I tend to use them primarily for work; preferring (for example) Linkedin to Facebook, being more concerned with business communication than the social media.
I have experience with the usual designer's tools in this area, HTML, Flash and (some) Java. A few years ago, I started some postgraduate study in computing, so I also picked up some of the technical side of HTTP and how to configure an Apache web server. By no means an expert though!
Something that I occasionally look back on is not so much the variety of media, but the number of devices that are now available to support it. At the risk of revealing my age, I remember a time when as a young designer, no one owned a mobile phone, email involved logging into a command line interface and typing 'Telnet'. We communicated either face to face or using an old fashioned telephone. We are now connected to colleagues and friends 24-7. We protest loudly when we are inconvenienced by being unable to contact anyone NOW! I have found myself advising colleagues overseas that I am now logging off, as I need to sleep.
Perhaps another new environment' that maybe too old now to wear the 'new' tag is the computer. When I started out, Macs were still monochromatic toys, with artwork being produced photomechanically and smelling of hot wax. While there is no doubt that the benefits have outweighed the problems, there have been issues.
For example; the design process now takes (and is expected to take) a fraction of the time it once did. 10 'working days', was considered fair to produce a small brochure! Try getting more than a day now. Designers now work leaner and smarter than ever before. I expect this trend to continue.
In the late 80's and early 90's, the large number of self taught desktop publishers that called themselves designers, meant that many professional designers had to find new ways to differentiate themselves from the pack.
However... It's not all bad! Designers have broadened their repertoire considerably with the emergence of the new environments in which to work. Many have more or less specialised, but most appear to have an at least working knowledge of all the various areas.
An area that I intend to look into in more detail in the future is the development of phone apps; purely from a personal interest perspective.
