Your Brain ... on Social Media

Did you know that Facebook launched just seven years ago? It feels like we’ve been hearing about it forever! Facebook is, perhaps, the spokesperson today for social networking and social media.

Wikipedia states that “Social media are media for social interaction, as a superset beyond social communication. Enabled by ubiquitously accessible and scalable communication techniques, social media substantially change the way of communication between organizations, communities, as well as individuals.”  WOW!!!! That’s a mouthful, and honestly, quite boring. But … it has a few key words — communication, communities and individuals. I’m going somewhere with this, I promise!

Let’s stroll down memory lane for a moment. It all began in 1971. The first email was sent. The computers were sitting right next to each other and the excitement was incredible! In 1994 one of the web’s first social networking sites, GeoCities was founded. The concept was for users to create their own websites, categorized by one of six "cities" known for certain characteristics (Hollywood, Wall Street, etc.).  In 1997 the ever popular AOL Instant Messenger was launched, giving us the gift of instant communication in an ever constant world of instant gratification. (AOL messenger is where, by the way, I met my current husband of six years.)

Do you remember in 2000, when we all thought the world might come to a screeching halt? Among other year 2000 icons was the “dot com” tragedy. Fueled for years by the growing internet, in 2000 the “dot com” bubble burst, sending the stock markets crashing, and web entrepreneurs back to the drawing boards.

Then came Friendster in 2002 as the first introduction to our world of online friends. Its user base grew to 3 million users in the first three months (about 1 in every 126 internet users at the time). Our world then became addicted to the “instant” everything.  In 2003 MySpace was launched and if you saw the movie The Social Network, you know that Facebook launched in 2004, originally as a way to connect U.S. college students to one another. First launched at Harvard University, more than half of the 19,500 students signed up on Facebook within the first month. Today, there are more than 800 million daily users!

Whether all of this information is old news, or entirely new information to you, it’s very valid in the here and now. Are a social savvy veteran? Or one of those people who still refuses to jump on board? Every individual and every experience in the world of social media is unique and that is what makes social media so incredible.

What do you think of when you hear the words “social media?" I think of interaction, communication and most of all … opportunities. I had a house fire in 2003 and lost in the ashes was my favorite picture of my 3-year-old son holding his new baby brother for the first time in one of those pink hospital chairs. I can still see the smile on his chubby little face, and the blue “I’m a big brother” T-shirt he was wearing. I can’t help but think, that if social media would have been in my life at that time, that picture would not only be in my memory bank, but I would be able to share it with my high school best friend in Illinois (whom I just reunited with after 25 years), my grandmother who turned 85 in October and lives in Florida, and with my 2-year-old daughter (when she grows up) as a picture of her big brothers. I wish I would have had social media then! But, we must move on, and learn, and I have learned to keep all of my pictures on social media. In "the cloud" if you will. Of course I have privacy settings, but they will always be there, that I know for sure.

And so it begins ... my first social media blog for North Canton Patch. I hope as the weeks and months go by, I am able to educate you, entertain you, make you smile, maybe even cry, and quite possibly give you a helping hand as you get on board and enjoy the ride that is social media.