Social Networking Exercise - Part IV

4. Describe your ideas about the future of digital social networking services.

From what I have observed of the growth and development of popular social networking sites, there seems to be an overwhelming trend toward hypermediacy. Sites will probably try to incorporate as many diverse elements as possible in an attempt to satiate user demand for many forms of entertainment located conveniently on a single page. The social networking site will not be limited to social interactions, but will cater directly to the user’s interests. It may become more efficient at filtering out spam and friend requests from strangers with no common interests. As the number of frequently-used sites increases, there will likely be an increase in specialized sites which serve specific or closed communities. Sites may alter their content based upon a user’s city of residence in order to offer more relevant material. New interfaces will be more interactive and easier to navigate. Users will be able to upload larger amounts of content; this will make it difficult to monitor content, and there will probably be a further increase in illegal material posted to social networking sites. Users surfing on one of these sites will have multiple opportunities to connect with and send information to other popular sites. Eventually some of them may merge with others. There will be more advertising in a variety of new forms as sites try to capitalize on user traffic. Sites will compete with one another for users by adding new and innovative features and advertising themselves elsewhere on the Web. Options may be available for the user to download site applications or toolbars, enabling the user to login and access the site’s features from his or her desktop.