Social Media
Social media has become a part of our daily lives. It has enabled us to stay connected with our friends and family, share our thoughts and experiences with others, and even keep up with the latest news. But while social media can be a great way to stay in touch and stay informed, it can also be a source of distraction and potential harm. When used responsibly, social media can be an effective way to stay connected and informed. It can be a great way to stay in touch with friends and family, and to stay up to date on the latest news and trends.
It can also be a great way to connect with people who have similar interests and to share ideas and resources. Additionally, social media can be a great tool for networking and promoting your work or interests. However, when used irresponsibly, social media can be a source of distraction, cyberbullying, and even addiction. It can be a breeding ground for comparison and unhealthy competition, leading to feelings of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. It’s easy to lose track of time scrolling through our feeds, and it can be detrimental to our productivity. It’s also important to be mindful of the content we post and how it reflects on us.
Social media is a collective term for websites and applications that focus on communication, community-based input, interaction, and content-sharing collaboration. People use social media to stay in touch and interact with friends, family various communities.
What is Social media?
Social media refers to websites and online platforms that enable users to create, share, and exchange content, ideas, and information with others. Examples include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others.
The term social in regard to media suggests that platforms are user-centric and enable communal activity. As such, social media can be viewed as online facilitators or enhancers of human networks—webs of individuals who enhance social connectivity.
Some of the most popular sm websites, with more than 100 million registered users, include Face book (and its associated Face book Messenger), TikTok, WeChat, Instagram, QZone, Weibo, Twitter, Tumblr, Baidu Tieba, and LinkedIn. Depending on interpretation, other popular platforms that are sometimes referred to as social media services include YouTube, QQ, Quora, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, LINE, Snapchat, Pinterest, Viber, Reddit, Discord, VK, Microsoft Teams, and more. Wikis are examples of collaborative content creation.
SM outlets differ from traditional media (e.g., print magazines and newspapers, TV, and radio broadcasting) in many ways, including quality, frequency, usability, relevancy, and permanence. Additionally, sm outlets operate in a dialogic transmission system, i.e., many sources to many receivers, while traditional media outlets operate under a monologic transmission model (i.e., one source to many receivers). For instance, a newspaper is delivered to many subscribers, and a radio station broadcasts the same programs to an entire city.
Observers have noted a wide range of positive and negative impacts when it comes to the use of social media. SM can help to improve an individual’s sense of connectedness with real or online communities and can be an effective communication (or marketing) tool for corporations, entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, advocacy groups, political parties, and governments. Observers have also seen that there has been a rise in social movements using sm as a tool for communicating and organizing in times of political unrest.
What History of social media?
The PLATO system was launched in 1960, after being developed at the University of Illinois and subsequently commercially marketed by Control Data Corporation. It offered early forms of social media features with 1973-era innovations such as Notes, PLATO’s message-forum application; TERM-talk, its instant-messaging feature; Talkomatic, perhaps the first online chat room; News Report, a crowdsourced online newspaper, and blog and Access Lists, enabling the owner of a note file or other application to limit access to a certain set of users, for example, only friends, classmates, or co-workers.
Digital imaging and semiconductor image sensor technology facilitated the development and rise of sm. Advances in metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) semiconductor device fabrication, reaching smaller micron and then sub-micron levels during the 1980s–1990s, led to the development of the NMOS (n-type MOS) active-pixel sensor (APS) at Olympus in 1985 then the complementary MOS (CMOS) active-pixel sensor (CMOS sensor) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 1993. CMOS sensors enabled the mass proliferation of digital cameras and camera phones, which bolstered the rise of sm.
Development of social-media platforms:
When Tim Berners-Lee connected hypertext software to the Internet in 1991, he developed the World Wide Web, which created the modern era of networked communication. Weblogs, list servers, and e-mail services all aided in the formation of online communities and the support of offline groups. Online services evolved from providing conduits for networked communication to being interactive, two-way vehicles for networked sociality with the introduction of Web 2.0.
During the early 21st century, social media platforms became popular, first with the emergence of Friendster and Myspace, and later with the launch and popularization of Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, among others.
Research from 2015 shows that the world spent 22% of its online time on social networks, thus suggesting the popularity of sm platforms. It is speculated that the increase in social media’s popularity is due to the widespread daily use of smartphones. As many as 4.08 billion sm users worldwide were found active on smartphones as of October 2020.
Some types of SM and How Each Can Benefit Your Business:
When you’re thinking about creating a social media strategy for your business, a few leading platforms probably come to mind right away: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and maybe YouTube or Pinterest, depending on your industry.
However, there are many types of social media sites out there, with new platforms and formats popping up on the regular. Some of them are pretty niche, while others have the potential to become the next Instagram or TikTok.
How to choose the best types of SM for your business:
With the ever-growing number of social media platforms, it can be overwhelming to constantly wonder whether each of them is worth your time.
To avoid spending too much of your time learning the ropes of every new platform, let your sm marketing strategy guide your decisions, and only join the networks that support your goals.
Types of SM platforms and formats you should know in 2023:
- Social audio platforms and formats. As – Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, Spotify.
- Video social media platforms and formats. As – YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Stories and Reels, Facebook Watch.
- Disappearing content formats. As Snapchat, Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, and LinkedIn Stories.
- Discussion forums. As – Reddit, Quora.
- Shoppable social media platforms and features. As Pinterest Product Pins, Facebook Shops, Instagram Shops, TikTok, Shopify, Douyin, Taobao.
- Social media live streams. As – Twitch, YouTube, Instagram Live Rooms, Facebook Live, TikTok.
- Business social media platforms. As – LinkedIn, Twitter
- Closed/private community social media platforms. As – Discourse, Slack, Facebook Groups.
- Inspirational social media platforms. As Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, blogs.
Why Social Media is important?
In today’s society, the use of sm has become a necessary daily activity. SM is typically used for social interaction and access to news and information, and decision making. It is a valuable communication tool with others locally and worldwide, as well as to share, create, and spread information.
Organic Content. One of the biggest advantages of sm is that you can generate your own, organic content for free. You don’t have to pay to get access to valuable, potential leads. A lot of companies use these platforms to generate and interact with leads.
Why Social Media is good?
We know that having a strong social network is associated with positive mental health and well-being. Routine sm use may compensate for diminishing face-to-face social interactions in people’s busy lives.
SM helps you maintain relationships by making it easy to reach family and friends who live far; it closes the gap created by distance. You may have not seen someone for a few years but newsfeed updates keep you in the loop of what is happening in their lives.
Why Social Media is bad or dangerous?
More time spent on sm can lead to cyberbullying, social anxiety, depression, and exposure to content that is not age appropriate. SM is addicting. When you’re playing a game or accomplishing a task, you seek to do it as well as you can.
Overall, sm use is associated with a variety of issues. These include emotional and mental issues, such as anxiety, stress, depression, loneliness, and low self-esteem, physical issues, such as worse sleep quality, and general issues, such as exposure to misinformation and political polarization.
What is the main use of sm?
Billions of people around the world use sm to share information and make connections. On a personal level, sm allows you to communicate with friends and family, learn new things, develop your interests, and be entertained.
HISTORY OF SOCIAL MEDIA DAY
World Social Media Day was launched by Mashable on 30 June 2010. It was born as a way to recognize social media’s impact on global communication and to bring the world together to celebrate it. Everyone uses social media every day; it’s how we connect with people all over the world in a simple and fast way. Mashable is known to use social media to connect various cultures, movements, and fandoms, which is why they wanted a day to celebrate it. People use the hashtag, #SMDay every year, and this year is your time to get involved!
The first social media platform ever to be launched was Sixdegrees in 1997. Founded by Andrew Weinreich, the website allowed users to list friends and family members and had features such as profiles, bulletin boards, and school affiliations. At its peak, Sixdegrees had over a million users but it was eventually shut down in 2001.
The first modern sm platform was Friendster in 2002. The website allowed people to safely make new friends and has over a hundred million users, most of whom are in Asia. LinkedIn, the first business-focused social media platform was launched in 2003. MySpace launched in 2004, the same year as Facebook, but initially, it saw much greater success than Mark Zuckerberg’s creation. By 2006 MySpace was the largest sm platform in the world, with users loving the customized profiles that also enabled them to post their music.
YouTube launched its website dedicated to video in 2005 and Twitter followed with its limited characters platform in 2006. As both grew in popularity, so did Facebook, and the most popular social media platforms for the next five years were being established.
Instagram launched in 2010 and saw rapid growth, gaining over a million users within the first couple of months. With Instagram challenging its dominance, Facebook purchased the platform for $1 billion in 2012. Facebook also purchased the encrypted messaging platform WhatsApp for $16 billion in 2014. One platform that Facebook failed to buy was Snapchat. Snapchat, which became popular due to its disappearing stories feature, was launched in 2011 and reportedly turned down a $3 billion offer from Facebook in 2013. The most recent addition to the list of sm heavyweights is TikTok. The app was launched in 2016 and has become incredibly popular due to its extensive music and video editing features.