The Future of Social Media and Virtual/Augmented Reality in 2030

Social Media plays an important part of our lives nowadays, it is something that we can learn to live without, but we probably will choose not to. Social Media is evolving every day, and we are getting used to it, and adjusting to the new technologies coming to make a huge impact on those social platforms. There is no denying that too much social media can make us unsocial, and the addition of these new exciting technologies are only going to increase the time we spend on those platforms, but if we see the bright side, there are positive things coming our way, in a not so distant future. In only 12 years from now, we are going to be able to make better and more informed decisions about the products we purchase online, we are going to be able to be closer to our friends in social media, through VR and AR experiences that will feel like we are there, we are going to have a more enhanced Education through more hands-on experiences, which will be great for visual learners as well as fo...

How much will VR /AR technologies cost, if implemented.    Graphic taken by; https://robotiktechnology.uk/pharmacy-automation-costs/ So, we have spoken about how cool these new technologies and how they are going to be beneficial in being a part of our education system, but the real question is how much is this all going to cost. I have done a bit of research as to how much these VR and AR units would cost, if we were to adopt them into our education. A computer-powered VR system unit would be around $1070.69 for just one unit and with that make sure you have a powerful PC to support it. The website also mentioned about a cheaper brand call Oculus Rift headset which would be around $713.79, then again you would need a powerful computer to support it. Looking at the Augmented Reality devices, is more cost-effective options for schools to provide classwork that can be applied to using the AR apps. If we are looking at the Microsoft Hololen...

How far have we come…? Let’s see what’s to come? Graphic taken from; http://virtualrealitytimes.com/2017/02/21/mind-blowing-new-technologies-coming-to-arvr/ Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are amazing new technologies that have been developed, they are slowly making there way into the physical world and into our classrooms, workplaces and communities. Let’s take a look at how far we have come, when it comes to the advancement of these realities and what will happen 5 years from now (2030). Let’s take a look; Achin Bhowmik, the VP and General Manager of the Computing group at Intel Corporation says that   “ The next frontier of compute will empower people to build, solve, create and play in the world where the barrier is diminished between the physical and virtual world.” He goes on to say that “ in 2017, VR experiences will move beyond the norm phases in industries like healthcare, education and travel. Employing the latest VR technology to create fu...

The Future of Education Graphic taken from: https://commons.bcit.ca/news/2016/10/microsoft-hololens-the-future-of-education-has-arrived-at-bcit/ As we all know the VR headsets and AR tools are not only used for entertainment and games, but can be a really big power tool to help prepare students in advancing further education as well as preparing them for the career of their interest.   They can be used in primary and secondary schools as well as collages and universities. Preparing this future technology for students would be helpful to those who choose a career in the medical field, they would be able to virtually see and go inside and study the full anatomy of the human body, by getting  a full understanding of how each organ functions. They can use the technology to stimulate any real life medical situation to practice procedures on. (Mercer, 2018.) Apart from medicine, this type of technology can be used in courses such as Architecture, students would be abl...

Virtual  and Augmented Realities in Education by 2030 t                  Graphic taken from: https://blog.dell.com/en-us/dell-technologies-forecasts-next-era-human-machine-partnerships/ For Decades now, humans have used the help of technology to make their day to day lives easier. Slowly but surely technology has made its way through all aspects of life, whether it be through transportation, communication or shopping.   When dealing with VR in Education, students would be  able to block out the physical world and transport themselves, using a stimulator. (Otero, 2018) When it comes to education and learning, VR has been tested out in a few interest areas, for example; something as simple as getting your driver's licence. There are some driving schools that have stimulators set up for you to get a feel of driving before actually take to the streets. This way students are given the exact same experience of driv...

Virtual and Augmented Realities in Education by the Year 2030          Graphic Taken from; https://thinkmobiles.com/blog/augmented-reality-education/   As we all know, Education is very important to everyone growing up, whether it be starting your first day of kindergarten or your first day of university. The introduction of Augmented Reality into education will change the conventional way we learn, it will provide us with new ways of learning and exploring our ideas, and at the same time further our interests.   Imagine walking through your college or Universities campus and it resembling the Hallways of Hogwarts in Harry Potter. Now I bet you wouldn’t want to miss a day of school, now would you? By the year 2030, the virtual world will be a part of our physical world. Nowadays, all our smartphone devices are used to access different social media platforms, keeping in contact with friends and family as well ...

Image retrieved from https://www.statista.com/chart/4602/virtual-and-augmented-reality-software-revenue/       The two biggest companies that are taking over media are Apple and Google. They are the companies that are able to take augmented reality further into the future. After reading an article from  new gen apps  I was able to see how these companies are going to introduce augmented reality into their programs. Apple: Last year Apple released ARkit, which "will help developers create augmented reality apps for apple devices" (new gen apps, 2017). They are also in talks about created a headset, that will most likely be able to plug into the headphone jack and people are able to step into an alternate universe using their phones (new gen apps, 2017). Google: Google is working to create a device called google glass which is "voice-controlled Android device that resembles a pair of eyeglasses and displays i...

