In the news recently, it’s been reported that people are growing bored of Facebook, particularly kids. Indeed, the younger generation of today views Facebook, which was created a mere 8 years ago, as “so last year.”  And, much as Facebook dethroned MySpace, kids are now flocking to other sites, such as Instagram (which is owned by Facebook), which may mean a decline in Facebook’s status as king of the social media realm.

 

As a comedian, I need some sort of social media presence to announce to the world that my comedy exists and to let them know where they can see me perform.   If it weren’t for that, I can assure you, I very likely would not even have a Facebook profile nor a Twitter page nor a YouTube Channel nor a Tumblr blog nor a Google+ whatever Google calls individual’s profiles/pages.

 

But, I am a comedian, I do need social media, and as it turns out I’ve spent a lot of time and energy to build up my Facebook presence.  And, now, it turns out, the kids are gonna wreck this whole thing for me.  I suppose this was inevitable.  The younger generation always topples and replaces the structures put into place by the generations before.  Often that’s a good thing — for example, I think we all can agree that doing away with past generations’ adherence to slavery and then Jim Crow were some very solid advances in our society.  On the other hand, I think we all can agree that the younger generation’s love of wearing their pants 2 feet below their waistline has not been a change for the better.

 

But, change is inevitable.  We cannot stop it.  We can resist it — usually to our own detriment, or we can embrace it.  Those who embrace it, generally wind out coming out on top.

 

With that in mind, I’m trying to get out ahead of the curve to anticipate and guess what social media sites the younger generation may flock to and/or invent in the next decade.  Here’s what I’ve come up with:

 

1. “The letter A”– this platform will continue the trend set by texting and twitter of communicating with fewer words and letters.  On “The Letter A” people will have a mere 10 characters to communicate a thought.

 

2.  “Picture book” – on this platform, people will be required to communicate by using the cover art from children’s books.  Thus, for example, the cover of Dr. Seuss’s “Cat in the Hat” will mean “party tonight, it’s gonna get wild and off the chain.”  Whereas, the cover of “Harold and the Purple Crayon” will be understood to mean “Going to school.”

 

3.  “So, Like . . . ” — this platform, will largely be visited by girls as it will consist of a giant chat room with chat conference rooms where people can live chat and/or skype what’s happening to them without limits to anyone with an account.  Basically, it’s like connecting the entire world by skype.

 

4.  “iMatrix” — in this high-end, cutting edge platform, created by Apple, people will no longer be forced to actively move or speak to communicate.  Rather, by plugging in the special iBrainStem hardware, users will be able to transmit their thoughts to anyone else plugged into the system.

 

So, those are just some of what we may see in the future.  In the meantime, I hope you’ll find me on Facebook while it’s still there. www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic