What is New Media?
New media is stuff that’s new, in a technological sense. It includes audio, video, and text publication methods that were previously inaccessible to the average person.
Sure, you could run your own newspaper in the past—and many did—but it never had the same reach that a blog or podcast can have today.
Understanding Social Media as a Subset of New Media
Social media is interactive media. It’s a subset of new media, as the tools that enable social media didn’t exist before.
You can blog, podcast, upload YouTube videos, or host Blog Talk Radio shows—all by yourself. No one else needs to be involved for you to create useful content.
Social media, on the other hand, requires participation from others.
Twitter, for example, wouldn’t exist without users interacting. Remove people from any social network, and it becomes useless.
That’s why new media and social media are not interchangeable terms.
The Future of New Media and Social Networking
The future of new media and social networking lies in mobile phones.
Market research firm comScore reported a growing trend of users accessing social networks via mobile devices.
comScore’s Findings
comScore found that 30.8% of all smartphone owners accessed a social network via a mobile browser in January.
That’s up from 22.5% in January 2009. The study also revealed that 11.1% of all U.S. mobile phones were used to access social networks during that month.
Facebook and Twitter led the way in mobile traffic.
Mobile access to Facebook grew by 112% over the year. In January alone, 25 million people checked their Facebook profile via a mobile browser.
Twitter had even more significant growth. Just over 1 million people accessed Twitter from a mobile phone in January 2009.
That number jumped by 347% in a year, reaching more than 4 million in January 2010.
MySpace’s Decline
MySpace was the only major network to lose users.
In January 2009, it had over 12 million mobile users. A year later, that number fell to 11.4 million—a 7% decline.
Excluded Users in the comScore Report
Despite these fascinating numbers, comScore noted an important limitation.
Their study only examined users accessing social networks from a mobile browser. This left out the over 6 million people using mobile apps exclusively to access social media.
Real-Life Scenarios of Mobile-Driven Social Media
Picture this: a young woman goes to a party. She knows no one—but it’s fine.
With her mobile, a few taps let her see profiles and photos of a dozen people there. Two are friends of friends. She messages them. They chat.
Or this: an entrepreneur is at a conference, looking for a marketing director.
Within minutes, he identifies ten people in the room with the right credentials. Two are looking for new jobs. His phone tells him one is just 20 feet away. That night, he sees a full record of everyone he met, displayed with their profiles on his home computer.
How Mobile and Location-Based Tech is Shaping the Future
So how does it all work?
The magic lies in combining internet-connected mobile phones with location and proximity tech.
Modern phones can browse the web quickly. They know their location using GPS or tower triangulation.
They can detect other phones in the same area. Some companies are working on maps that show your friends’ real-time locations using GPS.
Bluetooth tech is now standard on most mobile devices.
Phones can detect other Bluetooth-enabled phones within 20 yards.
Why Mobile Phones Trump PCs in New Media Use
It’s the cell phone, not the personal computer, that’s the constant companion in today’s socially networked world.
Why wait to get home to update your friends about a date? Teens can use their phones to share stories, pics, and videos instantly.
You can use mobile apps in a 2–3 minute window while waiting for a train.
People are out living their lives—they’re not just sitting in front of a computer anymore.
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