We need information. The human thirst for knowledge has never stopped growing as we feed our desire to learn and understand.

The last few years has changed how we get our information. Printed media could only provide the news for the previous day until radio broadcasts updated us every morning and evening. The advent of 24 hour television gave us rolling news broadcasts as we tune into BBC News 24 and CNN. The internet bought it to a head as a host of websites update by the second to bring the very latest in breaking news. And then came the dawn of mobile internet – news in your palm, whenever you want it.

But that’s not the change I refer to, as news on your phone was always an inevitable step. It’s where that news is now coming from.

My news no longer reaches me first from Reuters or the BBC. It comes from you.  And me. Well, us. We are using tools such as Twitter to bring in the very latest going ons around the globe and working together as a community to keep the world updated on what’s happening. If there’s news, there are people there to report it – and with access to cellular technology, it’s only a matter of seconds before groups of people are tweeting what’s happening and it spreads across the world. Trending topics then serve to highlight the biggest stories, and it is here where the advent of news now reaches us fastest. We are the new journalists.

Our desire to be constantly in the know means that we always want to be connected. It won’t be long before lost-phone-withdrawal is a medically recognised syndrome, mark my words.

But in the scheme of mobile communication to keep in touch with the world, there are only a handful of social sites which we seem to use. Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Flickr and Wikipedia form the bulk of activity that we access on the move. Each one serves a specific function – Keeping in touch with friends, watching videos, updating our status, sharing photographs and finding out information.

So is there any need to access the metaverse on the move? Particularly if we already keep contact with our friends through micro-blogging platforms such as Plurk and Twitter?

The recent launch of Apple’s iPad has raised the question of being able to log into Second Life on the move. But the reality is, is there any need to? When on the move, we are seeking or sharing information. Second Life is a platform which is predominantly used as entertainment or content creation. It serves a very different market to the already popular methods of social media, and I don’t see a real need for it to be accessible in the palm of my hand.