In the past 5 years technology and social networking sites have redefined the word ‘friend'. Social circles have transformed as people rekindled with old friends and met new ones, creating a mass of loose ties. But these next 5 years will see close relationships and family become the focus of communication technology.
Some things remain the same and that one thing is human nature. We need relationships.
Internet technology has been the base for many ‘loose’ friendships and wide social circles through social networking sites. But as communication technology develops, new kinds of relationships will emerge, which will be more significant and shape whom we are - relationships that surpass barriers of space and time.
Shel Israel, author of social media books ‘Naked Conversations’ and ‘Twitterville’, suggests, “The online tools we use today have allowed us to scale out conversations and eliminate many barriers such as geography, allowing us to build global neighborhoods whose members sometimes reside thousands of miles apart. The relevance of social media is that it allows us to interact in the world increasingly more like we behave in our own physical neighborhoods."
On the one hand this is the creation of online digital tribes. “The topic can be the devastation in Haiti or an interest in products from a tech company; perhaps the tribe is formed for a shared love of hummingbirds, or baseball or dating,” says Israel. “What's important is that there are other people who share your interests and you can find them online where you can share information and ideas”.
KPMG and marketing consultant The Digital Tribe have clocked onto this tribal culture as a new kind of audience to understand and target.
“But these spaces on the Internet where we meet others like ourselves are powerful. And people are connecting with each other in unprecedented ways,” says Israel.
Online charity YouthNet published a report which stated 38% of young people “have good friends online who they have never met in real life” and “treat them the same as offline friends”. Editor Hannah Joliffe says, “Technology enables people to meet, get support and advice that they might not get from their family and immediate friends.”
Israel has “often said that social media is the next best thing to a face-to-face meeting. When people who connect in social media, connect in real life, it is like meeting an old friend for the first time. They often hug. They often begin a conversation as if it were in the middle. They understand each other's values.”
Traditional family trees will almost become irrelevant, as an individual will find - in its widest possible sense - new ‘family’ like bonds. Thus an individual will not be constricted to isolated spheres of their homes, but will have a spectrum of close relationships beyond boundaries. “It is now possible, to see, know, share, care about and perhaps even love people we have not encountered in the tertiary world.”
Together Anywhere Together Anytime (TA2) is dedicated to forwarding such relationships. It is a 7th Framework European research project, which believes a key function of the future networked home must be to facilitate connections between people.
“Social networking sites like the Facebook’s and Bebo’s are very successful and appealing,” says Doug Williams technical project manager for TA2, “but I do think there is a kind of missed opportunity around supporting the strong ties. It is these strong ties we - as a group of differently skilled people - have tried to focus on as a common goal.”
Traditional family trees will almost become irrelevant, as an individual will find - in its widest possible sense - new ‘family’ like bonds. Thus an individual will not be constricted to isolated spheres of their homes, but will have a spectrum of close relationships beyond boundaries. “It is now possible, to see, know, share, care about and perhaps even love people we have not encountered in the tertiary world.”
Together Anywhere Together Anytime (TA2) is dedicated to forwarding such relationships. It is a 7th Framework European research project, which believes a key function of the future networked home must be to facilitate connections between people.
“Social networking sites like the Facebook’s and Bebo’s are very successful and appealing,” says Doug Williams technical project manager for TA2, “but I do think there is a kind of missed opportunity around supporting the strong ties. It is these strong ties we - as a group of differently skilled people - have tried to focus on as a common goal.”
“We are trying to get the kind of systems which will enable more groups of people to get together and all share the same space.” Using the basis of video conferencing on televisions, they are exploring ways people can see, hear, and interact with each other through user-generated file sharing, game playing and other “natural” activities you would experience face-to-face.
The device will be built into high fidelity television systems, with low delays in image and audio to “get as close as possible to the feeling you get when you are in the same room together.” Real time videos will echo dynamic renderings of television and film videos to be more compelling. Multiple camera’s behind the television bevel will allow for multiple viewpoints of the room, and Data Analysis technology will recognise a particular face, force, voice and pattern, so that images on screen can tailor to the changes in conversation and movement.
“I don’t think I am trying to make people do something, that they weren’t doing anyway. A lot of our stories and the way we have envisioned all this is about building natural strong ties.”
Futurologist Ian Pearson agrees that, “video communication will be quite the norm and perfectly natural.” He says that with the development of 3-D technology a “person will be larger than life sitting right in front of you. That may be quite significant to young people but I think that very old people will also benefit from it. I think it is much more important for them because as a form of companionship, seeing a 15 inch screen on a mobile phone or computer allows them to have a cup of coffee with the little old lady who lives on the other side of town.”
“A lot of people who cannot get out, don’t have a lot of social contact and it gets very lonely. That kind of communication can be very valuable to them in maintaining close bonds.”
Israel believes “this phenomenon will stop being such a novelty and just start becoming part of the usual sphere of human interactivity.”
But on an anthropological level there are rituals like acknowledging people, shaking hands, and asking somebody if they are going for lunch, which help define regular relationships in day-to-day lives. William agrees that, “some things become meaningless if you’re a long way from somebody. But if you could have a ‘why don’t we play a game’ and those games became a frequent thing, it becomes a ritual which enables you to spend time with one another. The game is ultimately incidental. It’s about the eyeball contact and the chat; it’s just hearing each other laugh, and perhaps doing some catching up on what people have done. That is entirely plausible to me. There are also things you can’t replace, like a hug. You can’t really replace being in the same room either, but you can definitely go some place towards it.”
