Besides chat rooms that were a product of the early age of the Internet during the early nineties, the first modern social media website known as SixDegrees, entered the market in 1997. It featured friends lists, and instant messaging. However, the website was shut down in 2001, simply explained by the fact that there were not enough people on the Internet yet, and that it was a concept ahead of its time. In 1997, under two percent of the world's population was on the internet, compared to today's fifty one percent.
Friendster, launched in 2002, quickly gained popularity and a following. It showed users how they were connected to others, with sleeker presentation. While Friendster gained a user base of over three million people. However, competition quickly arrived in the form of MySpace, still remembered my most nineties kids. MySpace was similar to Friendster, however, the owners of MySpace already owned a company called eUniverse which allowed them to have connections and advertising to their social media site. MySpace had quicker development team. However, MySpace was quickly overtaken by a social media site still well known today.
Facebook was started by Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard drop-out. Initially Facebook was a social media page directed at Harvard Students strictly, and then expanded to nearly all colleges. It had a wall for every user, and had an emphasis on used background. In 2006 Facebook was opened up to the public. Facebook was much more focused on user generated content, while MySpace focused on unnecessary useless featured as wells as tons of ads. Facebook was considered a cleaner more sleek look that attracted more users.
Twitter came out in late 2006, and quickly became popular because it was considered to be a new and unique idea. Much simpler than the previous, Twitter only required 140 characters to express a thought or experience. It was less involved thinking and interaction, and more or a modernized chat room. Twitter was the first social media website to truly use and embrace hashtags, using them as a form of polling data on trending topics and determining what people are most interested in at a particular time frame.
Other social media websites follow these previously discussed forms, either more simplified (like Instagram is to Twitter) or more complicated (like LinkedIn is to Facebook).
I think its interesting to use social media as yet another example of how throughout history, nearly everything great has had its time in the limelight and been popular among the people, but eventually fades away and is overtaken by something sleeker or better in the eyes of the people. Just as MySpace overtook Friendster because it was considered better, Facebook easily took over MySpace. Then Facebook itself had probably 7-9 years of extreme popularity, from 2006-2013 being popular among teenagers and adults alike. Recently, it has fallen behind apps like Instagram and Snapchat, and then in the past few months, has greatly come under fire for a scandal where Facebook's partners were selling people's private information to companies. This just goes to show that even the greatest eventually fall after their moment of glory. https://www.wired.com/story/inside-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-2-years-of-hell/
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the current stance and future position of Zuckerberg and Facebook, it seems to be in a situation comparable to Bill Gates' Microsoft court conflict. I found an article that discusses this relationship. In particular, the article discusses how both individuals and their companies have been accused of some sort of invasion of privacy and/or monopolies. The article further discusses the path Microsoft had after the court case and how Facebook could possibly follow a similar path.
ReplyDeletehttp://subscriber.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/04/01/mark-zuckerberg-decades-bill-gates-facebook-faces-perils-microsoft/