Social Media
The above image illustrates the history of the introductions of popular social media tools from the years 1997 to 2007. The usage of these tools, with the exception of some of the earlier tools such as Instant messenger and Napster Music, have increased exponentially over the years to the current year of 2014. Instant messenger and Napster helped pave the ways for the media tools in more recent history and should not be discredited based on the fact their usage is not as popular as some of their predecessors such as Facebook and Youtube. Also it is important to note that while Skype could be considered a video telephone media source, it is still a social media device that permits video conferencing and communication of users over great distances. While all of the sites listed above are widely popular and used social media tools, one that has nearly become synonymous with the word is Facebook.
Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg under the original names Facesmash and TheFacebook when he was 23 years old studying at Harvard University. The simple tool meant to keep college students on campus connected is responsible for making Zuckerberg one of the most successful modern day entrepreneurs. In the second quarter of 2014, total amount of Facebook users totaled 1,317 million. To put this number into perspective, the United States is comprised of a population of approximately 300 million people. Facebook has become a worldwide sensation used to keep people connected with their family, friends, government, activity groups and entertainers. Another widely popular social media tool is Twitter. Twitter is a less sophisticated tool than Facebook, and its simplicity was the intention of its design. Users of Twitter can stay connected with other people of interest as well, and is used to a greater degree to keep in touch with famous celebrities and recent world news. Currently there are over 48 million users of the site.
While predictions cannot ever hold complete confidence in accuracy, the website www.statista.com has made an attempt to approximate the number of users the two media tools will have in the next few years up until the year 2018. Based on their prediction, Twitter will have a user base of 64.9 million users in the year 2018. While the site did not list a figure for worldwide users collectively of Facebook in the year 2018, it did predict that the users would continue to increase greatly in each regional breakdown (ie Asia, Brazil, etc.). It is difficult to predict that Facebook will decline in popularity, particularly over the next decade, because they already hold such a large market share of social media users. While other tools such as Google+ are in operation and increasing users, they will have to offer a reason to make the switch. Many users of social media will most likely choose to operate accounts on both sites rather than ditch Facebook altogether. As the Media Systems Dependecy Theory illustrates, users will continue to use media to obtain knowledge and information based on their need. With Facebook having the overwhelming majority of users, switching to a less popular site will only decrease the users ability to gain knowledge as they will be limited to fewer people utilizing the same tool.
Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg under the original names Facesmash and TheFacebook when he was 23 years old studying at Harvard University. The simple tool meant to keep college students on campus connected is responsible for making Zuckerberg one of the most successful modern day entrepreneurs. In the second quarter of 2014, total amount of Facebook users totaled 1,317 million. To put this number into perspective, the United States is comprised of a population of approximately 300 million people. Facebook has become a worldwide sensation used to keep people connected with their family, friends, government, activity groups and entertainers. Another widely popular social media tool is Twitter. Twitter is a less sophisticated tool than Facebook, and its simplicity was the intention of its design. Users of Twitter can stay connected with other people of interest as well, and is used to a greater degree to keep in touch with famous celebrities and recent world news. Currently there are over 48 million users of the site.
While predictions cannot ever hold complete confidence in accuracy, the website www.statista.com has made an attempt to approximate the number of users the two media tools will have in the next few years up until the year 2018. Based on their prediction, Twitter will have a user base of 64.9 million users in the year 2018. While the site did not list a figure for worldwide users collectively of Facebook in the year 2018, it did predict that the users would continue to increase greatly in each regional breakdown (ie Asia, Brazil, etc.). It is difficult to predict that Facebook will decline in popularity, particularly over the next decade, because they already hold such a large market share of social media users. While other tools such as Google+ are in operation and increasing users, they will have to offer a reason to make the switch. Many users of social media will most likely choose to operate accounts on both sites rather than ditch Facebook altogether. As the Media Systems Dependecy Theory illustrates, users will continue to use media to obtain knowledge and information based on their need. With Facebook having the overwhelming majority of users, switching to a less popular site will only decrease the users ability to gain knowledge as they will be limited to fewer people utilizing the same tool.