Social media has impacted lives all over the world, especially the younger generations who have been "lucky" enough to have it involved since their birth. I remember the rise of social media and have seen the dramatic changes evolve and I truly wonder: has social media helped us or hurt us in our communities, our culture, the world?
Let's begin with the history of it all, for those of you who weren't there.
The internet as it is today started on a much more basic level. In 1997 when the World Wide Web was in its first stage of evolution and blogging was a huge deal. The pages were very minimalist in terms of content. At the time the web contained over 1 million websites. One of the most well known programs used was AOL's instant messenger system. It was a way to communicate with people all over the country, and all over the world.
In 1999 the term "Web 2.0" was coined by Darcy DiNucci who discusses the future of the internet. She was right, the web grew quickly from then on. Users soon began creating content instead of just consuming it. People loved the idea of connecting with others from their past, so programs like Friends Reunited was made in 1999, and later in 2002 Friendster became the new phenomenon.
As the internet evolved more and more users joined in on creating new and exciting ways to use it. In 2003 the great and powerful Myspace went viral. The site let you customize your own profile page and drastically changed the music industry--many artists including Adele, Skrillex, and Sean Kingston became famous off of their Myspace pages.
We all knew this was coming...Facebook. In 2004 Facebook was created solely for the Harvard students, obviously it didn't stay that way for long. At this moment Facebook now has 1.8 BILLION active users. Wow. The company is still running strong, and at the time of its conception it quickly beat out the past companies user count, and I doubt they will stop anytime soon.
The early 2000's was the best time for internet companies to start up. In 2005 Youtube made its way onto the market and created a free video making and streaming site for all to use, and even now as the conditions slowly change we all hope that it does not force us to pay for the service--Youtube Red and the long ass commercials have stirred the pots for Youtube, they better hope no other company beats them out.
Twitter quickly caught on as a microblogging site in 2006, and it faces the hands of time today. Recently they have tried to rebrand their sites, taking away Vine (RIP Vine) and trying to push the Moments app and website onto their users. Will it last? We will see.
The great thing about living in this time when things are rapidly changing is seeing the progress. Personally I remember not owning a cell phone till I was 12 years old, and it was a flip phone and I could only call my mom on it and take crappy pictures. But now we have smartphones, we can Google any and all of our questions. We can call, text, Skype, IM people we love who are far away and meet new people everyday.
There will always be consequences though. I love having a smartphone, but I see kids as young as 6 years old having their own phones or tablets, not paying attention to their family or their surroundings. Many argue that social media has actually made us LESS social. We constantly are looking at our phones, being completely plugged from the world by having our headphones on so we don't have to talk to anyone around us. Somehow we have made that socially acceptable and it shouldn't be.
We will get to see the rise and fall of many more websites to come, and we will get to watch as the whole world slowly gets connected to the internet--just look at internet.org in which Facebook gives Third World countries access to basic internet by solar planes and phones, or project loon run by Google where they connect people to the web via weather balloons--it is a great way to be creative, connect with your friends and make new ones, but it also needs to be under control.
This past week was a hard one on us as a country here in the United States, as well as the world because of our actions, and as the hate and anger grows maybe this week we should unplug for a while. Social media can wait, be sure to watch the seasons change outside--here in Portland, Oregon the colors of the leaves are incredible! Plus we have had a few sunny days too which is impressive as well--and try to avoid the hate, support the love. It's almost Thanksgiving time! Let's try to make the rest of this year one to remember, and not by the protests or hate that is outside (literally I can hear it from my room right this minute), let's end this year right with love (as cheesy as it sounds, let's try anyways)!
