Mathew Brian Beck offers a look into the future of social media and forecasts new forms of digital tribalism. About this, he says,

"Every platform will be socialized, but every user base will be judged on quality of life, not sheer numbers. Big data will not matter as much as small relationships."

His is an interesting idea about how social media will change our relationships and our choices will reflect our interests and lifestyles. As social creatures, we have circles of relationships in which we are members and which in turn influence our lives. For most, family is the most intimate circle, followed by friends and then coworkers. For some, these three circles may overlap, but for others, they may be the only node in all three as their family, friend and work lives are not shared. From there, other common circles might include hobbies, religion, and professional organizations. They might be as focused as knitting groups or as broad as global organizations such as Greenpeace

Services such as Facebook provide a virtual connection between us, creating a social layer crossing over race, culture, nationality, religion, politics, and age. It seems to me this goes against history, in which it was large organizations (religion, nationality, politics, education) or focused interests (hobbies, organizational membership, job classification) that had the ability to bring a nearly limitless variety of us together. While social networks can have a negative impact on us, they can also be liberating and informative. Will they exist in the future? If so, how might they influence how we choose our friends?

Beck views mobile as the hub of our future tribes as future generations become more selective over the tools they use to maintain connections. As he says,

"Because on the Internet, there's just too much stuff to see, people to meet, food to Instagram, and not nearly enough time for it all."

This makes me wonder how social media will grow and divide, how it will change who we choose to spend our time with both virtually and in person. We already see a proliferation of Web content supporting each and every political opinion. The more niche the movement, the fewer sites, but there are sites for nearly anything. Gay and Jewish? Nehirim.org and Myhebro offer social groups for you. Want news? The Huffington Post and Haaretz (Israel's oldest daily newspaper) have special news feeds. The proliferation of affordable online platforms means any group or interest can have something designed for them. All a niche needs is someone with enough interest or a group willing to fund a site they think can return a profit.

If Facebook at 1.2 billion users brings us together, what happens when building a social platform with all the bells and whistles is as simple as installing Wordpress? If Beck is correct, that we'll eventually move on to streamlined feeds built around ever smaller groups. Could deciding whether to be friends with someone be influenced by their membership on your platform? Could our virtual memberships become so deeply ingrained that shifting platforms is like moving to a new email account without the ability to import your old contacts list?

What happens when you meet the significant other of your dreams?

"Well, here's my phone. I'm on Instagram, are you?"

"No, never liked it. Are you using Whatsapp?"

"Um, no. Not a big Facebook fan. I dropped it back in the day. What about Google Plus? I sort of have a presence there."

"No, too many jerks. I avoid it completely."

Uncomfortable pause as both consider offering to install a new app, but wondering if this person is worth the effort.

Social media is just past infancy and learning to walk. For us, it's a new toy we're still playing with and, like a Rubik's Cube, complex enough there is still much to master. As our use of these platforms becomes more refined, we'll want greater control over how we interact with both the platform and each other. The companies hosting them will need to keep up with demand or risk migration or, even worse, replacement by open source options that could become as ubiquitous as email systems available with our cable, internet or jobs, or even free like Gmail.

Looking at it this way, Facebook's purchase of Oculus VR makes more sense. When the masses try to migrate, the current leaders may need cutting edge features to keep their app in rotation.