Bing is on its way to use FB recommendations in its results (ref - http://technorati.com/blogging/article/facebook-and-bing-introduce-social-search/).

if i had money, time and talent - i would have invested them in a company which implements your idea on location base and social recommendation based ads

pallav March 16, 2011 at 12:51 PM  

completely agree with oberoi, adding on..if you notice the new profiles of fb, it almsot goes like a story (person x lives in banaglore, works at musigma, knows hindi, english, gujrati, etc). this almost like creating a profile of the person to be used by companies for marketing purposes, call it collecting demographic information...besides with likes, dislikes etc, they are collecting psychographic information and hence we are looking at extremely targeted advertising in future, better than what google is doing now..

Megha Mandavia March 19, 2011 at 3:56 AM  

The most powerful catalysts that shaped the world and its destiny over thousands of years are those thundering powerful words that ignited minds, planted ideas and created revolutions. It invoked a desire from knowing something that you didn’t earlier. That is why those who have feared power sharing have feared information sharing.

Social Media/Facebook gets just that to you in this digitalized world; free flow of information. It is so transparent and far reaching that its potential to change the world shouldn't be underestimated. It has made free flow and unadulterated flow of communication possible. To make sense of that information is left up to you. It is unbiased. It is platform and not a preacher.

The question is not what Social Media/Facebook will achieve in next 5 years. The question is how much will people achieve through it?

(This comment is not in response to the responses but is in response to the question posed by the blogger :) )

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