Future trends for social media

Over time semester I have researched and learnt about some topics I had never really took the chance to even form an opinion about. I think it come to no surprise however that my final topic I have chosen to discuss is the smart phone. It was the topic I was most enthused about writing as I feel I a really connection to this particular social medium.

The smart phones of 2010 are becoming leaps and bounds and are closer to becoming the single most important devices we own. The smart phone industry is booming and I don’t see it slowing anytime soon. With innovative products such as the iPhone, Blackberry, Android and JavaME, they have the ability to set a medium platform for themselves. Smart phones are the new laptops. We sort of knew this one already, didn't we? The iPhone remains dominant and their applications are just added to Apples ongoing success.

According to TIME Magazine research on the Apple iPhone, historically only 10% of the installed-base used mobile applications on a daily basis, today, that number is changing and changing fast. Smart phone applications are now heavily used and many are even used daily. Among those used daily, the frequency of use is also high, with some applications being used as much as 20 times per day.

There is definitely been a shift in user behaviour occurring right now where people are using their smart phones more than ever. I can see smart phones replacing laptops and applications replacing web sites.

In five years, the concept of a smart phone will change dramatically. Why do I think this it the futre trend? Well just look at the last half-decade. Since 2005, the Apple iPhone emerged as a engulfing platform, made for loading innovative applications, designed with finger-flicking ease-of-use in mind. The rumoured Google Phone not only came out in the form of a new operating system, but the actual Nexus One as well. Accelerometers, touchscreens, GPS-based location awareness – these have also all appeared in full force in the last few years and changed the market entirely.

It is only inevitable a new generation of mobile processors and faster mobile networks will combine to put the power of a PC onto the smart phone in your pocket. Some technologies that have been evolving over the last several years will be ready for prime time in 2010, and smart phones will be the first devices to adopt them. Smart Phone’s have the potential to revolutionise the way in which we communicate with one another like no other product on the market.

DocYOUmentary

I love a good documentary, I’d probably even like one considered bad. Despite their excellence documentary film makers sometimes have a hard time getting their work seen. It has only been in recent times that they have experienced popularity. Many in documentary films in the last couple of year have made it to the big screen such as Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins, Bowling for Columbine, Super Size Me and Religulous. It is not uncommon now for documentary to also be on television. Just the other night on free to air television the brilliant Louis Theroux, documentary on Law and Disorder in Johannesburg was on.

The raise in Youtube and Google in 2006 saw the creation of the online video boom, Youtube allowing amateurs into the market and Google helped establish the relationship between distributors and studios. According to T.Austin and W.Jong, Rethinking Documentary 2009:297 “Youtube the media environment makes the most of the best of new media”. This think this is evident in the sheer popularity of the video hosting site that has millions of views on an abundance of videos made available to anybody with an internet connection.

T.Austin and W.Jong, argue what differs from documentaries online and documentaries made for channels, is weather the internet has any distinct, useful and unique characteristics that offer documentary anything more than just another form of distribution. According to them there are four characteristic that say they do;

1. Bring people together to online communities that allow them to watch something that interest them but also the opportunity to comment and produce something of their own.

2. New means of creation and distribution for campaigning documentary that seek to change people’s view points. Would their voice have been heard if unable to share their stories through traditional mediums?

3. Increased access to ‘dirty reality’ in the form of footage and events. Raw footage taken by US soldiers in the Iraq War, posting vivid images and videos of war.

4. Via the internet and online documentaries video diaries are possible. We are able to access the lives of other people who are producing their own little documentaries such as the actor Matthew Gray Gubler.

Documentaries have a place, but have to be considered in a wider sense than film and television. The limits on length and amateur production aesthetic forms that would have never made the television screen can flourish on the internet. YouTube has essentially inspired a generation of amateur documentary an outlet to create and distribute their art which is often critical of the status quo. Seen here is an example of an amateur documentary made by an enthusiast and posted on YouTube.

