Oxford University has thrown its weight behind social media.

People using the internet for delivery services may be dependent on social media in the future.

This is the suggestion from Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute (FHI), which reckons that before long social networking sites like Facebook will be essential.

FHI research fellow Anders Sandberg explained: "A fluid, global society might be much better off having a lot of weak ties and a few strong ones. For that you actually need Facebook, or something like it.

"In a few generations we might be very dependent on it."

Mr Sandberg went to say that the impact of Google, which is used to find a parcel delivery online, has been of "tremendous good".

Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, Google chief executive officer Dr Eric Schmidt suggested the search engine firm is "building an augmented version of humanity" in which computers are used to help people make decisions on a frequent basis.

Posted by Sarah Gower

Article Added: 07/10/2010 09:27:38