The sun is setting on the 21st century’s first decade.
by Geoff Livingston
Hard to believe it, but 2010 looms in the not too distant future. As our new decade dawns, one can’t help but reflect on the past 10 years and how the Internet now dominates the media marketplace. Further, what will the Internet become over the next ten years?
Well, I don’t know about you, but I think the past decade was awesome. We went from .com to conversations. Command and control became control and combust. The fourth estate became responsible to the fifth estate.
It hasn’t been all roses, though. Though people experience more freedom as a result of the conversational Internet, we still have great challenges with autocratic societies. Freedom of the keyboard has not equated into social justice in many ways. Further, transparency not only benefitted us, it also demonstrated who we really are, good and bad. And as a result, in many cases, we chose to become better people.
As the new decade dawns, the ultimate communications tool will continue to evolve. It’s inevitable that more mainstream media will fracture, and we may even see the death of a traditional broadcast network as TV’s power wanes. At the same time, it’s hard not to anticipate that the voice of true amateur – the opinion of the uneducated – at some point will become less relevant.
We will likely stop talking about social media and just call it the Internet again in the not too distant future. From a technological perspective, the pitched battle for the mobile web will dominate the first half of the decade. Local media driven by the semantic and geowebs will increasingly drive our online consumption. And we will experience some decent virtual realities achieved through tactile input as well as more bandwidth and computing power.
From a cultural and societal standpoint, perhaps exposing our true natures as well as the continued exposure to new thoughts and ideas will evolve us further. Maybe, we will experience just a little more peace and equality as an end result. Wouldn’t that be great?
How do you anticipate the Internet evolving in the coming decade?
The web will be more integrated into everything, and will begin to fade into plain sight. Like a toaster oven.
A really smart toaster oven that learns from my actions, heats up what I want, takes suggestions from my friends and those I trust, and one that you never realize is so necessary until it breaks.