Have you seen the cover of the newest Vampire Weekend album, Contra? It looks nothing like the picture above, by the way, which we’re showing you since we don’t own the image rights to the actual cover. Problem is, Vampire Weekend may not own the rights, either.
By now, it’s safe to say (or bemoan, depending on your point of view) that social media is here to stay. Even if Facebook and Twitter don’t endure (and aren’t they the old guard by now, anyway?), the model is entrenched (or, again depending on your predilections, the damage has been done). How we use the web to connect to one another has changed, irrevocably—as have our notions regarding what is private and what is public.
So the question is no longer when will Twitter tweet its final gasp, or when will Facebook’s “walls” be torn down, but instead: what’s next? Whether as complement, alternative, or replacement, something is certainly on the horizon (on the internet, something is always on the horizon), and much money and prestige await whoever first figures out what tomorrow’s big social media mediator will be.