Social media has an incredibly long history, technically dating back as far back as 1844 with the invention of Morse Code. Communication across the world and the ability for social connections in the blink of an eye became evermore present as technology improved. Nowadays, almost anyone with a phone can communicate flawlessly across vast distances. Yet social media as we understand it today dates back to the 80s with the launch of instant messaging and public forums on the internet commonly referred to as web 2.0. The 2.0 aspect refers to the new way in which people consumed the web, including user-generated content and actually interactable media as before web 2.0, people didn't really have the chance to interact with anything. In earlier years Social media consisted mostly of message boards, chatrooms, catalogues and blogs, all ways in which people could come together and learn so much more about the outside world. This was before basic social media sites started to appear like Myspace in 2003 and even before the first social media site, six degrees, was released in 1996, which popularised features like friend lists and custom profiles, both things considered the norm in current-day social media platforms. Developing through the years social media giants like Twitter, Youtube and Facebook have grown exponentially, all with their own unique ways of communicating and sharing information. In this day and age, social media is used by much of the population, over 4.70 billion to be exact. Websites like Twitter or Facebook let users customise their own profiles and upload their own photos, slabs of text or videos for their followers to see. Most content on these platforms are personal and are used as a way to connect to others in a convenient way much like older social media sites but only more vast and broader. There are also unique examples like Youtube which prioritises the video format and has a way of monetising its users. This is because while youtube is a social media platform, its vision is focused towards entertainment instead of the social aspects. This is an exciting concept, but also demonstrates how social media has changed since the early days. For instance, old social media was used strictly for socialising with others in a meaningful way, but nowadays, websites like youtube pay and promote creators like crazy and yet almost all the social aspect is lost because it is impossible to ever know them personally. Looking back at how social media used to be used proves that while the initial vision companies had for these social platforms is still somewhat present, The amount of changes and developments these sites have gone through since their release make them, in some ways, unrecognizable.
Social media tries its best to connect to and communicate with people of all different ages, backgrounds and other defining characteristics. It is in their best interest to be as inclusive as they can, considering how it is their goal to connect people from around the world. The current culture surrounding social media varies from platform to platform, but some sense of cohesion connects them all together. For instance, many social media sites are directing their attention to short-form content, celebrity/influencer drama and cancel culture. Short-form content specifically is becoming ever more present in the social media scape, with the emergence of sites like TikTok which prioritise 60-second videos. Although this was recently increased, TikToks insistence on this type of media form makes content easily consumable and monetizable. This also increases the spreadability of posts, increasing the average person's chance of becoming popular and incentivising a culture surrounding influencers. Often influencers are born from sudden popularity and rise to fame because of a stereotypical characteristic they possess, such as a stereotypical male influencer being tall, muscular and handsome. Audiences love these types of influencers, and there are plenty who cater to all different types of lifestyles and qualities. People who desire beauty and makeup-related content will gravitate to influencers like James Charles who has 36.2 million followers on TikTok. Those who prefer live streaming and gaming will likely follow Ludwig Ahgren who broke the record for most subscribers on Twitch at 273,000. Technology and coding? Linus Tech Tips. Documentary style video essays? Disrupt TV. The point being that where there is an audience to be found, an influencer will be at the forefront serving as a figure audiences can easily gravitate to.
Media companies tend to invent exciting and trendy ways to entice people to continue to use their platform. Often sites will have something unique to their name to differentiate themselves from the competition. Snapchat for example is home to the ‘Streaks’ feature. Streaks entice users every time they use the app to send someone a message and perpetuates this by giving them a score. The more people you message consistently day by day, the higher score you get. This feature is an extremely simple one, having no special features be unlocked by having a high scorestreak and yet people often compare them when face to face. Social media sites like these are designed to be an enticing environment in which people spend hours scrolling through often short clips of engaging content accompanied by an algorithm to keep the pace of content consistent. These algorithms are used to keep the content interesting and engaging for as long as possible. Algorithms are used in a number of other ways too. Some sites like Instagram, Facebook and Youtube use algorithms to push targeted ads to specific people, catering to what they often search or look up using the internet. As well as ads, algorithms often push user-generated content such as other people's posts. This is indicative of Social media's initial goal of connecting people. However, these algorithms rely heavily on data such as likes, comments and similar interactions to determine what does and does not get seen. This reliance on platform features establishes a culture among users where certain tactics and strategies have been developed to better the chances of certain posts appearing on other users' feeds. TikTok, Instagram and Youtube’s algorithms favour current trends popular among the majority of its users. It will also push content related to, or a step different from what individuals are watching, giving viewers more of what they want to see and introducing them to more content they may like. Platforms like Twitter, on the other hand, use Likes, retweets and comments to determine how popular a post will become. Often trending posts have not just a great deal of likes, but also many comments, so users will purposely post images, videos or text that can be easily discussed or commented on.
Social media is a major contributor to media as a whole. Much of what happens on Social Media can have an effect on the outside world, including other media products like film, radio, etc. Since its inception, Social media's influence on the outside world has risen dramatically. Originally the ability to interact with media socially was only found in forms such as newspaper sections where people could advertise only very specific social aspects of their life. Following this, E-mail eventually overtook the ability to socialise with others, changing the format that social media was consumed. Photography and video also converge into social media as the ability to share photos and videos became more and more popular with different social media sites. Previous technologies like Phones and social formats converge into what we now know as social media, fitting into the constraints of current media to achieve financial success. Nowadays digital media companies make money from advertisements and data selling. This way of making a profit was not possible or at the least very viable until the inception of social media, by which Private life and advertisements became intergrateable.
Issues regarding Social media are present throughout the world. When it comes to social media these issues concern audiences related to the legal, ethical and social sides of media, affecting many in a negative way. Aspects of social media like freedom of speech are disputed among different media audiences but as of recently, Twitter has had much happening in terms of this. CEO of SpaceX, Tesla and as of recently Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, Elon Musk has been making many changes in regards to freedom of speech on the platform. First Elon made a big change to what is and isn't allowed to be posted, and what kind of actions result in a ban. Specifically, Elon made it so anyone on the platform could be more open about their opinions without fear of being removed from the site. In theory, this seems like a good idea, however, a fatal flaw of this design is that it also allows room for toxic and derogatory groups to form without consiquence. Essentially things like Racism and homophobia are permitted and have no issue having their opinions shared. While this is a horrible thing, it is argued that despite these falts, a community where nobody is afraid to share their opinion and freedom of speech is present, could be an alright thing. At least this would be an alright thing if Elon then didn't announce that in order for tweets to gain traction, you would have to subscribe to an $8 USD subscription service to verify your account and in turn boost your tweet so it is seen by anyone at all. This is a strange decision, as based on Elon's original goal to provide freedom of speech to all users, users should have an equal right to have their posts seen by anyone.
Bibliography:
- https://online.maryville.edu/blog/evolution-social-media/
- https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/the-complete-history-of-social-media-infographic.html
- https://www.nimcj.org/blog-detail/traditional-media-vs-social-media-similarities-and-differences.html#:~:text=Traditional%20media%20means%20newspapers%2C%20magazines,%2C%20Instagram%2C%20LinkedIn%2C%20etc.
- https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-handles-engaging-impersonation-without-clearly-specifying-will-be-2022-11-06/
- https://www.searchenginejournal.com/twitter-algorithm/467459/#:~:text=The%20Twitter%20algorithm%20bases%20its,you'll%20want%20to%20see
- https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/05/parenting/influencers-social-media-relationships.html
- https://www.retailnews.asia/tag/algorythm/
- https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/26/elon-musk-on-his-success-america-is-the-land-of-opportunity.html
- Media Textbook