Evolution of social media

Evolution of

social media

Alina danielCOM 3001

Social media is the term used to describe the ways in which individuals connect with one another in virtual communities and networks, creating, sharing, and/or exchanging ideas. (Tufts University, 2022) In this PowerPoint, we will be looking at how social media has evolved throughout the years.

What is social media?

Evolution of Social Media Platform

Click on each logo in the timeline to learn more about Connections through the years.......

1997 2016

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Evolution of Social Media Platform

Continuation.....

1997 2016

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2016

A recent trend across all social media platforms is the emergence of similar features in their latest updates. For example, TikTok, in the beginning, only allowed us to create and share videos, but now it also has a feature similar to Instagram and Snapchat where you can post stories for 24 hours. Similarly, the news feed concept that Facebook started was adopted by Twitter and Instagram. Similar features in social media help create a smooth transition for users between using different platforms without having to relearn something. However, overly similar content can cause user fatigue, that is, users can start to feel overwhelmed and disinterested, which can lead to them trying to find something more unique. It can lead to a decline in user retention and usage (VP, 2023)

Recent trend in Social media

Social media has helped us to come together as a community to share our thoughts, ideas and experiences to make connections and collaborate with people all over the world. Observing the evolution of social media over the years has allowed us to recognize which platforms introduced original concepts that paved the way for the success of newer platforms.

Conclusion

Social Media Overview. Communications. (n.d.). https://communications.tufts.edu/marketing-and-branding/social- media-overview/ VP, H. M. (2023, August 9). Same feature, different name: Are social media platforms becoming repetitive?. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/same-feature-different-name-social-media-platforms- becoming-vp/ The evolution of Social Media: Anchor Digital. Anchor. (2023, November 20). https://anchordigital.com.au/articles/the-evolution-of-social-media Friendster: The social media that started it all: Friendster: The social media that started it all: By Amazing time capsule. Facebook. (2024, September 15). https://www.facebook.com/AmazingTimeCapsule/videos/friendster-the-social-media-that-started-it- all/536429382241964/

References

Facebook was launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and is still one of the largest social networking sites globally. It was initially only available for Harvard students and people with an American college address. However, he made it available for everyone due to its popularity (The Evolution of Social Media, 2023).

Reddit is an online forum platform for sharing content and discussing topics of interest. Users can create subreddits within the community to post pictures and videos. Reddit is very popular for its upvote and downvote features (The Evolution of Social Media, 2023).

TikTok is one of the newer launched apps that allow users to watch and post videos of interest. TikTok consists of a for you page that shows users videos that they might be interested in. Users are able to like, share, comment, and duet the videos they like or dislike to share their opinions. The app was founded by a Chinese tech company and then merged with the US-based app called Musical.ly (The Evolution of Social Media, 2023).

Instagram is a famous photo-sharing app. It was originally designed for photographers and artists but was quickly accessed by everyone. Instagram was purchased by Facebook in 2012, which slowly transitioned to sharing videos as well (The Evolution of Social Media, 2023).

Twitter, now known as X after being bought by Elon Musk in 2022, is used to send short messages called “tweets” to family and friends (The Evolution of Social Media, 2023).

Friendster was launched in 2003. It supported the sharing of photos, videos, links, and texts. The platform was really successful, but the servers were not able to keep up with the flood of traffic, which led to the users finding other ways to communicate with their friends. Unable to compete with Facebook and Twitter, they rebranded as a gaming platform in 2011 and eventually shut down in 2018 (The Evolution of Social Media, 2023).

Friendster

LinkedIn is a business networking tool that allows people to connect for better career opportunities. It currently has more than 900 million active users (The Evolution of Social Media, 2023).

YouTube is a very well-known media platform for posting videos. It was launched in 2005 and was bought by Google in 2006. YouTube allows people to watch and post music videos, vlogs, and movies and lets the audience interact through the comment section. It is currently the second-most-visited platform after Google (The Evolution of Social Media, 2023).

Snapchat is a quick photo or video platform. It allows users to send pictures called “snaps” which can usually only be seen once and then are gone forever. However, now Snapchat has other features where snaps can be saved to the chat (The Evolution of Social Media, 2023).

Pinterest is a site that allows users to “pin” images or videos that they like and divide them into different folders known as “boards”. The app is made to mimic a traditional pinboard where you can create different boards for different topics (The Evolution of Social Media, 2023).

SixDegrees was one of the first social media. Users of the media were able to invite nonmembers, list their contacts, and message first, second and third connections.However, the site was bought after a year and shut down in 2000 (The Evolution of Social Media, 2023).

Myspace

Myspace was a social media platform where users could create customizable profiles, publish blogs, share photos and videos, play games, and more. It became a popular site for millions of teenagers worldwide soon after its launch in 2003 and was a rival platform to Friendster. It was bought out by Justin Timberlake and Specific Media Group in 2011. They experienced a drop in users and more people shifted towards using Facebook and they eventually rebranded themselves as a music portal in 2013 (The Evolution of Social Media, 2023).

While LiveJournal is not as popular as it once used to be, it allows you to create blogs, journal, and share your thoughts or activities to your friends (The Evolution of Social Media, 2023).

LiveJournal

Self-documenting aspect of social media was made possible by LiveJournal. American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick launched LiveJournal in 1999 to keep his high school friends updated on his activities.