You raise many interesting points. Why indeed do we blog, tweet, comment, poke, post, etc? Perhaps for some this is to massage egos, collect followers as some vindication of self-worth. I wonder what Jung and Freud would have made of social media and practises.

Also, the ignorance of personal data collection and potential privacy time bombs are another fascinating facet of social media.

I think we have yet to really learn etiquette in digital spaces. Parents understand the dangers in the physical world, and instinctively raise children to be aware of strangers, etc. many parents and people are blissfully ignorant of their children’s digital activity, the dangers and great rewards of social media and of course the data collection. II particularly recommend the book “Delete – The art of forgetting in a digital age” – some fascinating content and I’m sure there is a privacy bomb that will go off in the coming years.

What concerns me is mass media will probably create a moral panic, governments may knee jerk legislate and we lose many benefits we currently enjoy. I’d prefer an empowered user approach where we can all easily share whatever data we wish with who solver we wish, but in full knowledge – a little like VRM of rent years.

Until recent cookie laws came in, I think very few people were aware that being involved in social media or even something as innocent as browsing the Internet, had any repercussions and they certainly did not fear the now widely regarded evil of individual data collection. It has now come to light that being active on the Web unwittingly enters you as a number into a vast (and permanent) record of data. Advertisers cash in on this data as they are able to deliver adverts more precisely to their core audience. As we know, the data collection is anonymous and has no correlation to named individuals in society, but it has been badly received by the majority of people, mainly those who are not professionally involved in the digital landscape. My point is that social media is not driven by people willingly exchanging personal information with a view to receiving relevant advertorial offers. Sadly, it seems that the desire to share increasingly personal information with the world is more likely to be a product of our 21st egotistical desires – or something of the sort. That is a question for the psychologists of our day!

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Have a look back at my last two paragraphs. I definitely don’t believe use of social media, tools, principles and platforms is finished as humans are inherrently social animals. Also, in many ways social is still making in-roads into mass consciousness and brands for sure are working out new and innovative ways it can help them.

The headline is a bit sensationalist really, I just think for now, until the next big technology breakthrough, the underpinning and foundations of social are darn near complete and we are looking at other things like augmented reality, game based marketing and more.

But who knows what will fall under the label of social in the future. exciting times ahead for certain.

The sections on Social Networks to Services and 1 Minutenof Trust are interesting.