LOS ANGELES ISLAND— Given the widespread preoccupation with social media, one could be led to believe that we have managed to maintain our existence as a global civilization for such a significant number of thousands of years without the need of such platforms. And it is not just for young adults and those who are still youthful at heart. In point of fact, if you do not have any social media accounts at all, not even a single one, it gives the incorrect impression to everyone else in the digital world. It gives the sense that you are either concealing something or, even worse, that there is something wrong with you. But how did we get to the point where we are obsessed with this? How did we get to the stage where social media can be utilized as a powerful instrument for political change, a megaphone for fighting social concerns (and injustices) ranging from sexual harassment to bullying and everything in between? How did we get to this position? There is no doubt that social media is one of the most powerful platforms that the world has ever encountered. It is also the only medium that creates a level playing field by providing a voice to those who are oppressed and defeating those who oppress them. In contrast to what Sean Parker claimed in his peculiar lamentation about the negative aspects of social media a few months ago (late 2017), which stated that he, Mark Zuckerberg, and a few other individuals “invented” social media, Sean Parker did not invent social media, nor did he contribute to its invention. The origins of social media can be traced back to the middle of the 1990s, when the electronic press kit, sometimes known as an EPK for short, was developed. This EPK served as the basic template for social media, which then quickly expanded from that point forward. The history of a medium that genuinely allowed a voice to possibly everyone in the globe as long as they had access to the internet and the ability to reach billions of people is something that you should read. Electronic Press Kit (EPK): from the year 1995 It is the precursor of social media and the point at which it began. When a press kit is converted into an electronic format, it is referred to as an electronic press kit (EPK). An electronic press kit (EPK) is often presented in the form of a website or an email; however, it is also known to exist in the form of CDs and DVDs. On January 8, 1995, the first known EPK, as we know it today, made its debut live on the internet. Andre Gray, the inventor of online music sales certifications and the recipient of The Johannes Gutenberg Inventor Prize, was the one who came up with the idea and gave it the exact name electronic press kit, or EPK. A bio, audio clips, videos, photos, press, set list, basic technical requirements, and a calendar were all included in Gray’s electronic press kit (EPK). Additionally, R&B singer and songwriter Aaron Hall was the first artist in the history of the musical industry to have an EPK created on their behalf. Everyone may agree that the electronic press kit (EPK) is the perfect template and beginning point of social media. This is something that has to be acknowledged. Without the development of the EPK, there would be no such thing as Snapchat, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, or any other kind of social media. This includes each and every one of these instances. To phrase it another way, if the EPK hadn’t been invented, there would be no social media at all. None at all. The advent of social media in the year 1997 A website known as Six Degrees is widely regarded as the first social media platform that can be considered social media by all parties involved. Between the years 1997 and 2001, it was in operation, and its name was derived from the principle of “six degrees of separation.” Users of Six Degrees were able to build profiles and then friend other users once they had done so. Six Degrees also made it possible for those who did not register as users to reconfirm their friendships, which resulted in a significant number of people becoming linked. Since the release of Six Degrees, the internet has transitioned into the age of instant messaging and blogging. Despite the fact that blogging may not seem to be social media in the traditional sense, the word is appropriate since individuals were suddenly able to connect with one another and with other readers of blogs within a short period of time. A variation of the word “Weblog” was invented by Jorn Barger, an early blogger who was the editor of the website “Robot Wisdom.” The term “blog” is a form of the phrase “Weblog.” The majority of individuals of Generation X recall ICQ and the service that was developed soon after it, America Online, with AOL’s instant messenger being particularly prominent in the social media lineup. ICQ was produced as a result of this. 2000: The Internet is Present in Everywhere As of the year 2000, around one hundred million individuals had access to the internet, and it had become relatively normal for people to participate in social activities via the internet. It was, of course, considered to be a peculiar interest at best during that time. Nevertheless, an increasing number of individuals started using chat rooms as a means of forming friendships, dating, and engaging in conversations about subjects that they were interested in. Nevertheless, the enormous growth of social media was not yet complete. The First Social Media Surge took place in 2003. It is possible that the younger generation of today is unaware of the fact that in the early 2000s, the website MySpace was the most popular location to create a profile and meet new people. MySpace is considered to be the first social media profile website, which served as a precursor to and inspiration for websites such as Facebook. Nevertheless, despite the fact that MySpace has a very tiny user base in comparison to Facebook and Twitter at the present time, there are musicians who have used MySpace to market their music and even to be noticed