Technology: How Far We’ve Come
Every year everyone makes their resolutions and we hear about change to come – whether it is in the workplace, in our personal lives, or in politics. This year the buzz word for our industry has been loud and clear: Social Media. If you think social media is merely a trend, think again.
The following is a video that really exemplifies how far we’ve come as a technical society. It is the 2008 Version (3rd edition) “Did You Know” video by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman. The facts are believable because we are accustomed to our technological advanced and internet dependent society, but when you take a step back and look at the numbers they are presenting and just what all of it means for our future…it’s breathtaking. I am interested in many of the things presented in the video that aren’t necessarily directly related to social media in the interactive world; things like technical students studying material their first year that is irrelevant their third year…the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004…1 out of 8 couples married in the US each year met online…!! We are moving so fast forward that our lives (and life partners) wouldn’t be the same with the www.
As it relates to social media, starting with a concept as simple as the Google search engine, users around the world go online for the same reasons – to find and to exchange information. The only difference is that prior to the social networking boom, only a handful of people were the ones sharing information, while millions were taking away. The beauty of the social media revolution that we are in the midst of, is people are able to achieve this same goal (information exchange), but they have much more control over it. We are all excited to read, learn, and to fill our heads with knowledge of all kinds, and now we have a place to communicate back to the world our opinions and other knowledge we’ve attained via other methods and other people. Our society is none other than an information society and there is no better way to be in-the-know than by engaging in online communities and by immersing yourself into the social media revolution.
Other, more specific social networking facts:
- Over 1 trillion unique URLs in Google’s index
- 2,766,033 articles in English on Wikipedia (and counting)
- Over 175 million active users on Facebook. More than 13 million users updated their statuses at least once each day. The fastest growing demographic is 30 years and older. More interesting facts: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
- Over 200 million registered users on MySpace
- 1,260,487,234 tweets to-date (and counting!)
Tags: Social Media, Technology
Please teach the rest of these internet hooliangs how to write and research!
September 25th, 2011 at 5:38 am