A quarter of a billion people are now frequently socialising online on sites such as Facebook and MySpace; more than twice the amount of people who owned telephones in the 1960s. As more of our lives migrate online, texting, blogging and twittering, does this mark a transformation, or just another way to communicate?

 

Social networking could transform the future of healthcare. Facebook is being used to find organ donors and users connect with each other to talk about healthcare issues such as chronic illnesses.

 

Could online networking change the future of marriage? In China, children are causing distress by virtual marriages, and some are even giving birth online. In the UK, a real life marriage has ended in divorce on grounds of a virtual affair.

 

As more business is conducted on Second Life, the future of work could be from the home. IBM has found that learning business skills may actually be more effective in the virtual world, countering the argument that physical interaction is necessary. In an era of environmental consciousness and resource scarcity - could online interaction be the more sustainable option, reducing the need for fuel?

 

21 Drivers for the 21st CenturyTM by Outsights is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.