“You’d better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone. For the times they are a-changin’.” – Bob Dylan
Virtual shifting ahead
Are social networks (SNs) and virtual worlds (VWs) merging into one medium? – This was my original question. But when you consider the overall state of social media, it quickly becomes all but irrelevant. For one thing, the main difference between SNs and VWs is merely more than user interface (UI). Besides, I think the nomenclature all really depends on how you look at things, and in the end, the majority (if not all) VWs can be classified as either MMOG or SN (and all MMOGs are by nature VWs), which leaves little discrepancy between SNs and VWs at all. But I’ll get back to that soon enough…
Once I realized the broader potential of social media, and the enormous impact it has (and will continue to have) on our daily lives, my research turned in a new direction. Instead, what’s more important and worth asking – Where is social media headed, and is the whole Web going social? The shear wealth of information and aspects to consider on this new topic made my project, at first look, severely overwhelming. But now that I’ve digested the facts and figures, it’s really not all that complicated.
Continue reading Defining the Social Media Landscape: Virtual Shift to a Social Web