Ah, social networking sites. Deny it or not, it is a big part of our lives now to the extent that to some people, the number of likes, dislikes, and comments defines their self-esteem and identity as a person. Funny as it may seem, some people treat social networking sites as a personal diary. Don't get angry if you're offended, because I for one had been through that "phase" in my social networking site life, and thankfully it was short-lived. To be honest, until now whenever I think about it, I cringe and regret every bit of it.
Social Media Sites Pushing Live Video Feature
There is a growing trend now in social media sites. Before, there was a time when this kind of entertainment was called "Documentaries" until it evolved into "Reality TV" shows. And when reality TV shows became so popular, people started to label these shows as "fake" and "scripted" as whistleblowers who worked at these shows came forward, to tell the truth about filming these shows. Oh, I remember when news came out that the Jersey Shore was scripted, it really broke my heart.
After that, I think people started to film their own "reality TV show" and posted it on social media sites such as YouTube. In their defense, they call it real TV, non-scripted, the real deal and all those terms to validate the credibility of their videos. I don't know how to differentiate which videos posted on YouTube are authentic and not, but there were some YouTubers who claimed they were always telling the truth, but leaks came out and people found out that they were just lying.
Back to the topic, when social media sites saw this growing trend on its early stages of people not satisfied with just posting comments or pictures and were posting videos instead, they started to develop a feature on what is well-known today as Live Video. Now almost all well-known social media sites have this feature. Some examples of these popular social media sites are YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter.
2017 Will Be the Year for Live Videos
You've seen it, right? People nowadays are promoting themselves in live videos. While some do live videos for promoting awareness or something important, some people just do live videos for the sake of doing it. There is even a live video feed of the Earth being broadcasted from space at YouTube (I tried to watch that live video, but after 5 minutes it gave me a headache. I guess I'm not cut out to be an astronaut). Many social media sites are now adopting the Live Video feature. Just days ago, Instagram was reported to launch a new feature similar to Facebook's Live Video and was well-received by the users.
Future of Live Videos
Yes, 2017 will definitely be the year of Live Videos, but just as trends come, it will also have to go. When posting comments, pictures, videos and doing live videos become not enough to satisfy one's way of expressing, what will the new trend be? Will it go back to the traditional way or will these social media sites think of another new creative way?
