"Web 2.0," which we now call "social media," refers to the current state of the World Wide Web that is characterized by connectivity, user-generated content, and ease of access. It is a set of technologies, group of websites, and a collection of ideals (Marwick 6). After reading Gina Neff's opening chapter that discussed the dot-com era, which seemed promising to many people but ended with the dot-com bust, I was curious as to whether the same could possibly happen to the realm of social media. The internet and many social media companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, seem pretty stable and promising from a general standpoint. During the dot-com era, people who worked within the internet industry at the time reported to do so because they thought it would be stable for their future. As many people left their jobs to work for new internet companies and startups during the dot-com era, it can be inferred that a majority of the population did not see the crash coming. While doing some research on social media, I was surprised to read that the internet may form a bubble that can burst again. Many people might think that investing in internet companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter is a good idea, but think again. To my surprise, an article I found on the internet by Kalen Smith claims that Facebook is not earning or worth as much as it tends to claim, as it overvalues itself. A common mistake is that people tend to base a company's success on popularity rather than on profit. I found this article to be particularly interesting, because it is true that personally, I have always thought that social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn were promising and stable for investments. Perhaps we are too optimistic about the stability and performance of some internet companies.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think it is possible that the world of social media can turn into another bubble that is prone to being burst, as with what happened to the dot-com era?
Here is the article that discusses the potential for another internet bubble and things we need to be aware of to avoid it:
(http://www.moneycrashers.com/dot-com-bubble-burst/)
Hey Holly,
ReplyDeleteFirst I would like to say great post overall, very interesting and defiantly applies to our society today, as we live in a very internet dependent society. To answer your questions, I like to think that this crash of Web 2.0 won't happen, because we are currently outside of the starting stages of the Internet, the Internet has been for quite a while now, and hopefully as a society we have everything under control to prevent a crash from occurring. Yet, on the other side of things, perhaps with the Internet becoming a new "informational commodity" maybe one can not predict the crash, and it will happen, although I'm sure we would like to think that it never will. Once again, overall great post.
Personally, I do not the world of social media will turn into another bubble that is prone to being “burst” due to the fact our world has progressed so far along and such an integrated part of our society. However, anything is possible and we must take into account things that have happened throughout history that have occurred. I found the point you brought up about people investing in companies based on their success/popularity. I remember when Facebook became a stock and people have the chance to actually invest their money in the company. I thought this was interesting as you mentioned the idea of the bubble “bursting”. I attached an article below discussing the idea of investing in Facebook and why it is a good long-term idea.The article discusses how the stock is "promising" and "unique". Additionally, I found it interesting that Facebook has become a “commodity’ in the sense you could buy a “part”/stock of the company.
ReplyDeletehttp://money.usnews.com/investing/articles/2016-11-21/reasons-facebook-inc-fb-stock-is-a-buy
I don’t think we account for the possibilities of new platforms ideas being created in the future. It made me question if Facebook will continue to be as stable and promoted as a “good long term investment” in the future. I wonder about what exactly people are “investing” in. Since Facebook is an Internet based social media platform is it realistic to expect to receive profit when you do not exactly have control or access to what is being done. It is kind of crazy to think about how Social media has now become connected to stocks & Wall Street when years ago this would probably not cross the mind of stock brokers, investors and so on.
Do you believe people invest to make “profit” from their investment or to try assist in helping expand the platform all together?