As I was going through and looking at all the Social Media sites and platforms that have emerged from the time of WebTV and Myspace. It is totally amazing how technology, graphics, and coding has come over the last 30 years, whereas the platforms were only designed to get closer to musicians and entertainment personality. Now, the world is our oyster, not always reaching in getting pearls. I pride myself on being what some might say a baby boomer. We are the ones that were thrust in between generations, at the vast beginning of the space and technology boom. The rise of computers came when I was in high school and at the time, not all students were privileged to have a computer lab, it was always for the elite smart. The closest to any technology of limited graphics in our household and with many kids in our neighborhood were Atari and Nintendo.
I didn't really get into computers until WebTV. The crazies thing hooking up a keyboard to your television and being able to surf the web. No classes here! I just went for it, typing in anything I could think of, so it began. When myspace appeared, Oh my goodness. Being able to see your favorite artist, especially musician, learning to set up your own page, with backgrounds, and most of all communicating with people in different states. The complete evolution.!
As Social Media grew, with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, Youtube, Whatsapp, Zoom, Snapchat, and now Discord.
The excitement that was felt in the late '80s and '90s has turned into platforms for political gain, Business opportunities, and The new generation learning and thriving with an online business as influencers. Children under the age of two have social media accounts, parents have set up to show how talented their children are. We have an overabundance of News from all over the globe, Live news, Apps, of movies, and games,. Where there used to be strict restrictions for language and obscurity in the form of pornography the world culture of this type of display of nudity and sex as art, Most of all, the blunt negativity of the ones thoughts shared on a single comment.
For over 30 years I have used some type of social media. It is moving so far away from being that place to talk to family and friends. Now it is more or less used to exploit households' complete day-to-day lifestyles, and business ventures to get likes, build up the algorithms to get sponsors, and make money. I use Facebook as more of a promotional platform with my extended pages, My personal page is of course the animal videos, sharing my thoughts of the day or events that I am attending or inviting someone to attend. Instagram is more about photos, fashion, and sharing your favorite celebrity vibe, I only recently went back to Twitter after a few years of hiatus. Twitter use to be a great promotional platform, but now it's, well I just don't know anymore. I help a few people promote their Instagram and I'm learning more about reels and short video edits with word prompts. I do want to use social media for my business, however, it has become more of a competition, and word of mouth has always been the better choice for advertising. We will see!
