Social media has evolved a great deal over the last decade.
It's been fueled by technological advances and our human impulse to connect
with others. With the rise of mobile apps and smartphones, we can now stay in
touch with our friends and family on the go. And businesses have seen the power
of social media to market their products.
In the beginning, social media was just a way to communicate
with friends and family. We could post personal messages on Facebook and
Myspace, and share photos and videos on Twitter. But in 2010, we started to see
the birth of more niche platforms.
For instance, YouTube, launched in 2005, became a hot trend and
quickly shifted its focus to video content. TikTok, a short video app launched
in September 2016, has already hit 1 billion downloads. The platform has become
popular among teenagers and influencers, and a recent survey revealed that 80%
of users spend a significant amount of time on the app.
One of the early social networking sites was SixDegrees,
founded in 1997 by Andrew Weinreich. The site, which adopted a social-circles
network model, let users upload profiles and bulletin boards. They could also send
and receive messages with people in their first and second degrees.
Friendster, which launched in 2003, incorporated background
music, profile shout-outs, and customizable background images. When the site
was new, it had three million active users. However, Myspace came on the scene
and was the most popular website in 2006.
Blogging, which had been popular for years, began to take
off in the late 1990s, and by the turn of the millennium, a new flurry of
social networking websites had emerged. Some of the earliest of these sites
were Friendster, MySpace, and LiveJournal. These sites allowed users to post
and interact on topics such as politics, entertainment, sports, and news.
Another early social media site was Twitter, which was
launched in 2006. Users can post messages, photos, and video clips, and follow
celebrities and other users. Although it isn't the first social networking site
to enter the marketplace, it was one of the most successful. By the end of the
2000s, Facebook had eclipsed MySpace, becoming the world's largest website.
Google+ was another attempt to enter the social media
sphere. However, after a data security breach, the company shut down its
service.
As with most technology, the evolution of social media has
come largely from the desire for communication. This is why it has remained as
popular as it is today. Whether it's staying connected with distant family
members or landing a new job, humans have long sought to connect with those
they care about.