Documentaries reveal the truth, exposing the lies through re-enactment of events so we can better understand events happening all over the world. Bill Maher’s Religulous was an informative and eye opening documentary for me and I’m sure anyone else how has seen it. It was a very powerful piece that actually changed my religious beliefs. However I came across this via DVD. With mediums such as Youtube, the footage from this documentary has the opportunity to flow into online media sphere. With the aid of online video sharing, film makers can now post their work online regardless of the subject matter or popularity of their work.

iCentury

“Mobile phones are reshaping the way we communicate, interact, work and live.” Ruston and Stein, 2005:1 The Work of Stories. Will the mobile phone screen become the dominant screen of the 21st century? I believe with the introduction of the smart phone, they already are.

The mobile phone has come a long way since the ‘cellular phone’ was introduced in the late 80’s and has continued to evolved even further during the 1990’s and into the 21st century. The rapid development of mobile phone technology is what we know today as the ‘smart phone’ such as the Iphone and Blackberry. These smart phones do much more than just make and receive calls and texts like the mobiles phones up to 2002, but now compete and even exceed many laptop and PC computers. According to Paul Levinson, 2009, people used to read, write, see, hear and produce new new media – the devices, or I can say people like to keep in touch with new new media although they are in work or public transport. That electronic device these days provides E-mail, access to the internet, high resolution of image and also anything they desire. People don’t need to buy several gadgets to fulfil their needs, all they have to do is purchase a ‘smart phone’ like an iPhone. What’s more, the capabilities of the iPhone are increasing day by day as newer apps are being added.

As an avid Apple consumer over the years, I have an iphone and love it. Why is Apple so popular? I believe its due to the fact that their products are innovative and far ahead of the rest of the pack. Whatever it is, Apple amazed us with the iPod, iPhone and shortly almost certainly the iPad. The iPhone combines the innovative multi-touch technology with the basic ideas of a mobile devise, to deliver a complete browsing experience to the iphone users.

The 21st century has seen the ‘smart phone’ become the dominate communication tool of choice. And rightly so I say, as they offer consumers almost everything they could imagine. On an Iphone you have access to social networking media, think Facebook and Twitter. Why should one turn on his PC and sit in front of it to converse with his friends when he can do it on the go? I’m a university study so having a Dictaphone is very helpful for recording audio from lectures. You just load the free iTalk app and your iPhone is now a full functional Dictaphone. The English language isn’t one of my strong points however I have the dictionary app, which is obviously far better option than carrying a real paper one. I like playing games when I’m sitting on the train, having an Iphone allows me to choose from over 4,000 free games to play. I’m a girl so naturally I love shopping. Other than buying things at Apple’s App Store and iTunes Store, you can shop more real things using your iPhone at the Amazon’s iPhone optimized store.

With an iPhone, you don’t need to carry a separate iPod for your entertainment. It can play the stored music and videos as well as those on the internet. Here a song on the radio you like? Shazam it and by listening to only 10seconds of the song it will get you the artist name, song title, album name and even an iTunes Store link to buy it right there. You have access to photos and streaming video directly from the Internet. The iPhone is also a camera. You can edit photo, download apps to change the style of photo to a polaroid for example. Do you still read previous day’s news from the newspaper supplied to your house in the morning? Get news literally minute by minute using the iphone. One of my used applications, the GPS. This not only gives you an interactive map of the location but also can help you make hotel reservations around the globe. No longer be tied to a printed phone book or a computer to find a phone number. Search for local business information directly from the phone and effortlessly place a call with one click. I could go on raving about all the marvellous things a ‘smart phone’ such as the iPhone can do, but these are just a few of the applications I have on my phone. The iPhone has reached a popularity level way above imagination because it has the capability of performing many tasks in its single shell. There really is no need for any other screen to view movies, take photos, design art and access the Internet.

I strongly believe that the mobile phone screen will become the dominant screen of the 21st century simply by noticing the trends happening now in the way of compiling multimedia functions into a single device.As Levinsion said, ‘the iPhone starts to satisfy the longstanding human need to have any and all information, anytime we may want it, wherever we and the information we seek may happen to be.’ Technological advantages such as the iPhone may have turned me into a Cyborg but I honestly feel the benefits out way any negatives. The mobile phone platform is rapidly become the norm on which we rely on for news & weather, social networking, multimedia and entertainment.