Where are We Headed?

So lets talk about the future of Social Media.
Because Social Media is so intertwined in our lives and the technologies that run it ( and vice/versa), everything we do seems to affect Social Media, and everything Social Media does affects us.
One of the new technologies that will have the greatest effect on not only Social Media, but everything we do with our computers is something called "The Semantic Web". Another important step in the evolution of computers brought to you by Mr. Tim Berners-Lee ( the Steven Hawking of the computer world, who brought us the World Wide Web, among other important breakthroughs). The simple version, as best as I can grasp it, is using language geared to be easier for the computer to understand, instead of writing language for us to understand. Obviously then making the computers far more efficient, but allowing them to actually make decisions on their own. 
So it all becomes a case of making easier and more direct connections. The biggest change to the way we communicate ( which is what Social Media is, right?), is the use of "Cloud Technology". All your information , music, etc, will all be stored on the internet in a "cloud", allowing you to access it from anywhere. This will in all likelihood lead to the end of the Personal Computer as we know it. Hard Drives will become redundant.
This will then mean that anything you wish to do that you would have used a PC for, you can now do with a mobile device instead. That part is pretty much upon us now, it just hasn't become universal yet.
So now everything  we do online happens in real time. As an example, augmented reality will become the standard tool for shopping, likely reducing the number of people required to work in retail sales. What happens is, a smart phone camera overlays a virtual image on top of a real world scene, giving directions and helping a customer navigate around a store in order to find what they are after. 
Along with augmented reality, most social media tools and technologies seem to be directed at the marketing end of things. Everything you do on the net, everyone you contact, google, etc, is recorded. So your searches become very personalized. two people could search for a particular item, but get 2 different results based on their past internet activity. Buffer App helps to ensure you get your updates at the right time, sometimes holding them in a buffer until a time when they are most likely to be read.
Social Media will also be almost exclusively a visual activity. Your updates and Tweets will be brief videos, instead of written text. Consequently, Social Media giants like Facebook and Twitter will either make the change, or more likely give way to You Tube as being the top dog.
The other big change, and this is already happening now too, is the whole idea of freelancing. Giant corporations as we know them will cease to exist. Work and projects will be outsourced to individuals that might not have any connections with each other, other than being specialists within the same field. O-Desk is doing this already, and calls itself the " worlds largest online workplace".
One of the places where I think Social media is really lacking is in the area of education. With virtually every student beyond the Elementary level ( and most of those too), being well immersed in most aspects of Social Media, should educators not take greater advantage of that? There are many, many subjects that could be covered well within the on-line classroom environment. Having instructors and students working together from different parts of the world, would not only increase the level of education world wide by making it more accessible, but should in theory make it more affordable as well. An educated society is a safe and prosperous one, an uneducated one?.......You Tube is full of examples of that.
Transportation would be another area where Social Media could be of far greater benefit than it is now. Augmented Reality would be very key here. Taking things several steps beyond what a GPS is capable of. Not just telling you which way you should go, but actually making the vehicle go that way in order to not only  keep traffic flowing more smoothly, but safer too. 
In Canada, we are the among the most connected countries in the world ( we sure pay for it too!),  I would like to see us start to move to the forefront of the technologies that drive Social Media, and in turn the way we do things and how we live.