Sometimes I can’t help wonder why there is so much discussion
about ‘social media’ these days, as if it was invented just recently. We all
agree that social media has existed since time immemorial – the communal
gathering in the villages since the beginning of history, the itinerant bards,
storytellers and singers who went from one place to another and served as the
medium for exchanging news and gossip, the criers who were the precursors of
the talking heads breaking news today... social media is therefore not a late
20th century invention. So why has social media become so important to the
human society today?
In order to understand this phenomenon, I think that it is
necessary to delve a little bit into the origin and history of social media. ‘Media’
is the plural form of a word borrowed directly from Latin. The singular,
medium, early developed the meaning “an intervening agency, means, or
instrument” and was first applied to newspapers two centuries ago, and then
subsequently to radio and television. The word “mass media” was coined in the
1920s to represent any means of communication that reach a large number of
people. The word ‘social media’ did not come into existence till 2001, and in
my opinion, does not have much to do with the popularization of internet per
se, but with a change of paradigm amongst users that started with
SixDegrees.com, a social networking site that was very popular between 1997 and
2001. SixDegrees.com used the concept of the famous six degrees of separation -
that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away by way of introduction,
from any other person in the world. So a chain of "a friend of a
friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of
six steps. Although the website closed down in 2002, the concept of an
interacting community using internet was largely validated, and there was a
quick succession of other platforms on the Internet, some of which have become
part of our everyday vocabulary. Friendster was created in 2002 with a slightly
different idea that a rich online community can exist only between people who
truly have common bonds. The website ensured there were plenty of ways to
discover those bonds. It was also used for dating and discovering new events,
bands and hobbies. Users could share videos, photos, messages and comments with
other members via profiles and networks. It is considered to be the
"grandfather" of social networks as we know them today. Friendster
has now become a social gaming site, focusing essentially on entertainment and
interactions between the gaming communities.
2003 saw the birth LinkedIn - a social networking service with a
very specific orientation that remains the same today. Rather than being a mere
playground for former classmates, teenagers, and cyberspace Don Juans, LinkedIn
was, and still is, a networking resource for business people who want to
connect with other professionals. In fact, LinkedIn contacts are referred to as
“connections.” Today, LinkedIn boasts more than 297 million members spanning
the globe.
Soon MySpace, also launched in 2003, became the perennial
favorite of user communities. MySpace targeted the young adult demographic with
music, music videos, and a funky, feature-filled environment. From 2005 to
2008, MySpace was the largest social networking site in the world, and in June
2006 surpassed Google as the most visited website in the United States. In
April 2008, it was overtaken by Facebook in the number of unique worldwide visitors.
Facebook was founded, like many social networking sites, by
university students who initially sold their product to other university
students. It was launched in 2004 as a Harvard-only exercise and remained a
campus-oriented site for two full years before finally opening to the general
public in 2006. Even in those early days, Facebook was considered big business.
So much so that, by 2009, Silicon Valley bigwigs such as Paypal co-founder and
billionaire Peter Thiel invested tens of millions of dollars just to see it
flourish.
By this time, the Smartphone was becoming increasingly popular,
especially in Japan and in the US but also in Europe, especially in the
business and professional milieus. The popularity of text messaging or SMS
inspired Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Noah Glass and Evan Williams to create Twitter
in 2006 - a service that had the unique distinction of allowing users to send
“tweets” of 140 characters or less. Today, Twitter has over 500 million users. Soon
a host of mobile based applications took the users by storm – Instagram for public
sharing of images, Snapchat for the private sharing of images, Foursquare for
augmented reality, Tinder for location-based matchmaking, Pinterest that acts
as a personalized media platform, Spotify for music streaming, podcast and
video service to name a few. Google created its Hangout and then Google+ to get
a share of this massive market.
So, as we see from the brief description above, social media is
not a totally new concept. What is relatively new, I think, is the reach of
social media today, thanks to the different platforms they have embraced over
the years. Internet and GSM is ubiquitous today, available almost everywhere in
the world, and accessible to everyone. Gone are the days when internet was the
property of geeks and gamers and computer engineers – it has been claimed by
the common man. And it has been claimed with a vengeance – the proliferation of
all sorts of blogs, formal and informal groups, communities, and webzines – not
to talk about the commercial websites that often make our virtual lives
intolerable. But what attracts us about social media? Why has a large part of
the world population, irrespective of religion, culture, language and social
mores become regular users of social media – or to put it in a different way,
why have social media become part of their daily lives? Is it just a passing
fad, or does the reason run deeper? Is it pure conformism or do social media
actually fulfill a need that is inherent in human nature?
