Innovation is a word that one hears a lot these days. In its truest essence all it means is how a process or product is made more efficient and easier to use with better results obtained. In recent years the focus of innovation has been very much on social media. First it’s important to acknowledge that the nature of today’s world is highly capitalistic. What this means in a nutshell is the primary goal in today’s world is to earn as much money as possible. Almost everything that is done has a bottom line goal which is to turn a profit at the end of the day. This has in fact affected the nature of innovation that is being carried out today.
Innovation was borne out of the necessity of making things easier and more accessible for everyone. It was driven by the need for more modern facilities. How things are made easier to ensure that it can fulfil the need of the regular consumers. The very need to make life easier was what drove innovation. The need for better quality of life lead to the push for better food production systems, better sanitary systems, better transportation systems, better accommodation systems and lastly a better networking system.
Social media today plays such a huge role in all aspects of our lives. The extent of which it affects us depends on the amount of exposure that we allow ourselves to have in social media. The need for networking and communication that we humans have is hardwired into our brains because we as humans are social creatures who were meant to live in groups instead of solitary living. This has led to the exploitation of our own selves. At a certain degree we have come to depend and rely on social media so much that we are starting to devolve in our basic communication skills.
How did this come to be? Prior to smartphones the regular mobile phones purpose was to be connected and reachable at all times. But the advent of smartphones changed the game totally. The smartphone lead to the creation of new product class called apps. The motivation driving the development of apps are, firstly to provides services on a new platform and secondly as a means to generate revenue. The aim is to get as many app downloads as possible by way of either offering a freemium app, a paid app or an ad supported app.
Having smartphones made social media more accessible than ever. The amount of focus, time and effort that is being poured into social media development begs the question is it worth it? Somewhere along the way the focus of innovation to create better things for use has shifted to creating things that can be monetized. Innovation on the improvement of the general quality of life has definitely slowed down. More and more focus is being put on the technology world and software development instead of general hardware development.
The key issue now is will we continue to remain on this path of focus on monetizing everything we can or will we eventually shift back to the development of humankind as a species to ensure our own continual survival. The example used above to illustrate the shift in innovation is not only limited to the social media field but it was used as it best describes what is happening at the moment. At the end of the day we need to ask ourselves where do we want to see ourselves headed and are we prepared to do what it takes to get there?