Annotation 4: The Vision

    Today, Facebook is already the biggest SNS player on the internet, with more than one billion users worldwide. Besides, there are also countless similar competitors such as Microbolgs in China, Twitter, Line and Google plus, attending this competitive parade. Without a doubt, SNS has already planted deeply in our daily life, and even culture. Thus, many will be interested in how the future will be for SNS.

The Structure     

        There are two absolute destination for SNS future: less barrier in information share and more accessible to our SNS platforms with lower cost. However, they all relates to our privacy notion. Our privacy notion plays a crucial part in SNS development. It is hybrid. Namely, it provides both incentive for further developing and the power which also support the developing actions. Privacy interconnects with the two visions, less barrier and accessibility, tightly. In future, how will we modify our privacy notion determines the further SNS development.

picture 1.1, the structure of SNS industry

Incentive aspect

     For Incentive aspect, on the left hand, as we exchange our information with less obstacles, there are more room for business. The success in marketing strategies and advertisement industries have already proved that personal information, ranging from personal profile, social network to all kinds of media, is the goldmine for the cyber generation. In the near future, companies will encourage their users to share more information on the SNS platforms. Meanwhile, barriers, such as the misconception resulted from the limitation of typed words and stiff pictures, during information share will become one annoying cost which needs to be annihilated. Consequently, more services and devices will be soon available with an eye to eliminate such cost during the share. Or even to put it more aggressive, the SNS service may no longer functions in only one genre. Future SNS may also contend substantial contact, such as touch and smell. Less barrier in information share not only satisfy the customers’ aspiration in their subtext, but it also represent a prominent and profitable vision for businessmen.

Support aspect      

          Moreover in support aspect, on the right hand, with more profit generated through the less barrier, the cost we take during surfing on SNS platforms drops. Today, we usually access our SNS identities through cellphones, pad and personal computer. We also have to pay for our internet use. These expenditures more or less limit our usage on SNS. However, profit earned from SNS may help to overcome this plight. In the future, we can foresee that we will access our SNS identities with less expenditure. There will be a great deal of money inserted to relevant technology to SNS. As the cost, or the marginal opportunity cost in economics, we pay for SNS declines, our willingness to “purchase” SNS soars. By affording customers cheaper means to access, companies can encourage users to share more information on their SNS sites. Companies can thus make higher profit. It is a profitable investment for companies. In fact, some enterprisers have predicted such future. The founder of XiaoMi (小米), one of the most promising cellphone maker in China, once said that cellphone itself is no longer the arena to fight.  “The real battlefield lies in the services and software behind the hardware.” (中天新聞. (2013). 10/20文茜的世界周報. Retrieved from http://www. Youtube.com/watch?v= Y3X Xhal50) The same idea can be adapted to SNS world. 3C products are not the protagonists but the useful tools to increase accessibility, to explore more possibility in business.

         Although we can’t really witness the future fully, it is obvious under the structure of outline above. We can conclude that SNS platforms such as Facebook will gradually melt into our culture, social circle and even individuality. Still, we can foresee SNS will be multifunctional, cybernetic and, for sure, increasingly influential.  

Reference

1.      Nicole B. Ellison, Cliff Lampe, Charles Steinfield. (2009). Social Network Sites and Society: Current Trends and Future Possibilities. ACM.

2.      John Breslin, Stefan Decker. (2007). The Future of Social Networks on the Internet.

3.      中天新聞. (2013). 文茜的世界周報 10/20. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y3X_XhaI50