The words Social Media brings about a knee jerk reaction to roll my eyes and think “anti-social media” in response to the platform. Just today, I was going through my Facebook timeline having a self induced cringe party as I attempted to clean up my personal feed, deleting posts starting from over a decade ago. I didn’t make it past 2010 before I gave up, the method was slow and the cringe was often unbearable laughing at my style of status updates in a twitter format.

I have to say, it was interesting to see how different Facebook interactions were a decade ago. When people still went to your Facebook page and posted status on your wall, subverting text messaging and direct messages were few and far between. Today, I feel Facebook especially has little to do with oneself; it has been reduced to a wayback machine of late memes and a platform for arguments of opposing beliefs on hot topic issues. I can foresee a final departure, or exodus from these forms of social media for the rest of my life before I finish my studies here at Tampere. I feel I’ve convinced myself I need to wait to have something to replace it, yet there is a belief ingrained in me that I won’t acquire the new things until I sacrifice the old ones.

Outside of my personal social media, my interest in the platform is in education. I am anticipating a new form of teaching to become available with the merging of augmented reality and social media. I desire a feature where we can have professional instructors of the highest caliber present in any part of the world that is equipped for the task.  I imagine being able to go to a gym and have my favorite personal trainer grafted into my environment to begin our high intensity exercise routine. Being able to watch a recorded demonstration on how to repair a fried circuit board with augmented overlays showcasing step by step repairs in live time. Currently, it feels like a pipe dream. The world of integrated technology that isn’t used for simple advertising and marketing, but a platform of access to the highest quality instruction for improving individual quality of life. This reality will be just short of having master artisans fine tuning every aspect of life imaginable. At least we will be able to learn from these masters, interacting with them in a free flowing holographic display. Where the augmented reality become a tangible formality.