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At the close of 2019, the number of social media users worldwide had hit 3.5 billion. Social medias rapid growth has had a significant impact on our daily lives transforming how we connect with not only each other, but also with the media and brands. So, at the turn of the decade what future changes can we predict to see on the horizon?

Enforced regulation

Although social media has clearly brought benefits to society and companies, it also brings downsides and dangers such as cyberbullying, online harassment, depression, body image insecurities and fear of missing out (FOMO). Previously left to self-regulate, the UK government has recently announced that more power will be given to watchdog Ofcom to force social media companies to take increased responsibility for their content.

The pressure to regulate in the digital sphere will almost certainly restrict how advertisers can target and what content can be promoted, thus leading to greater transparency on how data is being used. For instance, Facebook already allows users to manage interest-based ads under account settings and we should expect more companies to follow this trend.

Enforced regulations could encourage users to increase trust in social media networks. This will potentially reflect in higher engagement. On the other hand, advertisers will have restricted targeting capabilities which might translate to media spend wastage, lower ad engagement and reduced opportunities for advertising customisation.

Organically, social platforms may see a diminished capability to serve users curated content if they are limited in data collection.

Data and privacy

Events such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal made us realise the power of social media and data as well as the limitations of current social media regulations. Users are becoming aware that data is power. One sign of this is that searches for My Activity on Google have been increasing year on year.

Users are already changing their privacy settings in order to include the minimum information on social media and accounts are being deleted. Users will continue to push for this with heightened privacy concerns as the world becomes ever more digital. Demographically, younger audiences are increasingly conscious of data privacy and security, which will further add to the soft and hard restrictions placed upon social media.

This trend may well open alternative commercial models for social media networks, such as subscriptions which allow a reduced need for personal data. Another possible solution would be to reward users that share their data.

WeChat-like social networks

As more people rely on their phones to make payments, store boarding passes and manage their finances, the opportunity for social media players to blend social and financial functionalities into one platform is growing.

WeChat is the perfect example of how social media, commerce and entertainment can merge. More than a social media network, it allows users to do day-to-day tasks such as storing their IDs, paying their utilities and getting access to public services, including booking doctor appointments, applying for visas and checking driving records.

Facebook is already experimenting in this space and it had plans to launch its own cryptocurrency named Libra this year. This service might not necessarily be integrated with the Facebook social media platform, but it gives a hint on future possibilities.

Western social platforms will inevitably try to follow WeChat but it is unlikely that they will be allowed to play the role as fully as WeChat does in China. This is because in most countries, data privacy concerns and increases in regulation will be pushing social networks in the opposite direction.

Multi-networking

The number of social media accounts per person has been growing among all demographics. The multi-networking effect is a response to the increase number of platforms options, but it's also being caused by a degree of specialization (e.g. Twitch, Pinterest, and TikTok).

Social media usage will continue to increase in developing countries, but it has generally plateaued among in advanced economies. As more specialised social media platforms arise, the number of social media platforms per user can still increase across all age groups, particularly among millennials and Gen X. However, time spend on social media will be similar to what it currently is.

How we consume content will change

The way we consume content is always changing and therefore new social media networks will emerge as a natural response to these changes. Younger demographics will be the earlier adopters, as we saw with Snapchat and are seeing with TikTok.

Video has become by far the most popular format. Views of branded video content increased by 258% since 2016, and on Twitter a video is 6x more likely to be retweeted than a photo. Its not hard to guess that new social media platforms will be focused on video and powered by AI.

Additionally, voice search is exponentially increasing which will also impact social media behaviour in the coming decade as people type less and start relying voice recognition systems to do this job for them.

While phones will remain the main device for accessing social media, the usage of AR and VR devices will also increase in the next decade as they get lighter and more versatile, expanding their usage beyond gaming.

Shifts from the current climate

At the close of the decade social media was making headlines for its negative impacts. Due to COVID-19, screen time will increase as individuals re/download apps to stay connected with friends and family, and to keep entertained. Some platforms will emerge from this dark time with a larger, more diverse and more engaged user base than ever before and perhaps social media will regain respect through reigniting its original charm as a way for us to all stay connected.

It can be challenging to predict the future of social media as its a fast-changing environment but hopefully it will move towards a safer and more democratic place.

Erika Mendes is head of biddable at Roast

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The future of social media at the turn of the decade - The Drum

POLICE have probed hundreds of crimes involving paedophilia, self-harm and bullying linked to social networking site TikTok.

A Sun on Sunday investigation found children as young as ten have been victims.

