Before the phenomena of the internet and mass media, Americans were made aware of the news, weather and current events through newspapers, television and radios.  People could not simply Google a question about the news on their smartphones, look up the weekly forecast on Weather.com or use their news app to be informed.  Since the 2000s, people can now enjoy information coming to them at lighting speed via their smartphone or their computers.  Newspapers are becoming obsolete since Americans can now download a news story onto their phones or watch the news on HD television.

Before mass media and the convenience of the internet, information used to be relevant.  Now since there is so much information available, the content seems to be less and less useful.  When one uses a search engine such as Google.com to type in a question one may have, one can be plagued with millions of "hits", having to sift through thousands of useless websites in search for relevant content to their question.

"Information overload" is a term defined by Alvin Toffler.  Toffler defines "information overload" as a challenge in understanding a problem and making decisions because there is a presence of too much information.  (Access to Everything Everywhere, from our reading).  Five years from now, one could expect to see newspapers more obsolete than even today.  Social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will expect to continue growing at an exponential rate.  In five years, most people will carry a smartphone and receive news information via their smartphones.  Television will still be a popular route of information, but I would expect the internet to be the most popular route for information availability.  Non-smartphones will become more and more rare, and they not even be found anymore, even on Ebay and Amazon.  The media companies that will be important in five years are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, and social networks such as these.  News websites will be profitable due to their convenience and availability on smartphones.

The growth of Facebook over the past decade has shown clues for the future of Facebook, which appears to be very successful.  At the end of 2004, Facebook had one million people involved.  In August of 2013, there were 1.15 billion people involved. (Facebook Outline, from our reading).  At this rate, in five years, we can expect to see a steady increase in Facebook followers.    

Whether one likes the changes in society such as the use of smartphones, the near extinction of non-smartphones and newspapers, the future is inevitably showing an increase in such media routes, such as the internet and smartphones.  Information overload and convenience will outweigh relevance and the "old" ways of retrieving the news.  The future looks bright for new technologies, but for those who are not fans of the new ways of life, they should ready themselves, because who knows what will be the new technology in five years.