Social Media Then and Now

Contemporary social media has grown into a worldwide phenomena in these past few years. Originally, social media was viewed more as an online activity geared towards leisure and essentially “killing time”. I remember when Facebook had just came out and I was lucky enough to be attending one of the select schools that it rolled out to. But even before Facebook, I was a member of Friendster and Myspace. And before that there were sites such as Findapix and blogs such as LiveJournal. I never would have imagined that social media would be such an integral part of our society and culture as it is today. And I definitely would have never suspected there would be a major in social media! In addition with Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and many others, we are constantly exposed to the social media on a daily basis. Now, it is a main part of our lives, whether it is personal or business. Heck, we probably don’t even go a day without hearing or seeing the word Facebook or Twitter.

It is now our main medium of communication within our network of friends and family. We share things with one another through social media. Discover breaking news through social media. Interact and engage with others through social media. We learn from one another through social media. It is, by far, our most convenient way to collect information. From a business standpoint, the opportunities are endless. There is now more investment in marketing and advertising across social media and is likely to be a more fruitful investment than conventional means of advertising such as television or radio commercials, and print ads. Through the collection and use of information derived from social networks, business are better able to target not only their audience, but their message.

If there is one thing that social media has done, it has changed the entire way we obtain and share information. Don’t believe me? Check out reddit and Quora.