Social Media Communication

14 The Future of Social Media

LEARNING GOALS

This chapter will help you understand:

• What is the future of social media?
• What is the two-stage model of social media development?
• How important will social media skill become as part of digital skills required at the workplace?
• What are the major implications of social media ethics?
• What is the most important prediction for the future of social media?

KEY CONCEPTS

Digital skill

Model of two-stage development

Social media ethics

Soft skill

Social connectivity

Future of social media

Overview

Young and Old Fish

David Foster Wallace told a fish story at the beginning of his commencement speech to the 2015 graduating class at Kenyon College (see Figure 14.1):

Figure 14.1 This is water: A story about two young fish and one older fish(Illustration by Moxin Qian).

“There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, ‘Morning, kids, how’s the water?’ And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, ‘What the hell is water?’”

(Wallace, 2009)

Some graduates in the audience quickly got it, but others took a bit more time. Let’s pause for a minute and think: What’s your takeaway out of this fish story?

In his speech, Wallace explained, “The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, ...