1

A girl of 13 was sent indecent images and asked for nude snaps.

Kids are harassed and urged to self-harm or even kill themselves.

Chinese-owned TikTok the worlds most downloaded app, with more than a billion users is particularly popular with children who love the fun clips shared on it.

It has a minimum age of 13, but does not require proof.

A Freedom of Information request revealed cops in England and Wales were called over incidents on it 142 times last year. But that total is likely much higher as forces including London, Thames Valley, Kent and Essex did not give figures and Greater

Manchester did not respond.

The coronavirus lockdown has since seen a huge surge in use.

Campaigner John Carr, a former government adviser on online child safety, said: TikTok is no place for children and these cases remind us why.

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David Spencer, of the Centre for Crime Prevention, added:

The TikTok trend is deeply troubling, and not just because of the links to the Chinese regime. Safeguards that the site does have in place are woefully inadequate. All parents should think extremely carefully before allowing children to use TikTok.

TikTok insisted: Keeping our community safe is a top priority. We are constantly strengthening policies.

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Social network site TikTok fuels bullies, self-harm and paedophilia with victims as young as 10 - The Sun

The platforming of our lives on social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is usually met with criticism. Interactive technologies, like video games and social media, were told, make us anti-social. Now, as a result of social distancing efforts in response to the coronavirus pandemic, online social networks and video conferencing platforms like Zoom are redefining what it means to be social through our technologies.

In a less-than-ideal situation, the Zoom conferencing platform has become central to many peoples everyday life during the crisis. Quarantining has forced us to move our social gatherings online; hangouts with friends and family have, for the past month, become virtually possible thanks to new media. My family, like many others, participated in a Zoom Passover seder this year.

Video-sharing apps like TikTok also help us to relieve boredom. The platforms dance challenges and lip-syncing memes provide a sense of fun and comic relief.

Social media networks and conferencing platforms may be compensating for the loss of social life in a moment of crisis, but perhaps we are getting more than we bargained for.

Working from home, and homing while at work, has become part of the routine for many white-collar workers: work life and family life are blending into one.

A couple of weeks ago, my five-year-old son wandered into my home office during a Zoom meeting. This embarrassing scenario is something now familiar to many of us working remotely via Zoom or other video conference platforms. An hour later, both of my children logged onto Zoom meetings of their own for a session of remote schooling.

Work-life balance was hard enough before the crisis. Now, social media is blending private life and work. For parents and caregivers, the extension of the office into personal space can be an added cause of stress. With no separation, we are forced to do it all at once.

The double duties of care and work, what feminists refer to as the double shift, isnt new. But bringing the office space into the home while managing care and the health crisis can be daunting.

Zoom may enable work life during the crisis. But is this really the best way to use our social technologies and media? Maybe this situation gives us an opportunity to see the problems of our culture differently through the prism of social technology.

Social isolation may have changed the way we interact online, but apprehensions about social media and other cloud-based social interaction technologies and platforms are justified. Not only do we fear the anti-social effects of social media, many of us are also worried about online surveillance, manipulation and trolling.

Zoom, too, is not exempt from these kinds of security fears. Like other cloud-based technologies, Zoom is not immune to the threat of data mining and surveillance, even from other platforms.

Using social technologies as a lifeline during the ongoing crisis helps us to see beyond the anti-social aspects of the technology. Looking past the interface, we should interrogate online anti-social behaviour less as a problem with the technology and more as having to do with the broader culture of neoliberal capitalism.

Like all media, platforms amplify the social, political and economic conditions in which they are used. Since corporate platforms profit from our usage and data, they all have an interest in keeping our attention and our active participation. This is what makes data mining, for instance, essential to all platforms.

Data has become a staple resource for the new economy of 21st century capitalism. And algorithms are designed to keep us plugged in, whatever the emotional cost.

As critical media scholars have said for years, if the product is free, chances are the commodity is you.

Scholars point to communicative capitalism or platform capitalism to identify the harmful aspects of platforms and social media. Platforms rely on user-generated content and data mining as part of their profit models.

Like traditional news media and communicative technologies, platform conglomeration risks limiting information freedom and media democracy. Already, Zoom appears to have cornered the market for video conferencing platforms.

The context of using social technologies during the coronavirus crisis should therefore force us to question the future of our media. Will platforms like Zoom help us to enhance our social relationships and the public good, or will they do more to amplify the needs of platform and neoliberal capitalism?

Against the background of the COVID-19 crisis, we see just how essential social networking platforms and online communication technologies have become for our social life. At the same time, these technologies extend and embed work into the home.

