After the popularity of our last post on IoT (Internet of Things), we decided to do some more digging on social media’s influence on the IoT and the internet in general. In the past ten years we have seen a tremendous surge in the use of social media. Every day people are becoming more connected with mobile devices. As different platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, become increasingly popular we have also seen widespread daily use of the internet in our lives like never before. According to the Pew Research Center 76% of adult internet users are active on social networking site. Their latest estimates of online social media usage are:
- 72% use Facebook
- 25% use LinkedIn
- 23% use Twitter
- 31% use Pinterest
- 28% use Instagram
- 10% use Tumblr
Increased use of social media equals and increased use of the internet. All of this internet use comes as no surprise. How often do we see people walking around staring intensely at their phones or tablets, using some sort of internet application?
In a recent article published on examiner.com on June 17,2016, NY travel author Jhonson Peterson discusses the Social Media’s Influence on the Growth of the Internet.
Social Media’s Influence on the Deep Web
When most people talk about the internet, they are actually referring to the few search engines with indexed website pages. For them, this is the internet.
But it turns out that the view from your chosen search engine is but a small fraction of the entire internet. It is so much more than just a measly few billion indexed web pages. There’s simply more to the technology, with such catchy names as the Deep Web and the Internet of Things.
The Deep Web is routinely associated with all things “shady” and illegitimate online. This is more commonly called the “darknet”. But the reality is that it isn’t. Yes, there are parts of it that are surely shady –blackhat sites, forums, and chat rooms, but in many cases, it’s really more innocuous than some might think. The internet has transformed everyday life in America and other parts of the world. Now more than ever, people can access information on the go, connect with friends, colleagues, and coworkers, carry out business transactions, even automate their homes from their smartphones.
It is, in fact, so pervasive that one wonders how we got by without it for so long. It goes to show that the legendary Steve Jobs was right when he said: “Most people don’t know what they want until you show it to them”.
Social media’s influence has certainly added to Jobs’ idea of showing the people “what they want.” Stay tuned for predictions on what the future of the IoT holds.
