“Through the looking glass: envisioning new library technologies” social media trends that inform emerging technologies

The purpose of this paper is to explore recent developments in a number of relatively well-established social media platforms – Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Yik Yak –to highlight the trends that are emerging within social media.

These trends have implications beyond just the social media space as a host of technologies take on social attributes.

Technologies such as video games, which previously functioned more or less as stand-alone pieces of software, are increasingly embracing many of the tools of social media platforms.

As a result, it is increasingly difficult to distinguish social technology from other communication technologies (Papacharissi, 2015).

By examining trends in social media, we are able to not only better understand these important platforms but also acquire insight into developments that can affect a wide range of related technologies, all of which are of interest to information professionals.

Many of the examples the paper gave were drawn from the various social media platforms that mediate the personal and professional lives of their users.