Technology/Social Networks/Internet in next 10 years??

[rdej47]

How do you guys feel about the state of technology and social networks and where do you see things going in the next ten years. I'm still very much in introspective mode since new years and this is one thing that's been on running around my head for a while.

I feel like over the next little bit we'll be taking a step back from things like social networks now that the hype has died down and take a closer look at them. This post is also inspired by the recent Facebook Timeline feature. The way it's promoted just left me with a gross feeling at the idea of charting out my entire life for people to see on Facebook, things like the start of my life would only be shared with family and close friends/significant other.

I think the future is more niche networks with a focused purpose (djtechtools/instragram) and we'll see higher demand for more private networks with easier control of sharing capabilities (posterous).

Also with the internet I think we'll see a shift to some how limit the information we consume from it. Basically just trying to reduce the noise from it. Things like the Flipboard app have the right idea, it displays your info in a very clutter free manner.

These are just my thoughts, as we've seen before technology can take us in directions we could have never imagined.

What do you guys think, where are things headed? What's here to stay? What will go? What's going to be the next big thing?

[photojojo]

I love the timeline. It really seems like a viable electronic replacement to the family photo album/bible. One place to track everything in your life. You have complete control over who sees things so it's not like the whole world can see I used the big boy potty for the first time on July 10, 1972.

[Alex Wild]

1st time I've heard anyone say anything positive about timeline. I'm not using it as all my friends say they regret switching over.

[1878blues]

A universal social network with everyone born after 2020 joining.

Membership will be compulsory and is initiated by a microchip under the skin when first born.

Your life is documented by the hour and disobedience to the 'masters' will not to be tolerated.

The Internet will be highly censored and Government controlled.

I think that's where we are headed very soon..and it scares me.

[rdej47]

I love the timeline. It really seems like a viable electronic replacement to the family photo album/bible. One place to track everything in your life. You have complete control over who sees things so it's not like the whole world can see I used the big boy potty for the first time on July 10, 1972.

That's actually one of the first things I thought of once I got over the privacy issue. I think that's a perfect replacement for the photo album. I've got a huge family and every christmas we have the same ridiculous issue. 5 Aunts all trying to take a group picture at once and none of them seem to realize that we can take one picture and either email to each other or if we were organized enough, setup a private family group on Facebook where all family photos are uploaded. Still there's always the issue of Facebooks privacy settings changing on a whim.

[PartyMcFly]

You really want to know what I think it will be like in 10 years?

I think there's a decent possibility that big content providers will smack down all open and free user-generated content services as they're trying to do at the moment with SOPA and PIPA.

No hyperbole intended or conveyed here... there are active efforts by powerful lobby entities, here in the US anyway, to control content delivery channels. I don't mean to turn this into a SOPA thread, but it's a likely reality that if not SOPA there will be similar legislation with similar aims.

Anyway, in this case there will probably be a user-maintained (as in you and your friends, not your ISP) mesh network delivering user-maintained social media. No guesses beyond that for me.

[bartboy]

I think that what the internet, or whatever it is well be using by that point, will look like in 10 years will be so radically different from it's current form that it would be impossible to pin point the exact changes.

Basically it's going to be a cloud service kind of world, where everything is stored somewhere else. Social Networks in general will grow to enormous proportions and much more than half of the media we consume will be brought to you over the internet.

If for some god awful reason the US decides to pass any incarnation of SOPA/PIPA then that would change a lot. If those happen to get through to becoming law then I would see small custom versions of the internet popping up. Some have even begun to already do this by launching their own satellites which can actually be done fairly cheaply if not very accurately. I would hope that eventually corporations would realize that as soon as you censor one area of the public they will find a way to voice it in another way.