Blog Post #4

 Launched on February 4, 2004, Facebook has become the world’s largest social media site in the world with 2.5 billion users. Facebook was founded by five college students: Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. The reasoning for its making was to allow students to connect online together and share their lives with one another. 

 

     There are endless pros to Facebook. It allows us to connect with others, share our lives with one another, and call via video chat with anyone. Also, networking is another big factor that Facebook does. Facebook has evolved tremendously compared to how it was when it was first launched.  Facebook has been so successful that it now owns many other companies such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus VR. Also, did you know that Facebook implemented the iconic Like Button?

 

     Unfortunately, with good things always comes the downsides. Facebook has been involved in countless scandals. Facebook has been under fire many times for spreading fake news. Also, identity theft is a big problem on Facebook. Spies and hackers are finding ways to steal people’s private information. This is because Facebook does not protect its user’s data like it says it does. Facebook also has many viruses and malware

Facebook has left quite an impact on today's society. There are now countless other social media sites just like it.  None seem as popular as Facebook, with the exception of one. I would say that Instagram closely replicates Facebook in popularity. Especially with the young population. They are really taking a liking to Instagram. There are many similarities between Instagram and Facebook. Instagram allows you to share posts and to also network with others. It is a great tool for connecting with others. I believe that Instagram is extremely popular with younger generations because of the photo quality that the platform offers. In addition, photos are able to be manipulated easily. That says it all! The young generations seem to love filtering and cropping photos to make everything look just perfect! Instagram is also free for 

users, so that is also another plus for the media site. 

    Another huge well- known platform for social media users is YouTube. YouTube is a video-sharing network platform. It is extremely popular among all generations in today's society. YouTube is more for connecting with others via video. For example, people are using YouTube for Sharing videos of themselves. An example of this would be Tiktok. YouTube is used by famous artists to make their music more popular. It is being used, however, with amateurs, too. This would be across all professions: singers, musical performers, athletes, and anything else you can think of. YouTube offers anyone that uses it more publicity. It's a great advertising tool.

    Some social media sites have come and gone.  An example of this would be Vero. This was a site that originally was made by China, but it really didn't take off in the United States very well and eventually shut down in 2017. This is why it is amazing that Facebook is still so popular. There are social media sites that are not as popular as Facebook but are being used today.  For example, WhatsApp is literally the number 3 social media site for messaging in the world! That is amazing! It is up against the popular ones such as Instagram and Facebook! It was actually voted to be one of the most favorite used platforms. WhatsApp has 175 million users and is used in 183 countries. Again, that is an amazing feat for a social media platform site. 

    Of course, with the growth of social media, there will be some negative impacts as well. There will always be some trash talking going on which creates negativism in today's society. There will be disrespect of people's views. This will be exhibited through low tolerance of accepting others for who they are. In other words, there could be bullying, and other negative behaviors exhibited on the social media platform sites. However, I believe that most will believe that there is so much more good than bad on these sites.  The negativity definitely outweighs all of the wonderful positive impacts that social media sites have had on peoples' lives. Definitely, I would say that the connecting of people across the world has been the number one positive result of social media.