What a whirlwind! The Social Media craze has turned this world (and me) into a gotta-get-it now circus. Whether you’re using social media for your job or your own personal entertainment, it has gotten crazy ridiculous.
Personally, I use it for news, sports and entertainment, and that’s just on my phone! (SideNote: remember the T.V. show “Mayberry, RFD” or “Green Acres” when the townspeople had to climb a Telephone Pole to call others? Ok, I’m not that old but I grew up watching those shows.)
It seems like yesterday when the internet was just starting up. Well, in a flash, (1978 to be precise) the “Bulletin Board System” was formalized. Later in the same year, Jim Ellis and Tom Truscott created the “Usenet” which allowed users to post news articles on the computer. Remember Dial-Up? Remember AOL’s “You’ve Got Mail?” That was founded in 1997 and the Birth of Instant Messaging had begun. Who knew that this was the beginning of something huge, something tremendous, something extremely LUCRATIVE!
Friendster became the Pioneer of social networking and soon after, MySpace took on the mantle as the newest sensation. Since then, we’ve grown into LinkedIn and Tribe.net but the GrandDaddy of them all is the multi-billion dollar operation called “Facebook”. Ch-Ching Mr. Zuckerburg whose net worth is over $14 BILLION! Not bad for a 28-year old Harvard dropout.
I’m like my daughter on here and by the way, she asked me once why I was joining Twitter. She said, “Twitter is for Young people”. No, I wasn’t offended. I actually laughed it off because she doesn’t understand that we adults use these forums, whether Twitter, Facebook, Skype, Instagram, etc. for more purposes than the youngsters will ever understand. Businesses are using all of these entities daily. You can post your resumes’, conduct business meetings, collect data and Share with co-workers and your company. This thing has become a multi-faceted Norm.
Technology is some kind of amazing isn’t it? I enjoy getting information from all across this great country of ours from people that I don’t even know, sources I had never considered pulling from and opinions I’ve never considered. The forum that I use, Twitter, has become a wonderful outlet. But, disclaimer to All who use these social networking outlets: Be careful. Think Before You Hit “Send” and above All…Have FUN!
It’s User Friendly but could become User Hazardous if in the Wrong Hands.
