Social Networking is everywhere. Fundamentally, interacting with peers in real life and forming groups of likeminded people sharing common interest IS social networking, but recently that has metamorphosed into one of the most popular activities on the Internet. Less than 5 years ago, Social networking sites (or SNS’ to use Boyd and Ellison’s convenient abbreviation) were reserved for the insecure self-indulgent teens of western society (myself included) and now they are the cornerstone of keeping up to date with current events, business, advertising; and yes, for the same self indulgent teens who are now the insecure 20-somethings who feel it necessary to tweet the banal happenings of their lives every half hour.

Regardless, its influence is inescapable. As of September 2009, there were 1,735 million people using the Internet, ergo 25% of the population on earth. Of that, nigh-on 400 million have a Facebook account- and that’s only Facebook, out of the multitudes of SNS offerings around. Facebook may be the global leader of Social Networking, but the SNS of choice varies around the world- for instance, the Google owned “Orkut” is the most popular for residents in India and Brazil, and Bebo was until recently the choice of the UK and Ireland (until Facebook took the title). So popular are SNSs, that according to the ComScore report of 2009, “Conversational Media” is ranked the second most popular activity on the web. In case you’re wondering, Instant Messaging took the number one spot, although I suspect for obvious reasons they ignored the fuel that fires the past time of many an adolescent male.

Furthermore, 7 out of the top 20 sites in the Alexa Global Rankings are SNSs. Enough number crunching, what does it mean in the next decade? To gain an idea of what may happen tomorrow, we need to take a look at what has passed. Above all else SNSs are communication focused- the latest viral phenomena is largely given such an accolade because of the rise in popularity through an SNS such as youtube, or shared amongst networks of friends within Facebook. News can spread like wildfire, and even your Average Joe can become a celebrity. In the next decade, I predict this will become even more prevalent, with user generated content fuelling this new dawn of communication- as such, Old media’s importance will dwindle, but it wouldn’t come as surprise that the physical copy of the paper, or “sitting down” to watch the news will become more valued and thus remain a large part of our culture.

The concept of user-generated content is very much a double-edged sword. It would seem with the arrival of “blogs”, video streaming and various other SNS features can provide many an insight to life and stories around our globe (or at least those with an inclination to post) in a few clicks of the mouse, as such, it would be fair to compare USG as a modern-day “word of mouth”. Nonetheless, with it brings questions of validity (namely content and the author) and the quality of the presentation and how the end-user assimilates it. Additionally, a lot of spam and irrelevant info seems to clog the pipes of the Internet- a large portion of blogspot’s demographic are individuals who publish their blogs for no one other than themselves- a quick look through will reveal a seemingly endless array of the insecure 20-somethings who’ve now become the bored 30-somethings with young families and post even more mediocre stories of “taking little Jonny to football practice” accompanied by several hundred pictures of the event. Each to their own and I am fully aware of aforementioned young families keeping these scrapbooks for themselves, but it doesn’t bode well for the more useful USG filtering through. I predict this trend will continue even with the arrival of new technologies- smart phones, ipads, ifads, funky-projecting-super-computer-peripherals and whatnot; but the focus of filtering “useful” USG will become commonplace.

No doubt the bored 30-somethings will continue to grow into the disgruntled middle-agers and then into old age; and Social Networking will evolve to accommodate accordingly so older generations will continue their pastime of providing the youth with amusing anecdotes of their past... online.