The current headliners of the social media love fest (Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook) have made our newest medium very appealing to the several generations that uses them. As I’m thinking of that, I wonder “why?” I know there are several reasons but the ones that come to mind are:
- The age old cliché, “Keeping up with the Jones:” Social media, with the help of the Internet, has made it much easier to follow up with the latest trends, slangs, and catch phrases. Take for example Twitter. The race for fan immortality probably started with Ashton Kutcher with his campaign to be the first person to gain 1 million Twitter follows. Now he has been over shadowed by the person who has the most Twitter followers, Lady Gaga (20 million by the way). Also, having even more access to the ones who birth these trends, slangs, and catch phrases helps the everyday, awkward tween get more cool points with their peers at school. Hell, I’ve even gotten accolades from my 10 year old baby cousin for knowing the “Ju Ju on That Beat” dance.
- Improvements to technology: Thanks to the brainiacs of Silicon Valley, having access to social media has made it as much a necessity as breathing. In the beginning of this digital age, it was very difficult and expensive to purchase a computer to surf the web. Now with the fierce competition tech companies have, we have advanced by not just having a personal computer in every home’s living room, but to everyone either having a laptop, tablet, smartphone, or all three. Also, giving access to the less fortunate has impacted the appeal too. The recent demand of “Pre-Paid Cell Phones” has made it very affordable to folks who do not have the means to purchase the next Apple iPhone that comes out every fall.
- Value-added access: Now that people have the means of getting the vessel to follow their celebrity heartthrobs on Snapchat, getting to the front door of that person has to be at a low cost or no cost at all. Example, free apps; just because people want know what color lip gloss Kylie Jenner is wearing today, does not mean that they want to spend an arm and a leg to find out. Instead of app companies getting revenue from people like ourselves, they cuddle up to other businesses to purchase advertising from them. This forces us to have to go through all those boring commercials in an attempted effort to heal the scratching of the itch of spending money. Oh, did I also mention that free apps are FREE? I could not even tell you the last time I shelled out cash for an app, more or less admit to you that I do that either.
Now that we have opened the package of social media in the present, what will social media look like in the future? In my opinion, the sky is the limit. In the 20th Century, pop culture favorites like the Jetsons, and 2001: A Space Odyssey said that we were going to be in flying cars and running on treadmills in space (but that movie was accurate about video conferencing though). Well, what ever happens, I am ready to “Boldly go” where the next thinkers and trailblazers take us. Just as long as nothing bad happens to mankind, like apes taking over the world or robots holding us prisoners:)