Information in five years

I would agree most with Reeds Law because of it really shows the power of social media. As your connections expand on various social media sites you begin to grow faster and faster because of mutual friends.


In five years from now I don't think we will have any major breakthrough in communication messaging that will completely alter the way we get information. Obviously smartphones are the all-in-one information streams these days, and although a lot of potential is out there, I don't think anything is going to top the smartphone. People are too connected to the phone that is in their pocket, and the smartphone is only becoming stronger by the year. Battery lives are becoming longer, screens are becoming bigger and even curved. In five years, the newspaper will probably be even less relevant than it is today. ESPN will still dominate the airwaves because cable conglomerates are probably not going anywhere in five years.

Virtual reality may have a say in the way we gather information at one point, but can it hold the user's interest long enough to keep the equipment on? That's my question about virtual reality, although I believe you could see virtual reality become a source of news one day if app developers could tie into the VR market. You could have ESPN in virtual reality, for example. That would be pretty cool.

Online identity

Now, your identity goes almost hand-in-hand with your online profile. People see you in the streets, at school, or at work and they develop a thought process about you.. what they think about how you look, dress, speak and many other things. In today's day and age, this is becoming less and less relevant, as ridiculous as that sounds. People are more concerned with what you like online and who your friends with on Facebook instead of how you conduct yourself in real life. But why?

Because social media and the internet is the way people communicate now. The internet has the ability to broadcast information to others more directly and more obtrusively, whether you like it or not. Personally, I am a private kind of guy. I don't like to tell you about myself all day long, I'd prefer to show you. However, it's almost impossible to be truly private today. I have a Facebook to keep up with friends back in the DC area, and a Twitter for friend's I have met around the country playing in Major League Gaming tournaments. What that means is if I want to have any kind of social ability online, I almost have to give up my privacy. People can read and watch what I do, whom I am connecting with, even where my current location is... which is downright scary. I can't say I understand why so many people "check-in" on Facebook... but that's another issue for another day.

A recent interest

Within the last year, i've started watching soccer. I grew up in an El-Salvadorian dominated neighborhood right outside Washington D.C., and soccer was the first sport I really played. I wasn't the best, but it was fun. My grandfather  wanted me to stop playing because I was a gifted basketball and baseball player when I was younger, and he didn't want me getting my legs torn up. By about age 11 I hung up my soccer cleats, and when I was 13 I moved to North Carolina.

I started watching the UEFA Champions League last season, when Barcelona won the treble (domestic league champions, domestic cup champions and Champions league champions). The technical skill involved in soccer has got me hooked. The ability these guys have with the ball at their feet can be downright astonishing. I've developed such an interest that I now follow the sport abroad on a daily basis. I watch ESPN FC, ESPN's very own soccer TV show, ton's of articles relating to some of my favorite players like Lionel Messi, Neymar and Riyad Mahrez... and my favorite team, Barcelona.

I never would have thought soccer would be one of the sports I follow religiously. It's a sport I haven't played in over ten years, and I've moved away from all of the friends I grew up playing the sport around. It's definitely one of those things that you would never guess about me!