Where will the internet be in ten years? five?
Traveling down this road of thought led me back to 2005 when the ‘net was young and powerful fads like myspace and facebook were starting to take hold. Today’s internet is nothing like the permanency agenda put forth all those years ago. The matrix is no longer about what lasts but what can grab your attention and hold it for just a moment. Back then Lycos and AOL still mattered. People ‘asked Jeeves’ when they needed to know something. Now the power of social and information media has been conglomerated into two central forces: Facebook and Google.
Of course, even as I post this blog it is outdated. The matrix moves so fast these days that it is a realm dominated by smart young coders who create quickapps that, like fashion trends, become all the rage until everyone else catches on. Facebook is ‘so four years ago’ as my students quip. They’re right. Once 40 year old men started logging on, it was over. Not to be too ironic or hypocritical, here I am posting my own blog to Facebook. I might as well send these things out with a stamp and an envelope.
So what happens in ten years? We will have moved through 4 to five generations of social media platforms. Each one will be hanging on, gathered up by seaweed against the bow of the most financially capable interpreneurs(tm). As we move faster and faster towards a information singularity we will stop seekng true and balanced information but seek the data that reinforces our view of the world we want to live in. Alongside home delivery and next gen gaming we will be able to live in that world.. if we have the capital to afford it.