For most of us, checking Facebook, Twitter or Instagram is the first thing we do when we wake up and the last thing before we sleep. Social Media has recently become an integral part of our everyday lives, but it’s been around since long before Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Human beings are social creatures, we thrive on, and in fact need, social interactions to maintain a healthy life and mind. Social media taps into these primal needs of human beings and it should come as no surprise that social media sites and social media apps are so popular today.
But there is more to them than that. Social media sites/apps offer users some valuable opportunities.
– A platform to meet new people and make friends in-country and internationally
– The opportunity to join groups of others who share their passions and interests from the comfort of their homes
– They are free (or are they?)
– They provide a large network to potentially find a new job
– A valuable way to get fast and real-time news on whatever situation
With the rise in popularity of early social media sites, it was only a matter of time before business took notice of the growing trend.
Earliest forms of social media
Communication across great distances has been accomplished since antiquity through media like the written word. This changed very little until the advent of the telegraph in 1792.
This technology finally offered a “faster than horse” method of communication over long distances and was revolutionary at the time.
1865 saw the development of pneumatic post, which you might still see in banks and supermarkets. This allowed for an even greater speed of communication – but over a shorter distance. When the telephone and radio hit the scene in the 1800s everything changed.
With their ability to provide, more or less, instant communication, the world would never go back. They both remain very important methods of social media to this very day.
Modern social media
After the invention of blogging, social media began to explode in popularity. Sites like MySpace and LinkedIn gained prominence in the early 2000s, and sites like Photobucket and Flickr facilitated online photo sharing. YouTube came out in 2005, creating an entirely new way for people to communicate and share with each other across great distances.
By 2006, Facebook and Twitter both became available to users throughout the world. These sites remain some of the most popular social networks on the Internet. Other sites like Tumblr, Spotify, Foursquare and Pinterest began popping up to fill specific social networking niches.
Modern social media are not only used for entertainment purposes but have become a major part of business and political interaction. So what’s the next step? There has been a lot of buzz about Google Wave and the possibility it presents to provide a platform for real-time productivity and collaboration rather than just talking about it.
Despite this apparent benefit, we have all seen the ‘dark side’ of social media over the last few years. Especially its potential for being hijacked for political (from all positions) and other nefarious means of control.
