Social Media and beyond

Time to hop on or be left behind!

The recent trends and development of social media has definitely left me in awe... so many mediums, so many choices, so many different ways of achieving the same thing. Its interesting to look back when the only major social media available was journalism and the television. Looking at the way things have developed now we have the internet which alone hosts several possibilities of communication and interaction with communities. We have the mobile phone allowing communication on the fly at a moments notice, we have virtual realities which simulates interaction in the real world through avatars.

Perhaps the one element that has brought about the exponential growth of social media in my opinion is definitely the....

Back in the day when a floppy disk was considered a lot of space

 With the introduction of the computer, technology began to advance at an alarming rate! Soon the internet arrived and from there various forms of communication sprung forth eventually reaching the technological advancements of today!

Now we got glowing stuff and sleek designs!

 This brings forth the question of the evolution of social media. I can only see good things coming from the way things are developing right now, in particular the advancement of virtual realities. As things are general it involves the computer and a keyboard and mouse, perhaps game-pad if you will. When the development of visual signals transferring directly to the brain where what you think becomes reality is a very interesting prospect for future development.

Think of how the they simulated the environment in the movie the matrix, being plugged into a device and then experiencing things as they are...without the obvious backlash of physical injuries sustained in the virtual world.

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The possibilities and usages of such a device has many benefits:

• For one many people who have been disabled or lost limbs can freely use limbs generated in the virtual reality.
• One could simulate environments not realistically possible
• Train a discipline within the environment: sports, martial arts, hypothesis
• Military usages as well: conditioning soldiers by desensitizing them to bloodshed  in the simulated environment
• Psychological usages as well: re-enacting a time period which went badly for a client and changing the outcome into a positive re-enactment 

Of course there disadvantages with everything:

• Possibility of addiction and rejection of reality
• Enactment of illegal fantasies: rape etc
• Legal issues: commits murder, arsonist in a simulated environment
• Moral issues: Spouse cheating in a virtual environment?
• Brainwashing and forced conditioning via simulated environment
• Psychological/medical: Can too much virtual environment feedback into the brain cause brain problems?

Until that time comes we can only speculate and hope for the best, as things are social media is quite adequate in its purpose. The question to ask are we relying on it too much as a replacement for face-to-face interactions and true friend?

All that left is to look at social media and beyond!