It’s currently estimated that social media accounts for around 30% of all our time spent online. This staggering figure hasn’t been lost on the world’s biggest tech companies who have constantly tried to help us post better selfies, write catchier updates, and play more social games, all thanks to some groundbreaking innovations.
Many of our first experiences of social media came about through the much-maligned MySpace website. As most people took their first baby steps in MySpace via desktop and laptop PCs, the site made full use of customizable themes, unruly layouts, and a chaotic ecosystem that ultimately led to the downfall of the company.
With smartphone technology allowing for a simpler way to communicate on the go, the new wave of social media sites like the stripped-down aesthetic of Facebook and the 140-character-limited Twitter meant that compact mobile apps and convenience won over flashy design and data-heavy features.
But as mobile technology started to be able to handle more tasks from taking better photographs to playing streamed music and even checking the range of pockets on Lucky Nugget Casino’s online roulette games, it became clear that our mobile devices could become a little larger to cope with the new demands.
This ushered in a wave of larger smartphones and tablets as multimedia devices that could handle sharing playlists on Spotify and posting home-made movies on YouTube. As the hardware on our mobile devices became more advanced, it helped our social media activities become more visual.
As a result, every new smartphone release is now accompanied by outlandish claims about how DSLR photos can be achieved from a compact device.
But it’s not just tech companies helping all of our Instagram pictures become a little more arty, as the instant video demands of Snapchat has meant that tech manufacturers are aiming to blur the lines between our gadgets and our bodies.
We’ve already outlined how Apple is considering entering the wearable glasses fray, and this move has been mirrored by other social media inspired inventions like the stylish Snapchat Spectacles and the mocked Google Glass.
If anything, the move towards wearable tech for our social media needs ultimately reveals an undeniable human trend to abandon text towards using pictures and videos to communicate.
But with the recent US Presidential election revealing how even the troubled Twitter can become suddenly useful again in 2016, it shows that whether we’re playing online roulette or chatting with friends, our tech is always racing to catch up with our wide range of social media needs.
