The Evolution of Social Media: A Deep Dive
hive-153850·@zestimony·
0.000 HBDThe Evolution of Social Media: A Deep Dive
 <Div class="text-justify"> Over the years, with the advent of the internet and computing devices such as smartphones and computers, social media has been a growing trend, advancing the functions of our computing devices from basic computing device to highly interconnected devices. With social media and its vast array of social networks, you don’t need to travel to see the world, the world is basically on your device. Social media platforms have evolved from simple text sharing platforms to photo, gif and even video sharing platforms. They come in different flavours, such as basic lifestyle platforms like Facebook and Instagram; forums such as Reddit; video sharing platforms such as TikTok and YouTube; news platforms such as Twitter; and blockchain-based social media platforms like Steemit, Hive, and Vue; career-based social media, such as LinkedIn etc. These platforms present a wide range of possibilities for her users. This includes the ability to run a full-fledged business from them, gain rewards from sharing content, connect with like-minded career nerds, chat and communicate with people, job hunt, advertise, etc. There is almost no limit to how far one can go on social media. While social media is appealing, social media can be considered a two-edged sword. On one end, social media comes with a lot of appealing opportunities, on the other end, social media could severely hurt you beyond a lifetime recovery. In this edition of the featured content, I will be sharing two (2) reasons I like social media and two (2) reasons why I feel social media is bad. <a href="https://www.animatedimages.org/cat-lines-562.htm"><img src="https://www.animatedimages.org/data/media/562/animated-line-image-0244.gif" border="0" alt="animated-line-image-0244" /></a> --- ## Reasons I Like Social Media  <Sup> [***Source***](https://pixabay.com/images/id-998990/) </sup> Social media is one of the most important aspects of the internet evolution, two key reasons why social media is quite valuable to me are: 1. Social Media is good for business 2. Social Media Enhances Global Communication #### 1. Social Media is Good for Business Social media is a hub for a lot of persons globally, and it has succeeded in transcending most barriers to global interaction. With the development of language translation programmes baked into most social media platforms, one key barrier to globalization has been removed from social media platforms. With this, one can run their businesses globally with customers around the globe, thanks to universal payment systems and crypto. Social media is a platform where one can present his/herself, and business to the whole world. How far can you go? Estimates have it that over half of the world’s population at 4.62 billion people worldwide uses social media platforms daily. We could safely conclude that the other non-users are either children, those too young to use social media, or those too old to use it. Imagine the level of reach you can achieve through social media? With social media, you could do more for your business than reach new customers. According to this [WEbFX article](https://www.webfx.com/social-media/learn/social-media-marketing-advantages-and-disadvantages/), through social media, you have a direct connection to your customers, provide better customer service, gain valuable insight about your customers, and much more. Through social media, businesses could run highly effective ads that are cheaper and more effective than what traditional advertising services could achieve through billboards and television/radio ads. What more does a business need to be able to thrive? #### 2. Social Media Enhances Global Communication Since the early periods of human history, communication globally has never been easier, inexpensive, fluid and more advanced than during our times. Remember what history has shared and your little wealth of experience, you know it has not always been easy to communicate globally. From letter writing and bottling the letter hoping that the right recipient gets it after tossing the bottle into the sea, to letter delivery through posts/mails, to the use of FAX and most recently, international phone calls which were crazy expensive. Social media has entirely changed the communication space. Things are not the same. Most social media platforms have instant messaging systems and call features including video chatting which makes it easier than ever to communicate with anyone across the globe. <a href="https://www.animatedimages.org/cat-lines-562.htm"><img src="https://www.animatedimages.org/data/media/562/animated-line-image-0244.gif" border="0" alt="animated-line-image-0244" /></a> --- ## The Bad Side of Social Media  <Sup> [***Source***](https://pixabay.com/images/id-2923048/) </sup> This life is full of ironies, there are always two sides to a thing. Just as there are two sides to a coin, there is always a reverse of almost all human activities and systems, even [@Samostically]( https://peakd.com/hive-153850/@samostically/learning-from-reversals) has identified the flip side of most quotes/ideologies and how we could learn from them. So, what are the flipsides of social media, and are they serious enough to deter one from it? Let’s explore two key negative sides: 1. Social media is antisocial 2. Social media is potentially addictive #### 1. Social media is antisocial Social media has done more harm than good to humans’ inherent social nature. It provides an illusion of socialization other than true socialization. When using social media, we feel we are actually getting connected to people, especially loved ones, while on the inverse, we are breeding grounds for more discord, we are cheating in relationships (chatting with four or more persons in a go), building envy, jealousy and hatred while covering it up with beautifully crafted texts, comments and likes (there is no dislike button in most social media platforms). Social media is making us lose out on developing important social values such as patience, and respect. The instant nature of messages makes it hard for us to wait. The openness of social media in the guise of free speech and democracy has made it easier than ever for both young and old alike to show disrespect to each other. Most people today cannot start and hold a conversation because of what social media has thought them unwittingly. The use of abbreviated messages such as “K, in place of Okay; TBH in place of To be honest, etc.” has hurt most persons' ability to communicate effectively in the professional setting. An interesting and shocking fact is that most of us cannot even spend a good peaceful day with people whom we have shared millions of lines of text and images with on social media. Social media is progressively making us fewer human as the day goes by. #### 2. Social media is designed to be addictive There is something inherently wrong with the design of social media platforms, and this design is being favoured because it has been researched and tested to be successful in retaining people on social media platforms for an unhealthy amount of time. The social media platform owners only make money off your attention, so their ability to keep you on these platforms the longer potentially makes them more profit. As a result, they go the extra mile. Studies have reported that the design of social media platforms does not start and end with web developers alone, these [big social media players also employ the services of psychologists and neuroscientists to get clues on how to design a system that is very difficult to leave once you get in](https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44640959). Trust me, it is not your fault if you find it hard to stop using these platforms, that was part of their designs. They are even designed like slot machines, and addiction to social media could be as worse as addiction to smoking. The likes, emoji and more may look trivial, but they produce a [dopamine effect](https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/trapped-the-secret-ways-social-media-is-built-to-be-addictive-and-what-you-can-do-to-fight-back/) that makes it more likely that you will want to gain these psychological rewards again and again. In part of their designs, [these companies are even emulating the same strategies used by gambling companies](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/08/social-media-copies-gambling-methods-to-create-psychological-cravings). <a href="https://www.animatedimages.org/cat-lines-562.htm"><img src="https://www.animatedimages.org/data/media/562/animated-line-image-0244.gif" border="0" alt="animated-line-image-0244" /></a> ## Final Words As explored so far, my account of the evolution of social media has shown that social media could be a force for good if properly and moderately utilized, but if we let down on our guards, social media could result in more harm than good. So, moderation is the watchword and should be the lifestyle as well. </Div> --- ##### <sup> Thanks for Reading | I am @Zestimong | Chukwudi Ofurum </sup>
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