Social Media

I do remember a time before social media, however, it was still very much a part of my childhood. I remember in 6th grade I got an ICQ account. It was so cool. I could add all my friends and IM them whenever  we were both online. Internet connections were still pretty horrible. Often times people would log in and out without notice, disconnect for ten minutes and have to reset the whole connection. If someone tried to call it would also end the connection. It was rudimentary but it was the beginning of my social media experience.

Later in middle school ICQ was out and Aol Intant Messenger or AIM was in.  Everyone had an AIM account. We finally got a DSL connection so I could be online whenever without disrupting the daily lives of others.  Our home phone was still the way most everyone contacted us so before we got DSL there were many a dispute over the amount of time I spend online chatting with my friends.  Middle school also brought on the onslaught of Myspace.  Tom, in all his brilliance, set up the first multidimensional social networking site. Now we weren’t limited to a screen name, icon, and small profile.  We could have as many pictures as we wanted, list all of our interests, change our user name anytime, and customize our profiles. We were free!

Then, Myspace became a breeding ground for scene kids who wanted to befriend as many people as possible for no apparent reason than to somehow convince themselves they had friends, although I doubt they knew 10% of the so called “friends.” Suddenly advertisements were everywhere. Random bands and organizations were bombarding you with friend requests and messages. It got to be too much. Not to mention all the creepers.

In high school I dropped social media pretty heavily. I didn’t check my Myspace anymore and I didn’t want a facebook. I finally bent to the pressure at the end of freshman year of college. All my friends had one and looked at me like I was a freak when they found out I didn’t. Plus, I wanted to keep in touch with them over the summer.

While I enjoy social media as much as the next person I wouldn’t miss it too much if it shut down. I have a twitter but never use it. Facebook can be entertaining sometimes but after awhile it just gets to be too annoying.  They need to be careful not to end up like Myspace. I would suggest watching the advertising. I know it is necessary and helpful for many businesses but it won’t do any good if people decide to stop using it. Businesses might suffer at first, but I think they would just start utilizing the old sources for frequently again. Television, magazine, billboard, and radio advertisements are still used but sometimes not as often as they would be if social media weren’t such a great outlet. The one truly unique thing about social media is the word of mouth advertising that goes on. When you see an ad you might not think twice about it, but when you hear from a friend or family member about the great new place down the street, suddenly you want to check it out.