Tread carefully, for upon these pages you stake your future

At present I find Gladwell's arguments on social media hold water and Mirani's Guardian article by turns supports and contradicts it with it's examples, despite the headline. Both comment on the current use of social media rather than the future.

The future is a quite different thing because social network connectivity is only a fraction of the equation. Much more important is the data; your opinions, expressed in a medium which is permanent and accessible.

Schmidt (Google CEO) was only half joking when he said that in future, people would change their identities to avoid being linked with their past indiscretions online. Suddenly, the post you put up in Facebook in your crazy early twenties will be used against you when you're going for a highly paid job in your mid-thirties.

What this means is that how you use your on-line identity will take on much more importance. You will think twice about supporting controversial causes because you'll have heard stories of those denied an opportunity because of causes they've joined or opinions expressed on-line.

The consequence of that is that the act of putting your name on an on-line petition or publicly supporting an opinion will increase in importance and the links described accurately by Gladwell as being weak at the moment, will become stronger.

Tread carefully, for upon these pages you stake your future.