Social Media Changing the World

Social media has become one of the biggest and most important part of every day lives for people anymore.  It seems without it, they have no way of connecting to the world.  The way we socialized with others has evolved throughout the years when we all would chat on the "pioneers" of social media with IRC, ICQ, Yahoo chat/messenger, Aol Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, etc.  During the beginning of my high school year in 1999, everyone had ICQ.  It was our way to connect and interact with each other.  Being shy, I always found it easier to chat with others online.  It truly helped me developed friendships among people in school better.  Then as the internet evolved more, the more social sites came out.  Blogs were a big thing with the younger generation at the time I remember.  Music became a big thing as well because of Apple around 2001, it changed the way we bought music and using the online store with iTunes.

Myspace, the first big social site besides Friendster grew.  It was a huge craze among the masses of people that people added anyone it seems.   You found yourselves coming across different people that didn't even go to your school and always had to be cautious of strangers on there.  You were able to connect to anyone from your school who listed it in their information about themselves which made it so easy. Then Facebook becomes available to everyone instead of just college students.  It took over the world literally.

Other social medias were developed such as Twitter, news sites that brought a variety of it all together, YouTube, Skype, StumbleUpon, etc.  Sharing news, statuses, pictures, and posts became so much easier with a click of an icon:

The disadvantages of social media can be a negative impact on our life when it comes to being social in real life. I notice people checking their phones when they're hanging out with others instead of interacting with each other.  I read an article on a study done where people become more selfish through social media.  I can see that being an issue and how people tend to post a lot of things in order to get attention in an instant especially those in need of a self-esteem boost.  According to NY Times, 

"Narcissism clearly leads to more social media use, social media use leads to positive self-views, and people who need a self-esteem boost turn to social media."  

The internet can sometimes be a cesspool for malware, identity theft, psychos, and even bullies.  People are cautious on social sites to not share too much information about themselves.  Anything you post nowadays could affect your job depending on the things you post if it's open to the public.

As soon as social media went mobile, it has taken over our lives to constantly check it such as Facebook.  Going mobile has made it easier to get on the internet wherever we are.  With social media evolving, it has helped all of us to connect and interact people more.  It is a way to keep up or find others who we have lost contact with over the years.  It helps us connect to family and friends especially when we live far apart.  It puts reunions together with families and schools.  It is the simplicity of being able to share photos, your thoughts, and overall your life among people.  Social media has paved its ways over the years and will always affect our lives each day by how we interact.