What is the next big social forum?   Through the years , social gatherings have evolved greatly.  We gathered around the fire. We gathered around the kill. We met at churches,town halls and at family members homes. Vacations, parties and  events were held in all manner of places. Meals were and still are often part of the celebration or exchanges of information.

The radio came along and it was the new big thing. Television. Phone calls. Conference calls. Video calls. Cell phones. Texting. The internet. Chat rooms.  Video chat from your phone. Social media websites.

Every place people gather, business and sales follow. Every place  eventually gets too many people, or too many that don't see eye to eye, and someone eventually finds a new "thing".

What is the next new thing? The current social media sites have incredible volumes of people, but already have an incredible percentage of users that either aren't very social, or are just trying to sell something. Social Media is a medium that has a lot of companies still trying to figure out how to make any money with it.  It is not far fetched that the entire landscape of social media will look nothing like it currently does in the next couple of years, is it?    Think of what your phone could do five years ago. Look at it now.

Humans have a way of seeing or imagining something that is fictional, and somehow making that come true.   Take a look at submarines, space travel and cloning.  Were those inventions not first introduced in great novels ?

In five years, will we all be setting around the radio again? I think that would be great, but doubt it happens.

How much longer before we have telepathy?  If you think spam is a problem now, wait until we have banner ads, virus, spam and hacking on our own brainwaves.

Thanks for your time

--Mark Burkenbine