The Rise of Social Media

 The Rise of Social Media: How it has Transformed the way we connect.

Social media is a collection of online platforms where people connect through creating, sharing, and interacting with content in the virtual community. It is getting very popular in today's world because social media became an integral part of modern life and transformed the way people interact, communicate and share information. Social Media allows you to interact with people all over the world.

Social media facilitates two-way communication and allows users to engage with each other through likes, comments, shares, and direct messages. It rely heavily on content created by its users. Social media is also used for real-time communication where users can interact and receive updates in real-time.

As there are many social media platforms available throughout the internet, every platform is unique from each other. Some social media platforms are used for entertainment whereas some platforms are used to share informational activities. It has a number of benefits in connectivity and access to information, as well as has lots of concerns about privacy, misinformation, and also impacts on mental health.

Evolution of Social Media

Early, social media was originated to connect with friends and family, but later on, it expanded to serve many purposes. Participation in social media exploded after the entry of Facebook and Twitter. People started using social media platforms for promotional activities, advertisements, e-commerce, etc. According to a report, global users spend approx. 2.25 hours each day on social networks in the year 2020. 

Here are some social media platforms you can use accordingly-

1. Facebook

Facebook is the largest social networking platform, which was founded on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, along with his college friends Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz. It is owned by the American technology giant Meta Platforms.

Facebook allows it users to post text, photos, and multimedia which are shared with any other users who have agreed to be friends or have different privacy settings, publicly.

Facebook updated its features to the extent that you can use it as a messenger to communicate directly, join common interest groups, receive notifications on the activities of your friends and the pages they follow, as a workspace, and even as e-commerce too.

According to a report the monthly active user reached 2.989 billion users worldwide. The majority of users are from Asia, with India having 329 million and The United States is the second largest market for Facebook with 179 million users.

2. Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking platform used for microblogging services, it allows its users to post and interact with short messages, known as ‘tweets’. These messages are limited to 280 characters only. Twitter has 535 monthly active users in June 2023. Twitter displays trending topics based on popular hashtags and keywords, reflecting the current interests and discussions happening on the platform. 

Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006 and launched in July of that year. Later on in the year 2023, it was acquired by the X Corp for 44 billion USD. which is owned by Elon Musk.

3. YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing platform that allows its users to upload, watch, and share videos. YouTube was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. Later on In October 2006, it  was purchased by Google for $1.65 billion. YouTube has become one of the most popular websites on the Internet that offers vast and diversified video content. According to a report, YouTube has more than 2.5 billion monthly users who collectively watch more than one billion hours of videos each day.

YouTube has had an unprecedented social impact, influencing popular culture, internet trends, and creating multimillionaire celebrities. It has many features like- video uploads, channel subscriptions, Monetization, Video discovery, Live stream, etc.

4. Instagram

Instagram is a social networking platform that allows its users to share photos and videos within the community. Instagram was originally launched for iOS in October 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. And the Android version was released in April 2012, after being acquired by Facebook Inc.

Instagram allows various features to its users, some of them are-

• Photo and video sharing: Instagram let users share their photos and videos to their profile, and customize them with filters, captions, and location tags.

• Stories: Users can upload their content into stories which will disappear after 24 hours.

• Direct messaging: Instagram allows its users to send messages directly to any individual, including sharing photos, videos, and other content.

• Business Feature: Instagram allows businesses to set up a shop on their profiles, enabling users to browse and purchase products directly within the app.

• Reels: Users can upload their content in the reels section which can be up to 15 minutes.

5. WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a messaging app that allows its users to communicate with each other through text, and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content. It was founded in 2009 by Brian Acton, Jan Koum and later acquired by Facebook Inc. in 2014.

WhatsApp has became an essential communication tool for people worldwide because it provides a simple and convenient way to stay in touch with friends, family and other peoples.

However, whatsApp has been in controversies for accessing users data, but you can protect it by end-to-end encryptions.

WhatsApp allows multiple features like instant messaging, Voice and Video Calls, Group chats, Status Update, Media sharing, Voice messages, etc. WhatsApp offers a separate app for businesses, allowing them to create a Business Profile, automate responses, and communicate with customers.