Change in Social Media

When social media started the actual use of it was in the simply conceptualized by the word "social." It was created to socialize and connect with other people over the internet. I don't think that I am really saying anything new when I say that it has completely changed how we (a human population) now interacts, but new impacts of social media are realized everyday. Now not only can we chat with friends, peers, or business partners around the world, the options of how we interact are becoming more and more varied. There are now studies that are being completed that show how interactions that happen through a medium either than face-to-face defer from one another, revealing the positives and negatives to these changes. Moreover businesses are now seeing many ways to use social media to promote business in ways that weren't even thought of a few years ago. Communications can happen quickly and more efficiently than in the past, which naturally spurs more innovation and competition (whether that be socially or professionally). I think that discussions about social media are always accompanied with the question at what cost? With anything that is new or non-traditional, as social media consistently proves to be, more questions are made about is it useful? What are the consequences, good or bad, of the changes of communication patterns through new media? These are questions that have to constantly be asked and researched as the new inventions are made in the social media realm all the time.