Facebook in 2016
The undeniable presence of social media in today’s digital landscape continues to change the way we use the Internet, interact with each other, and experience advertising messages.
Social Media has transcended the confines of the millennial audience pushing out to a wider variety of ages and cultures with each passing year. Here I will summarize the current state of one of the most popular and influential social networks currently making waves in cyber space.
In the blue corner weighing in at 1.32 billion active users is the titan of social networks, Facebook. These days you would be hard-pressed to find someone who is not an active Facebook user; in the beginning Facebook was for college students primarily but has now grown to have adults age 35-54 as the largest age group of users.
Enter 2016, the beginning of true digital dominance in the Advertising Industry, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has laid out a bold new plan for the already dominating social network. The Messenger Platform that works through Facebook is getting an upgrade in the form of automated bots.
These chatbots are able to walk you through making online purchases as well as getting the weather forecast, keeping up with current events and more, all without having to leave Facebook Messenger. Some are complaining that the bots are creating spam in Messenger and there seem to be bugs that need addressing.
As technology continues to advance and shape the world no frontier is left untouched, this rings true for Facebook also as it has also been revealed that they hope to make group hangouts through virtual reality a common occurrence.
Imagine being able to interact with friends from other states and even countries face-to-face in a virtual realm, where Zuckerberg also intends to implement touch controls that would theoretically allow you to reach out and “touch” others in said virtual space.
Facebook is developing more sophisticated 360 degree cameras to further facilitate Facebook’s virtual reality involvement. 2016 will yield many more changes to the ever evolving social media landscape and Facebook will no doubt be at the center of it all.
Advertising opportunities will increase, new content will arise, and the total number of users will likely to grow to largest size so far.
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