The Future of the Media World

            The Internet has changed the way we view the world and the way we communicate. Social media has both connected and disconnected us more than ever.  Friendships and relationships have evolved into online connections we leave messages for, rather than developing deeper bonds by spending time together and really talking with each other. Besides social media, the Internet has also affected how we access the news, do our shopping and how we entertain ourselves. Technology continues to grow at a rapid pace and will continue to change the way we communicate and live our lives.

            After reading our assignment, Social Media and Web 2.0, I think the media world will continue to evolve and within the next five years we will see a more rapid growth in the amount of advertising directed at us as more companies are watching everything we view online.  There will be a decline in the amount of people that watch news on TV because not many people will want to wait until it comes on. We are now in an era of wanting everything instantaneously and so news websites and applications will increase as everyone checks those instead of watching television.

            Social networking websites will continue to expand as well and incorporate different elements and media packages. Facebook makes it easy to sign in and “like” different pages so you can view everything from one news feed instead of having to go to multiple websites. This trend will continue to grow because of the convenience of receiving all of your information from one source.  The downside to this is that according to our reading, lack of privacy will continue to increase as well because Facebook is already monitoring everything we look at on the Internet, as well as applications and games such as Farmville. They record everything and then use it to direct advertising to you or to sell your information to marketing companies.

            Media companies that will continue to flourish will be marketing companies who are using our information to suggest products and services to us and I also think companies like Netflix will become more popular. In the age of being busy and the invention of DVRs, many people do not watch television shows at the times they are playing anymore. With our busy schedules, the entertainment world is changing so that it can be convenient to our lifestyles and be made available for when we want it.

            Overall, regarding the future of technology and the media world, I think for us as consumers, it is going to be about convenience. Companies know if they make it convenient, we will use it. At the same time, they will continue to collect our information and use it from everything from marketing to using the data for research, such as mentioned in our text about Google being able to predict flu outbreaks two weeks before other more traditional methods. It will be a trade off between both positive and negative aspects.