In just a few days, the ball in Times Square will drop and it will be a new year. Trends and forces that continue to shape daily life will evolve. A similar evolution will take place in the rapidly-changing field of social media.

What will this sector look like in the future? On one hand it may be difficult to predict. There are so many variables.

However, one thought comes from The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal, who predicts, “Like a forest getting older, our social network usage will continue to diversify. And that's a good thing.”

“The many overlapping networks will come to occupy personalized niches in the social biome. Some will flourish; many will just survive; others will die. But to the extent that they find their own niches instead of duplicating what others are doing, the individual network and the biome will flourish,” Madrigal adds.

He points out that current social applications “build atop each other and tens of millions of people belong to several networks, even if they don't really notice.”

“Just as in real life, we spread ourselves between a variety of locations, finding value and fulfillment in building our own personal social media ecosystem,” he explains. “Each network has built on the success of the others. Twitter (News - Alert) didn't need to build out intense profile features because people could be found at their own websites or Facebook pages.”

His vision of the future sparked a lively debate on The Atlantic’s commentary section.

Bill Ward, for example, said when it comes to social media, “we can probably stop watching for the next big thing, and start thinking more about the functionality of social media for ourselves and other audiences.”

“With many social networks, and with successful Web 2.0 apps with strong social aspects, each person or entity will be a combination of what works for them, and that will be constantly evolving,” Ward said.

On the other hand, minstrelmike cautioned that, “Thinking nothing will replace FaceBook seems awful shortsighted.”

“Most folks who've been on-line for more than 3 years know how quickly the interest and excitement fades,” minstrelmike adds. “In a few years when another 'generation' of folks hit the new web, the Fbook is going to seem old-fashioned. And that's assuming it doesn't totally blow up on-line with a security breach or some surprisingly idiotic comment or rule from a manager that irritates people.”

Whatever the specifics, it is clear that social media will be having a huge impact in coming years. For example, TMCnet’s Chris DiMarco reported earlier this year that “social media has become an inescapable fact of life in the past 5 years and more frequently businesses are incorporating it into their overall strategy. In a recent study Gartner (News - Alert) has determined that social media’s penetration will totally change the CRM landscape in the years immediately following 2011.”