by record producers and other artists. A good example of this is Colbie Caillat. LinkedIn, which is still a social media website today and is aimed primarily at professionals who want to network with each other, was another website that was one of the organizations who pioneered the concept of social media. In point of fact, the majority of the social media websites that we have now are comparable to LinkedIn in the sense that they are focused on a single topic, or they possess some type of distinctive trait that has contributed to their popularity. LinkedIn, on the other hand, was designed to facilitate professional businesses connecting with one another in order to network, get employment, and socialize. MySpace, on the other hand, was a social networking site that was more broad in nature. Facebook and Twitter in the year 2005 2004 was the year that Mark Zuckerberg established what would eventually become the social media powerhouse that would become the standard by which all other social media services would be measured. Facebook is now the most popular social networking website, and it has more than one billion members at the moment. Nevertheless, Facebook (which was known as TheFacebook.com at the time) was first introduced to Harvard students in the year 2004. Having seen the potential of the service, Zuckerberg made it available to the whole globe via the website facebook.com. In 2006, Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Noah Glass, and Evan Williams were inspired by the success of text messaging or SMS to start Twitter. Twitter was a service that had the unique characteristic of enabling users to send “tweets” that were no longer than 140 characters. More than 500 million people are now using Twitter. Around the year 2010, the remaining members of the pack Within a short period of time, hundreds of other websites emerged that offered social networking services of each and every sort. Instagram is becoming increasingly popular as one of the most popular social media sites to include on business cards and other forms of media. Flickr was one of the first photo sharing websites and continues to be one of the most popular sites for sharing photographs. Other photo sharing websites include Photobucket and Instagram. One of the websites that could be observed popping out in the late 2000s is Tumblr, which is a microblogging website that was created in 2007 by David Karp and is currently owned by Yahoo. For a period of time, Foursquare was a very popular website, especially in light of the widespread usage of smartphones. In addition, there are several other websites, such as Pinterest and Spotify, which are also widespread. During the latter part of the 2000s, Google Buzz, Loopt, Blippy, and Groupon were among the most widely used social networking services. The usage of social media not only got common during this time period, but it also became prevalent in the corporate world. This is one of the things that started occurring when this time period began. Plugins for WordPress that would allow users to include not only links to their social media websites, but also their most recent social media posts directly on their websites were among the many tools that were being developed to incorporate social media into websites. Websites were beginning to list their social media addresses, businesses were including their Facebook and Twitter addresses on their television commercials, and many tools were being developed to incorporate social media into websites. As a result of the widespread use of social media icons, it became practically unheard of to come across companies or brands that did not have them. Additionally, internet marketers and website owners started to use social media as one of the methods to increase the exposure of their websites. This was one of the ways that social media was used. The advantages of social media marketing for businesses started to become more apparent to owners of businesses of all sizes including small and big businesses. The practice of bookmarking content on social media platforms grew fairly popular, and there were services that would bookmark a post or a website across dozens or even hundreds of social media platforms. The Latest in Social Media In today’s world, there are dozens of various social media sites, each of which serves the same objective, but in somewhat different ways. Naturally, there are certain social media platforms that are more popular than others; nevertheless, even the less popular ones are used by a section of the population. This is due to the fact that each platform caters to a person who is extremely different from the others. One example is Instagram, which appeals to the kind of person who communicates most effectively via photos. Other sites, such as Twitter, are ideal for those who communicate in rapid bursts of information. As was noted, companies are using social media to market their goods and services in a fresh new manner. As a result, individual forms of social media serve a function that may not be served by the other forms of social media that are accessible. In the future, social media will be. In spite of the fact that it is hard to predict what the future holds for social media, it is certain that it will continue despite this. Humans are social beings, and the more people are able to connect with one another on the level that each individual prefers, the more widespread the use of social media will grow. Considering that innovative and fascinating technologies are just over the horizon, it will be fascinating to see how social media evolves over the next several decades. The following articles are related to social media: Andre Gray, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Myspace, and EPK, which stands for electronic press kit. This article should be sent to a friend! Subscribe to have articles like as this one sent directly to your inbox! Get a free subscription right now!
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