Prediction #9: Social Media Platforms will Survive the Recovery.

Some critics have said that Twitter and Facebook did well during the downturn because people had available time, either because they had less to do or because they had lost their jobs. People will continue to use Twitter, Facebook and other social media services but they might not be updating their pages quite as often. Social media sites will consider rolling out new ways for users to post and engage via multimedia (audio and video).

Living in the Age of Too Much Information (TMI): Boston Herald runs my humorous op-ed

Here's an excerpt from the article, "Virtual world of trouble," which ran Feb. 14, 2009:

If the 1990s were the Information Age, this decade has become the Too Much Information Age (TMI).

With the proliferation of social networking sites that include Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Ning, LinkedIn, Plaxo along with others too numerous and odd to name, millions of people are going online to talk about themselves.

...

BusinessWeek reporter (and Facebook friend) Steve Hamm once commented that most of his online “friends” were people he had never met, and none had attended his wedding. I’ve met him once and have spoken with him over the years, but the point is valid. (Problem is I can’t remember where I read that comment of his: On Twitter? On Facebook? On his blog?)

Like Hamm, I’ve got “friends” I’ve never met before, and their friends. And those people’s friends. And they’ve got me.

It’s overwhelming, if not exhausting. It’s enough to give me social networking fatigue (SNF).