Social media has become a way to meet new people and connect with friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances.  Sounds like a great idea, right?  Well, with controversies surrounding fake news, data breaches, mental health impact, and hate speech, maybe it is not such a good idea.  On June 30, 2010, “World Social Media Day” was born.  Its intent was to recognize social media’s impact on global communication and to celebrate it since almost everyone uses social media in one way or another.

 

Let’s take a look at various social media:

• 1994 – Blog was essentially a precursor to the birth of social media; however, the term wasn’t evented until 1999. Blogs are often integrated with other types of social media platforms such as picture-sharing, wall-postings, etc.
• 1997 – Sixdegrees was launched allowing users to send messages and post bulletin board items. It was shut down in 2001.
• 2002 – Friendster allowed users to contact other members and was also used for dating, discovering new events, sharing photos, and messaging. It was shut down in 2018.
• 2003 – Linkedin is primarily a business/employment service where users make professional business connections, publish job postings, join groups, and communicate with others. This is still a viable online service.
• 2004 – MySpace was really the first social network that provided users a place where they could relive memories from the past and upload audio files. It is still active; however, it has transitioned away from social networking to become a curated music and entertainment site.
• 2004 – Facebook is an active social networking site that makes it easy to connect and share family and friends online through posts, photos, news feeds, etc. It also has a wider audience than most social media sites.
• 2005 – YouTube is a free video sharing website by creating and uploading your own video and you can watch, like, and comment on other videos.
• 2006 – Twitter is an active online news social networking site primarily to connect people and allow people to share their thoughts with a big audience through short messages called “tweets.”
• 2010 – Instagram is an active popular, free photo-sharing app available on iPhone and Android where people can upload photos or videos and share with friends, family, and followers.
• 2010 – Pinterest is a visual discovery engine and was founded by a former Google employee that allows users to share, and discover new interests by posting, better known as “pinning”, to subject boards.
• 2011 – Snapchat lets you easily talk with friends, send pictures or videos called “snaps” and is currently a downloadable mobile app for IOS and Android devices.
• 2014 – WhatsApp is a free instant messaging app available for IOS and Android that uses the internet to send text, audio, or video messages around the world. The cost is significantly less than regular texting.
• 2016 – TikTok is the latest app for making and sharing short videos.

Some may argue that social media is evil, while others claim it is good.  There are pros and cons to just about everything so it is up to individuals to determine for themselves.  Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons:

The Bellevue University Library uses several of these social media platforms to engage patrons by marketing their sources and services.  Check out the following links to follow us and see what the Freeman/Lozier Library is promoting.

• Blog
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• TikTok