INTRODUCE YOURSELF
Am here to show the little opinion on
social media .......
I Wake up in the morning and squint at the tiny blue screen in the hands of a sleepy young adult. Scrolling through the variety of posts, tweets, pictures, and videos to see what is going on in the lives of those they know. “Oh, sweet! My post is at 75 likes!” “What? How can he get over 100 favorites for posting about his dinner?!” “My sister is killing it for her job!” after pressing ‘like’ for the picture that shows she got employee of the month. Social media has become a way to connect with people we know and share our opinions on news and events occurring around the world. With the extension of picture and video media, social media is a great way of passing time similar to watching TV. Some of the most popular social media sites include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Tinder, YouTube, Snapchat, the list goes on!
The variety of platforms allows for a wide range of uses and attracts users in a variety of ways. Facebook is popular because users can friend and follow others they know or like and keep up with the events going on in their lives. Twitter is the home of the #hashtag and a great place to follow people and read about events in a short and sweet way since tweets are limited to 140 characters. Instagram is a platform where all posts include a picture or video followed by a caption. Snapchat allows users to communicate with each other through pictures and videos that are seen once or twice and then go away forever. Each platform has its own unique interface, but they are all similar in being a public online space for users to connect and stay in touch.
Social media began through a variety of online platforms for users to share their interests and connect with others who shared similar interests. Then, it evolved into an online public space to connect and network with people. According to Boyd (2014), “social mediarefers to the sites and services that emerged during the early 2000s, including social networking sites, video sharing sites, blogging and microblogging platforms, and related tools that allow participants to create and share their own content” (p. 6). Additionally, social media enables people to interact in online communities (Boyd, 2014). It bridges the gap between not being able to physically be around people and wanting to connect with them.
History
The history of social media can, technically, be traced back to 1971 when the first e-mail was sent between two side-by-side computers. However, for the purpose of this book, the social media platforms covered will be those separate and beyond simple e-mail, which in this case began in 1997 with the inception of the website called Six Degrees. Its premise was to allow users to make their profiles and then friend others; the site was based on the “six degrees of separation” theory, and only last from 1997-2001. During this time, ICQ (I Seek You,) an open source instant messaging program went live, as well as America Online (AOL,) a web-browser and it’s instant messaging service, AIM.