Towards an app-centric world

A decade back, blogs were the trend. I myself had five blogs on different topics and there were a number of bloggers as well. Even Orkut hardly posed any challenge to boologam (a term that stands for Malayalam blogosphere).

However, as Facebook (and Google+ to some extent) became popular, things changed drastically. One could share content, photos and videos; maintain a discussion forum; publish personal notes; create business pages; message to single/multiple contacts — all made possible in one place.

The content published as blogs had more longevity than the content shared in platforms like Facebook. Though a medium of self publishing, bloggers kept a check on themselves — personal attacks were avoided — but as discussions get more intimate/personal and intense in platforms like Facebook, things often go beyond control.

In these new age platforms, the discussions became more real-time and of course, more fierce. If maintaining a blog required effort, having a page or maintaining a profile hardly needed any special effort and without delay, people could reach out to maximum number of people.

I think the New Year will take this trend further; may be a single integrated app to manage all communication and social media activities. For instance, a communication medium like WhatsApp getting integrated to the Facebook timeline, making the discussions even more personal and real-time.

Malayalis will probably become more creative with their pongala routine. There is a chance that some may even come up with a dedicated app to show the trending pongalas! In short, by the end of 2017, we will have a completely app-centric world!

One less tapped area is in-app purchases and mobile gaming — may be a Kerala version of Farmville might have users cultivate items and winners can claim their vegetables and groceries from the retail outlets, the sponsors of the game!

(The writer is a new media expert who works as a visual design consultant)