Don’t Underestimate the Impact That Social Media Has Had on Society
Social media is so ingrained in our daily lives that many of us no longer even think about the ways it has impacted society over the past two decades. It has influenced seemingly everything, including education, politics, and the news - not to mention how we communicate with our friends, neighbors, and co-workers on a daily basis. It truly has been a social media revolution.
So how did it all start?
The evolution of social media
The birth of modern social media can usually be traced back to the year 1997, with the launch of Six Degrees. This is generally recognized to be the first-ever social networking platform. That name, of course, was carefully chosen - it refers to the mythical “six degrees of separation” between every two people in the world. Amongst its earliest users, this soon became known as “the six degrees of Kevin Bacon.”
From there, things really took off. In 1999, the first mainstream blogging platform launched. Others soon followed, and people started to talk about the beginning of a new media world, in which everyday people - and not just experts - decided what was newsworthy. Suddenly, everyone became a potential expert on politics, film, art, or sports.
Soon after, the most famous social media platforms of today launched. 2002 saw the launch of Friendster and LinkedIn. In 2003, MySpace launched, and everyone became friends with “Tom” when they first joined. Then, one after another, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter (now X), Instagram, and Pinterest launched.
After a brief pause, the next generation of social media networking sites launched, including TikTok and Snapchat. And new innovations continued to be added to the mix, with the most important of these being live video streaming. By 2016, social media, which had primarily been a text-driven experience, began to be a video-driven experience.
Today, new types of social media experiences are still being created on a regular basis. By some accounts, there are now almost 6 billion social media users around the world, and hundreds of social media platforms. So just about everyone in the world, to one degree or another, has been touched by social media.The social media leaders continue to be Facebook and YouTube, but new ones are launching all the time.
Some long-time social media platforms, such as X, are now looking for ways to transform themselves for the new age of AI. So get ready for new iterations of the traditional social media experience, all powered by AI.
Positive and negatives
Of course, during its two-decade evolution, social media has provided its share of positives and negatives. When social media first appeared, the opinion was almost unanimous that it was a positive experience, enabling people to connect in ways they had never done before. People attributed a new spark of creativity to social media, and lauded it for opening up new educational and professional opportunities.
Social media also enhanced democracy. Authoritarian governments seemingly had no answer for social media. In fact, important moments in history - such as the Arab Spring of 2010 - can be attributed directly to the growth of social media as a worldwide phenomenon.
However, more than 20 years after the first social platform launched, people are starting to take a closer look at the potential negatives of social media, especially for the very youngest members of society. These negatives include mental health issues, as well as some very anti-social behaviors. These include addiction, cyberbullying, doxxing, and the intentional spread of misinformation (and even disinformation).
There is even speculation that some foreign governments may now be actively attempting to subvert America’s youth using social media. For example, some claim that the Chinese Communist Party is now using TikTok as a “back door” to spread propaganda and to snoop on America. Others claim that Russia has used social media to influence the outcome of elections, as well as to spread misinformation about democracy.
That is how powerful social media has become today - it can determine destinies of entire nations. That should be a warning to anyone who truly cares about the future of American democracy. Social media can be a force for both good and bad. It’s up to everyday citizens to decide which side is going to win in the end.