Social Media Tools

            If Shirky is right, and we’re headed to a period where social media tools like YouTube, Flickr, and social networks like Facebook become “invisible,” what’s the impact on things you spend money on as consumers? Books? Movies? Music?

The world of technology is constantly shifting and it’s hard for me to even keep up to pace.  Like Shirky points out, everything that used to be so clear between one another are now all merging into one.   “Now that our communication technology is changing, the distinctions among those patterns of communication are evaporating; what was once a part break between two styles of communicating is becoming a smooth transition.” (Pg 87)  I like this quote from Shirky because it is the one thing that I so often fail to recognize but what is evident everyday and what will continue to happen now and in the future.  Media tools are so useful to me in everyday tasks that I’ve almost forgotten what it would be like if these tools didn’t exist.   The one thing that we have talked about in class and that is very unambiguous is privacy.  It is one thing that people can no longer have complete control over once they start to use these media tools. 

            Out of all of the media tools named above you can make a sure bet out of it that the impact of these social media tools and networks will continue to dominate.  I think that is what Shirky meant by media tools becoming “invisible”, that they are now becoming undistinguishable from one another.  The presentation on social media was a perfect example of what the different time periods were like pertaining to social networking.  It has steadily and rapidly increased over the years and like the presenters stated, has no intention of slowing down.  All of this makes me think that the impact it will have on the money I spend towards different things.  Overall I believe I will continue to spend the same but maybe not as frequent.   I say these because the more and more technology that is discovered the more ways there are to buy things.  Media tools can promote items that you want to buy in commercials digitally and maybe even cheaper than if you were to buy merchandise in a store.  I feel like the impact on the amount a customer will spend on things depends on how up to date they are with social and networking media tools.