The Future of Social Media

There have been many major evolutions through out technology. The internet being the largest change in modern technology, however Social Media has been growing fast and becoming one of the biggest evolutions for the Internet and modern technology. Social Media is the biggest way for people to be able to communicate, find someone whom they have not seen in a very long time or to get in contact with family that might be on opposite sides of the world. Social Media is just one big connecting tool, and it is only going to grow much larger with time

As you can see from the picture shown above, the number of social media users is great, and with the population on a constant rise and kids being introduced to technology from the time that they can walk, the numbers of Social Media users will continue to rise. People from the ages of 11-65+ are active on some form of Social Media website (The most popular one being Facebook with 1.28 Billion) and the numbers will continue to grow from years to come.

The chart above displays the growth of the major social media platforms. All of the major Social Media Platforms have had a major jump from their beginning in 2006. If you look at Facebook for example, the number goes up by 200,000,000 each year from 2010-2012, by now the numbers have probably grown much greater than 2 years ago. If we estimate the number of users in 2020, the numbers for users should almost double or triple in the year 2020. Since computers are becoming cheaper and more and more accessible, many places around the world that did not have the technology that we have in North America are gaining the same technology that we do have and are beginning to use Social Media. By this happening, Social Media will skyrocket in the future. By 2020 the amount of Social Media users will be absolutely massive, due to the fact of population growth and technology accessibility.

Social Media is possibly one of the biggest ways for the world to connect with one another, as well as one of the biggest ways to find information. It is also a key tool for some people who are trying to get their names out in the world for specific things (Music, Art, Selling etc...). Social Media is one of the biggest tools for finding jobs, connecting with certain people, or connecting with an audience. It is in my opinion the farthest thing from a fad. Media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram are going to keep growing due to the fact that the population is growing bigger, and technology is beginning to go to places in the world where it was not before.

This picture proves how much Social Media has increased since it began. There is now over 1.73 Billion people using some form of Social Media, and it is expected to climb to 2.7 Billion by 2017. Social Media is by far the biggest shift since the industrial Revolution because of how fast it has grown, how many people use it now and how it has become a job for so many people. Examples of this are

Mr.Keith Merrow. Keith was a Youtube guitarist to start off with. He began to get noticed by small guitar companies, was given a job by the companies to show off their equipment on YouTube, and now has his own signature guitar line and is touring with his band Conquring Dystopia.

Misha Mansoor of Periphery is another perfect example. He went to University, but wanted to be a professional musician. He began posting his music on Bandcamp.com, Youtube and Facebook. He quickly began to get noticed, getting endorsements and sponsorships from guitar companies. His job is now playing music all over the world and talking about guitars. Social Media has opened a lot of doors for a lot of people, and by people seeing that, it makes them want to be able to do the same thing. Social Media has become much more than just a fad, and I will think it will be around for a very long time.