Communication has always been important to humans from the dawn
of civilization. There is no need to reiterate the different means of
communication that have evolved over time. What is important is to understand
the dimension of human communication – till the advent of social media it has
always been one to one (letters, telephone, telegraph) or many to many
(newspapers, radio, television). While one person could and did communicate
with many (friends, family, associates, colleagues…) the means of communication
were unidirectional. It required time and effort. Social media put an end to
that. It made communication possible with a whole community with minimum
effort. This is possibly the main reason for the popularity of social media
applications, be it on the internet or on the mobile telephone platform. It
gave us the opportunity of interacting with people who we do not know in real
life, but who share some common interest – literature, cinema, sports,
humanitarian causes, political opinions or professional interests. Across
societies, cultures, religions, across linguistic and social barriers. For the
first time, we were able to connect with like minded people, sharing same
interests, preferences and opinions all over the world. Thanks to the social
media, we now share the day to day concerns of people living thousands of miles
away. We share their joys, their sorrows, their plights, their trials and tribulations.
As they share ours.
Social media has shrunk distances, made time zones a mere
concept, have proved that men and women all over the world share basically similar
values, concerns and emotions. It has brought the world to our homes, widening
our horizons, making us aware of what is going on elsewhere be it natural
catastrophes in faraway lands, wars, migrations, assassinations, or mass
murders, through social media almost in real time. We see pictures, videos, read
comments of firsthand witnesses. These messages are able to mobilize global
communities in much less time than traditional media. While it is necessary to
be careful about the authenticity and the veracity of the posts, the
information is there, available to the whole world. Yes, there are people who
abuse this power of the social media as well – but is it any different from
what happens on the traditional media? I think not. It is always up to the
receptors to separate the grain for the chaff – to make their own judgments and
decisions.
Social media today is widely used in all spheres of life:
politics, business, promotion of different types of humanitarian causes because
its widespread use has altered the way ideas change hands and spread. Which is
why it is necessary to put in checks and balances – the same medium can easily
be used to propagate racism, religious or political fanaticism, intolerance,
hate, terrorism and everything else that plagues the modern society. It is not
a coincidence that anti terrorist organizations all over the world track the
social media relentlessly – each user on the Clearnet leaves a digital
footprint that can’t be erased easily. Cyber bullying, stalking, trolling,
identity threat and on-line harassment have unfortunately become day to day
incidents in the realm of social media.
I have been an adept of social media for quite some time now,
and I would like to end this article on a more personal note. I know for
certain that social media is an indispensable part of my existence today. I am
able to communicate with like minded people all across the globe, I am in
constant touch with my family and friends, and I am able to participate in
political and humanitarian movements anywhere in the world. I militate, I
protest, I participate, I construct. I enjoy writing and interacting with
people who enjoy writing too. I enjoy participating in chat groups that share
my own interests. I enjoy the creativity of ordinary people on the net. I find
that social media has given unprecedented freedom to people, and especially
women who are able today to give wings to their own creative instincts through
regular interaction with like minded communities. I applaud and admire the grit
of groups on social media that protest against social and economic inequality
and injustice and sometimes succeed in large scale mobilization, both political
and social, that changes the course of history. I believe that social media
today has become a great equalizer for those who want equality.
While a vast majority can and will go on using social media just
for socializing, sharing pictures of children, pets and vacations and
interacting uniquely with family and friends, there will be people and groups
who will continue using these platforms for other causes, both gainful and
harmful. It can have negative and destructive effects, especially on the young,
and needs to be monitored. It is a powerful tool and like any power, needs to
be handled with care and precaution. It is necessary to understand the dark
side of the social media that can have disastrous effects irrespective of age,
sex or social status. It is indispensable to recognize its power for
manipulation and distortion. It is up to each one of us to harness the immense
power and use it for collective good.
Aparajita Sen
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