I'm going to take this time to focus on only three 'categories' if you will...Content Communities, Social Networking Sites and Virtual Social Worlds.
Content communities such as YouTube have opened up the gateways of sharing information globally through video. We are now able to learn to cook a dish from someone in the country of the dishes' origin! Pause, rewind and replay it. Watch the next pop stars humble beginnings and journey. Laugh with someone hours away as we watch a toddler dance to Beyoncé.
Facebook the most famous of Social Networking Sites has bridged that loss of connection we may experience after moving away from our home town, starting College and University or the growth of families as they start a new life further away from home. We upload pictures and comment of funny moments in each other’s life. We play catch up, get caught up and get connected. How wonderful technology can be.
Do you know what an Avatar is? I hope you said no cause I didn’t know much about it. The Virtual Social Worlds have taken real life and twisted it into the fantasy of your choice. In a way you play God, you design how you look, what you wear, your location and much more. An escape from reality? Hmm I think so. I think as long as you keep at least one foot well planted in the real world you’ll be okay. How does this connect with social networking? Well just like Facebook and YouTube you’re connecting with people from around the world, you just happen to talk, live and co-mingle outside our standard of reality. People begin friendships and even online relationships within these virtual social worlds.
What’s next for Social Networking? Well that’s up to us and the next generations imagination the internet has made the possibilities endless. So do I think Social Media is the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? Well in a word….YES.
-Stephanie Nunes
