I use social media for a variety of different reasons. I use Facebook to keep up with family and friends across the globe and to keep up with all of my sorority events. Its also great for group communications between commitees and the floor of my building. Even my work uses a page on Facebook to trade and give away shifts. Twitter is much more limited in my eyes. It is great for sharing and reading thoughts as well as getting news, but it doesn't allow for easy commenting or long thoughts which aggravates me (this also probably accounts for why 44% of Twitter users have never sent a tweet). I love snapchat! Sending pictures of my day was something I was already doing via text so adding this platform just made the process a lot easier. Instagram is fantastic for sharing pictures, but not much else. I love seeing my friends pictures, but I use Facebook for the same thing. LinkedIn is a fantastic professional tool I am first starting to able in. Avid users use it as an online resume and a site for virtual networking. I do not use Vine, but essentially it is a site full of short funny videos (which much like Twitter are limited to a time constraint). YouTube is my ultimate go to. I use YouTube to listen to music and to learn how to do just about anything! Other people also use YouTube to learn information from videos and listen to peoples thoughts on prominent issues. Pinterest is my guilty pleasure! It is this amazing collection of literally everything which you can then pin to organized boards to find later. In my experience the most popular board categories include: DIY, Hair and Beauty, My Wedding, and Food. Yik Yak, the newest of the bunch, is much like Twitter, only completely anonymous. People can post there thoughts and receive feedback from complete strangers. This concept is a little weird to me, I feel like Yik Yak may generate more hateful remarks than its worth and hence try to stay away from it.
Now I know what your thinking: "What about MySpace?". Okay, maybe that isn't what you were thinking, but have you ever taken a step back to realize how far social media has come? The earliest form of social media began in the 70's with Bulletin Board Systems where users could upload and download games, files, and messages locally. After that was the popular AOL system in the 90's. If you're a 90's baby like me, you've probably spent plenty of days logged onto your AIM instant messenger chatting with all of your friends online. Once you grew out of Aim you probably moved onto the famous MySpace. In my opinion MySpace is what people think of when they think back to the earliest social media. MySpace was revolutionary! It allowed you to post your thoughts, add pictures, and completely customize your page. Just think, in the span of 40 years we went from barely being able to share local files, to being able to share videos and pictures instantly with users across the globe.
All factual information was taken from the following sites:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/the-history-of-social-networking/
http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/social-media-facts-figures-stats-infographic/201164
http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/social-media.htm