Today Twitter goes public with its initial public offering. Before you plunk down your hard-earned benjamins on shares, may I humbly suggest taking a long view at how social media is evolving?

Market research has recently revealed that Twitter has overtaken Facebook as the most popular social media platform among teens. Instagram is fast on its heels and is now as popular as Facebook with that same demographic.

No one has the time or attention span to read these days. We’ve already established that books are no longer for reading, but for decorating. (See yesterday’s mini rant). The trend is toward increasingly compressed information. Wordy posts are giving way to 140 character tweets, soon to be overtaken by cropped photos. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are already circling the drain. Friends, save your money for the next big thing.

So what’s next on the horizon?

Emotic: the social medial website that allows you to update your status using emoticons only.

and

Punctu: tell the world exactly how you feel with an asterisk, apostrophe, or semicolon.

You heard it here first. You’re welcome. Or, just: }