That which we were to read and comment about...

I'm honestly not sure WHAT to say. I read through the articles and looked at the infographics. It's fairly alarming the rate at which social media has grown and diversified... especially when you consider the amount of personal information out there. It has grown into a juggernaut that really has a life of it's own. It has helped to share breaking news before the networks were able to report it and it's helped to save lives. It's helped to promote worthy causes and been a vehicle of hatred, stalking and bullying. It's redefined how we do business and advertise and how we communicate with one another. I have seen social media help to bring down corrupt governments. It has many times been a human rss feed of information and news you won't find main-stream sources covering. I am amazed at how it has changed the way we play... and what it means to 'game'. Social media and it's many tentacles is all at once mesmerizing and enthralling and horrifying and invasive.

When I look at how mobile devices, wifi enabled cameras and video cams, apps and social media connect us all, I see an artificial neural network... each of us and individual 'neuron' and sensory organ for the whole. I would imagine if interactions were mapped and animated it really would resemble brain activity... more-so than any previous comparisons to the web. Maybe it's not the next step in human evolution, but some days it feels that way. Just this side of a true 'cyborg'. 

I guess it comes down to the humanity of it all. There is so much potential and so far some of that has been harnessed for good. We have new and compelling ways of exchanging information and promoting worthy causes. Social media has made it easier for us to organize and come together to do great good... or just hang out in person... and to find lost friends and loved ones. There is a dark side of stalkers, bullying, ID theft, the selling of lives by third parties, tracking our every move on the interwebs, etc. It's unknown territory in some ways. 

That's my two cents.