The Evolution of Social Media: Chapter 1


    Everyone has experienced the evolution of social media, in many ways. Personally, I remember the switch between Musically and TikTok. They are the same app, the name and branding just change. Even the trends changed drastically after this switch. creators went from lip syncing in 0.5 speed, to making get ready with me videos, dance videos, comedy sketches, micro trends and more. 

    According to the textbook Essentials of Social Media Marketing by Michelle Charello,  facebook was founded around twenty years ago, and now about 5.05 billion people use social media, which is about 62% of the world's population. Numbers will probably keep growing, and social media will keep changing. It even effects the way people interact in daily life. Covid had a very large impact on all of us, many people communicated online, or even spent all of thier time on the internet. Young kids had nothing to do but be on social media, online or on TV. A lot of younger kids I know have been on social media way before I was when I was their age, and many people my age don't know how to communicate well because of the reliance on social media. Interacting through a screen is much easier than in person. 

    Many people even use social media for news, to find out what is going on in politics and more. I see so many posts on individual's stories about politics, the upcoming election, Israel and Palestine and more. But, you never know what you can believe on social media. How are you supposed to know if something is actually true? 

    Lots of companies use social media as well to gain support or spotlight their product. Social media has made it so much easier, especially for small businesses, to gain traction. I cannot tell you how many videos I get on TikTok for products for small businesses and with the addition of TikTok shop, it is much easier to buy from small businesses. Social media "creators" can even make a living off of their videos if they are popular enough. Social media has changed the game for businesses, marketing, and communication, which will keep changing with the evolution of the internet. 

Comments

  1. Shannon McKenzieAugust 31, 2024 at 10:29 AM

    I remember when TikTok used to be musically to! I also remember the uproar when musically went away for a little while before people figured out TikTok was the same thing. I am definitely one of those 5.05 million people who use social media, and I definitely get a good amount of my news about the world from it as well. And although I understand that yes, there will be a lot of fake news throughout social media, I believe there was something that came out not too long ago about how there were news channels who had been creating fake news stories for years just to get people's attention!

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  2. Gage PowerAugust 31, 2024 at 10:55 AM

    I definitely remember the when TikTok switched from musically. It started to become big in 2018 and really took off during 2020. I know I was one of those people who mindlessly scrolled Tik Tok during covid and even find myself still doing it from time to time. I also liked that you talked about the Tik Tok shop as I think it is a big part of TikTok. You can order a variety of different things off the app and even get discounts. I also agree that this can be very beneficial for small businesses.

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  3. VivAugust 31, 2024 at 9:27 PM

    I've been thinking about how young kids are now when they get social media too! I have a little cousin who is eight years old and sends me snap chats, which is really weird sometimes because most of us were definitely not old enough to have Snapchat at that age. I think the things that are considered acceptable for young children are rapidly changing, and will probably become more and more surprising to those that remember it before.

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  4. Liz GeslerSeptember 1, 2024 at 10:02 PM

    I definitely am one of those people who use Social Media sometimes as a source of my news, which I am not proud of. Usually, while scrolling on social media, I come across a wide range of current events happening in our world. Sometimes I just keep scrolling, but there have been many times when I search for specific articles to get more information about a current event I saw on my feed. While I believe it can be very detrimental for social media to be someone's main source of information and news, I also believe in can be helpful in spreading news out there and on people's radar!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Matthew CookSeptember 2, 2024 at 6:33 PM

    I totally agree with the notion that everything you see online might need to be taken with a grain of salt. I love scrolling X (formerly twitter) but I always have to approach it with the perspective that not all of it may be factual! Something I love that X has added is the community notes feature where approved observers can add notes that clarify posts that are either not factual or vague. I enjoy getting to experience events in real time but the internet as always is a place to tread carefully!

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