The Next Big Thing

The aftermath of holiday festivities leaves us with the beginning of a brand new year and decade. A clean slate. Potential is unlimited for everyone.

My ongoing desire for riches and success in the future withstand no boundaries. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of the results. So aside from my Megamillions lottery retirement plan, the best way to achieve capital gains is by finding the “Next Big Thing.”

Think about it, Technical aspects aside, how tough was it to come up with the idea for MySpace? It is intended as a glorified blog (another money making idea) where people network and promote themselves to their heart’s content. Isn’t MySpace one of those “Why didn’t I think of that?” moments?

MySpace has faded to an extent now, but it was sold for $580 million in 2006. $580 million. An acceptable nest egg for any sized family.

And Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and some Harvard classmates in 2004. Many of us don’t remember college due to frat parties and “better living through chemistry” experiments. Yet Zuckerberg can be found on Forbes’ list of the 400 richest Americans of 2009.

Then we come to Twitter. Twitter combines all the aspects of annoying commercials with society’s ongoing need to do everything quicker. Commercials which annoy you the most are the ones you remember best. The name Twitter and the posting of “tweets” are as hateful as the Geico gecko and that damn Burger King.

But Twitter is totally effective in a world in a hurry due to the 140 character brevity of its tweets.

So what’s next? Something has always followed these mentioned so people can pretend to be hip, happening, and now. What’s the Next Big Thing?

Well, most new trends involve saving time, because most people excel in time management about as well as Andy Reid. The next move would be to cut the 140 characters of Twitter to about six words. Good typists can post messages during the walk from their house to their car. We’ll call it: “Say It in Six!”

Standard posts you might see are: “Going home. Sick of the wind”, or “Kids are well, I am beat.” Actual extended word important news can be reported in bulletins, which we’ll call “sayings.”

Another new idea might be a spinoff of Facebook and YouTube. People would stream videos of themselves to other community members when they talk. Players will be required as the only major expense. Instead of texting, they will have actual video contact upon each meeting. We’ll call this “TeleCommunity.”

This idea has potential because so many people have mastered YouTube already. Hey, even cats are posting good videos there.

The obvious problem comes from those of us who may operate their computers in their pajamas, with bed hair, or in other various states of disarray. Some visual images are best left out of the picture.

Big things these days are mostly computer-related, but I think an idea whose time is long overdue would be a minimal shock voltage button for cars. Audio can be optional, but this button needs to be standard equipment in newer, energy saving cars. When someone cuts you off in traffic you can press the button and give your new idiot friend a minor jolt. Nothing severe which could cause a potential accident. Just a statement. Let’s call this: OnStartle.

These contributions are only the beginning. I have one major issue with Facebook or Twitter. There is no reason on God’s green earth why anyone should care the slightest iota about what I’m doing at any given time on any given day. But I’m glad it works for so many people. I’m just sayin'.

Anyway, it’s a new year, a new decade, and a new trend can’t be far behind. If anyone takes one of the above ideas and becomes a millionaire, I won’t be pleased. Unless they accept a new best friend they don’t need who will help them spend their money. Until I learn the Next Big Thing in networking, I’ll be watching cat videos.