I’m amazed at the tie-in between entertainment and social networking. A recent episode of my favorite podcast (Standford University’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders) had a group of notable entrepreneurs talking about the future of social networking. Of course their thinking is aligned with their company direction as of course my thinking is greatly influenced by the current events in my life.

Being a new father to twins and often pondering the potential cost of education has guided my thoughts on this podcast. We desperately need a shift in the education paradigm; I’m not sure I’ll be able to offer a decent education for my children considering the current college trends. I imagine removing the walls of the learning institutions and replacing them with social networks. And as technology removes the language and distance barriers, social networking can be the driving force behind sharing knowledge – there are so many bright people all over the world.

I also thought about the Borg (Star Trek’s Next Generation version of a highly functional social network) and how a primary goal is to get smarter though collective thinking. Social networking can be used as the medium to add brainpower to solve problems. I would hope in the years to come that the focus of social networking is to share information allowing us all to get smarter.