As the changing times are moving ahead, so is the use of social media to interact with celebrities, athletes, and business moguls. With the Internet age booming like the speed of light, keeping up with it, will determine how we will be in the future. Even as far back as five years ago, times have quickly changed and sadly, we have to change with it or else we will be left behind.
I currently live in San Francisco. This is the heart of many start-up companies and most of the CEOs are either under forty years old or most of their staff is under thirty years old. Most programmers and developers are in their twenties while the average age is about twenty-five. Many persons, mainly males, are hired straight out of graduating from colleges and/or universities. I have met many of the programmers, and sadly, many of them lack social skills, especially proper business skills. These young people don’t wear suits and ties to work like young men used to wear up until ten years ago. The young people have NEVER had an actual job before getting hired on by a big corporation and the only thing that they can do is, program!
Java, Ruby, C++, Mule, Node, Unix, Linux, etc. are all different types of programming that I have learned of, mostly within the past year. I have attended many different types of events since last year and have learned many people are working on starting on the next big thing in either software, iOS aka Apple, Windows, and Android. I mainly see people use a MacBook Pro to program for both iOS and Android tablets and cellphones. Most persons have an iPhone while at the same time, there’s a growing number of people getting a Samsung Galaxy phone.
With the technology age that we live in, every person is forced to have a smartphone such as an iPhone or Android type. Everyone has to have the latest features and service plans. No one really communicates by talking over the phone, it’s mostly done by text messaging, instant messaging, and email. Many persons that I have met within the past year, either have all or most of the following: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, FourSquare, Pinterest, Spotify, Tumblr, WordPress, BlogSpot, Flickr, Instagram, Google Plus, Skype, YouTube, etc.
There are just SOOOO many ways to “connect” with people, but the reality, is this: we are no longer connecting with people in person, only online. Using the Internet is great since we can have online conversations about new products, television, and music. Even at coffee shops, no one is really talking directly in human form to one another, everyone has their eyes fixated to their smartphones, tablets, and laptops. But with that, being popular nowadays is based on how much time a person is spending with using social media. Most well known celebrities are reaping the benefits of this because they know that they have fans and it’s the only and best way to connect with them no matter what country their are in or even time zone since it’s a 24/7 process. Everyday normal people have become famous with using social media to gain attention about their views on pop culture in general, politics, and their interest in technology. Up until the late 1990′s, being “popular” meant that you had to have a lot of friends, physically. By todays standards, being popular means that you have many Facebook friends, or legit Twitter followers.
Teenagers are committing suicide based their lack of online friends plus being bullied. Celebrities are falling into obscurity because they are not keeping afloat with constant fan interaction using Twitter and Facebook. Everyone is out to become famous to some degree or another in which they are using social media to get that type of attention. Not too many people are active and consistent users. But we MUST keep up with the trends or else we will fall back and NO one will help us up! This issue is happening to so many people, at every second. We have to stay “popular” online and at the same time, we have to socialize by various technical ways. This is what keeps us afloat and for those who are working, engaging with social media will generate business which equals money.
So what’s your social media story?