       Video Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f47RQRiSg8Q       Last year, a tech company from Durham created a new social media app called SpokeHub (Krueger,2018). It is described as an  "app that has two key features- augmented reality and a chat room. Users scan a logo to see a video, and will be able to discuss what they see, or create a group on another topic through the chat room" (Krueger,2018). A users are able to go into chat rooms on some of their favourite topics and communicate with others using augmented reality. CEO Robert Hartsfield stated that this app is completely different from the others on the market right now such as Twitter, or Facebook because instead of following a person, you are following a topic instead (Kreuger, 2018).       The Augmented reality is the main feature because a person can scan a certain image, logo, or object from the app and be ...

Check out this link to the trailer for this new movie,  Ready Player One .   After I watched the trailer, I conducted research on where the inspiration came from for the movie.  The movie takes place in a fictional 2045, where exists a virtual reality game in which one uses virtual  reality software to interact with it.  The virtual reality game is called OASIS which stands for  Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation. In 2030, it is predicted that Augmented and Virtual Reality will exist in Social Media. This movie, although fiction, brings this concept to light. From an article I read written by Craig Weightman from The Wire online magazine, he said that  the reality that is depicted in the future, "everything that we are currently doing in the real world-going to school,going to work, socialising, leisure-is done in a vast virtual environment." (Weightman, 2018). Weightman described the movie as being the sub-text of...

After reading a very interesting article from Henry Cowling, creative director of UNIT9, he spoke about how Virtual Reality could potentially make social media more 'social' (SMW, 2017). He laid out 3 reasons that virtual reality can provide the following social canvasses.      The first reason he gave was The Virtual World (SMW, 2017). The virtual world is known as an alternate universe that one can step into and discover a whole new world. This typically is done through many video games. However, by 2030 this virtual world can turn into something more interactive where people can log onto Facebook, put on their headsets and be able to step into a virtual world and have a face to face conversation with someone on their friends list (SMW, 2017). This is a way of making social media more 'social' because instead of using a partner app such as Facebook messenger, where one is just having a texting conversation, this virtual world can allow one to have that same c...

Social Media is going to impact Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in 2030.  Here is how and why.  One of the aspects of Virtual Reality that will change the world in 2030 will be social, more specifically social media. Firstly, communication is becoming more non-verbal because a stat I read in an article read that "approximately 92% of our communication is non-verbal" (Arkenea,2018) which means that the general population mostly communicates online, through email, texting, social media like Facebook,LinkedIn and Instagram to name a few.  It is said that the social media form of communicating non-verbally will join Virtual Reality and create an environment that shares collaborative spaces for people to communicate without being in the same room. It is also said in an article that I read from a website called  Arkenea , that Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality will become the "logical evolution of global communications" (Arkenea Team, 2018) in 2030. The ar...

What Augmented and Virtual reality means for 2030 for social networking and social media is how the user experience will become elevated and stimulate the senses.  We know where we have been before social media and social networking existed.  We know where we are now, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.  In 2030, it is apparent that not only will AR and VR enhance one's gaming experiences from the  ATARI , Sega and Nintendo days, but in industries like education, medical and furniture shopping just to name a few. AR and VR will influence users and how we connect with people via Social media and Social networking.  Predictions of the Social networking future of Facebook for example, may be that the enhancements to Virtual and Augmented realities include the same concepts of today, such as blogging pictures and posts.  Experts are talking about "360 degree experience" ( Matney, 2018) of sharing virtual worlds and experiences with "Faceboo...

Here are few ideas of how social media will look like in 12 years from now ·          It will be more experiential, rather than what it is now, representative media. Experiential meaning involving all the senses, stimulating the participants perception of touch, taste and smell alongside sight, suggests Toshi Hoo, director of the IFTF’s (Institute for the Future) Emerging Media Lab  (Walker, J., 2017). ·          Hoo also mentions that there will be a fundamental shift in the way the information is presented and experienced. With social media adding AR and VR, it won’t be one dimensional as it is now.  (Walker, J., 2017).           By   2030, the web will have escaped the screen. There will be chance to create alternative  scenarios and you will be able to communicate with people from different countries or places and the lines between what is real an...

One of the most powerful social media sites is without a doubt Facebook. It was created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 and only 10 months later had reached one million users. (Toth, S., 2018) this is how it looks like now:  https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/ The always growing company has made very good purchases aimed towards expanding in different directions and captivate all type of audiences, for example, younger audiences with Instagram. Ten years after its creation, Facebook acquired the Oculus VR, glasses for Virtual Reality. The total cost of Facebook’s acquisition to date is $23,124,700,00 … with only the disclosed transactions. That just proves how powerful is this company and how invested in the future it is. It is considered a company with more buying power than entire nations (Toth, S., 2018) Some predictions done 10 years ago have come true and some are still in the works. Infographic. Complete list Fac...