Can we imagine social media networks and apps designed for the public good? What might it look like if we removed platforms and social media from their corporate setting? Perhaps a social media that lived up to its name.

Given the ways were using social technologies and platforms to maintain our social lives during the crisis, we should reconsider our relationships to technology. Maybe technologies and social media dont make us anti-social, after all, and the cause of the problem lies in a culture that prioritizes profit making over people making.

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Who's Zoomin' who? How the coronavirus crisis is finally putting the 'social' into social media - The Conversation CA

Now Poppy Olah has been recognised nationally for her expertise in teaching virtual classes during the Covid 19 lockdown using TikTok, the video-sharing social networking service that has become across the world.

Poppy's innovative and inspirational teaching has featured in the Times Educational Supplement and is helping tutors across the UK to enhance their remote teaching while students are remaining quarantines in their own homes.

Poppy has shared her teaching methods, the technology she uses, alongside photos and video clips, in an informative blog post in TES, the respected education publication for teaching professionals.

She has written how her Advanced Vocational students have embraced the opportunities for creativity afforded by working at home and overcoming every challenge with wide-ranging support from college, from providing IT equipment and wi-fi connectivity, to tutorials on how to make the most of the extensive Google for Education Tools.

Poppy said: "When we got the news that college would be closing because of coronavirus, I was heartbroken.

"My students had been working tirelessly towards their dance showcase, which could no longer happen.

"But, as a department, we were determined they would not have to stop doing what they love most: dancing and performing.

"Two weeks before the official lockdown notice, we anticipated that we may no longer have the option of face-to-face contact. We discussed how units could be taught from home using the Google for Education tools, and created remote learning assessments on Google Forms.

"We are fortunate that all our students actively use these and are tech-savvy when updating and organising assignments.

"However, they were unfamiliar with communicating over Google Hangouts and video conferencing."

Burnley College provided laptops and wi-fi dongles and Popptyorganised remote learning trials with her classes when she was in college.

She added: "It was easy to see how it would all work for their theory assignments. But the real challenge would be finishing choreography, technical training and maintaining fitness levels while distance learning.

"In order to give students autonomy over their own dance practice, a remote learning timetable was created and I scheduled one-to-one video calls with each of my students to give assistance on assignments, as well as to monitor their mental health something we never anticipated would need as much focus as it has.

"As staff, we agreed that it was important to maintain daily contact and scheduled video chats to touch base as well as weekly divisional meetings, chaired by curriculum managers.

"This gave us the motivation and support to facilitate this new way of teaching. The college provided some excellent preparatory training to ensure that all staff were ready for the inevitable remote learning scenario. "

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Perfect timing by Burnley dance tutor who is using latest social media craze to teach students online during Covid 19 lockdown - Burnley Express

As Morris County continued its self-isolation due to the coronavirus outbreak, here's what we saw from a safe social distance. March 24, 2020. Morristown Daily Record

A 19-year-old man faces attempted aggravated sexual assault and other criminal charges after he was arrested Tuesday at a Morris Plains park, where police say he planned to meet an 11-year-old girl.

Robert Murphy was expected to be released Thursday from the Morris County Correctional Facility, where he was jailed on chargesthat included criminal intent and endangering a minor, facility staff said.

Morris Plains police did not specify the charges following their investigation of what they term "an isolated incident." The girl's age was identified byCol. Pat Callahan of the New Jersey State Police.

According to the police report, the parents of the underage girllearned of her plans to meet Murphy at an unidentified local park in the tiny borough of 532 residents. They told police she met him online through a social-networking application.

Police intervened before the meeting occurred. The suspect and the girl never had any physical contact, police said.

Murphy also was charged with violating stateexecutive orders regarding social distancing. His arrest was discussed during the state daily press conference on Wednesday.

Morris Plains police followed the arrest report with a public advisory for parents "to strongly emphasize the role that parents should play in their childrens internet activity."

Parents are reminded to continuously monitor their children's online behavior and should speak with themfrequently about safe and responsible use of the internet, police said. "Conversations are especially important now when our children are spending more time at home with technology, seeking the social interactions they are missing while not in school and unable to spend time with friends."

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William Westhovenis a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email:wwesthoven@dailyrecord.comTwitter:@wwesthoven

Read or Share this story: https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/2020/04/23/police-man-tried-meet-11-year-old-girl-morris-plains-park/3014256001/

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Police: Man tried to meet 11-year-old girl in Morris Plains park - Daily Record