The term social network is something which happens to be an integral part of our lives in the 21st century, and of course reminds us of the number of websites and apps in the market, and to the computer science geeks out there, it would be more closely related to Facebook. The 2000s in fact was the decade which saw a huge boom of a number of related sites and ideas, but how exactly has the idea of a social network evolved over the years and what exactly led to its sudden increase in the 2000s?.
The Idea
The social network is an interesting part of social media, the former being any medium which allows for a two way interaction, where the main purpose would be to connect to people and interact with people who have common interests while the latter is more like a superset with other forms includes such as magazines, blogs, etc. The social network can mainly be attributed to the internet age, where the concept of networking was simply faster and in fact almost instantaneous, interestingly however, the idea of a social network was conceptualised in 1800s however usage at that time was simply possible because the world had still not seen the invention of the light bulb and the telephone yet. So it wouldn’t be surprising to see that the idea of the social network was first put into use not at the time when the internet was first born but at the time the telephone was born.
The process involved would include breaking into the telephone systems, and hosting their podcasts and their blogs through hacking corporate voice mailboxes. It offered people a chance to talk about things they liked and experiences as well. It was different from other forms of mass media at that time such as the print and newspapers, mainly for two things – 1. It allowed people to connect on a more personal level with others and 2. It was two way and more or less instant.
The Factors:-
- Accessibility
With the advent of the internet in the 1960s the idea of interacting with people and forming groups could now take on a whole new form – the form of the internet. During this time a number of sites were created which included the BBS – Bulletin Board System, the MUD – Multi User Domain, however since the internet wasn’t available to the public until 1990, none of the following gained enough traction. With the 1990s things now started to change drastically, people now had access to the world wide web and with that grew a large consumer ship market. The first of the first social networks which emerged were six degrees, lunar storm, etc. They worked on the initial principles of social networking – people were allowed to form connections and interact (through chat) and people were also allowed to share their content, which was done through bulletins. Six Degree was the first manifestation of the social network and went on for 4 years.
- Implementation
In business it seems sensible to be the first one to the market, because now capturing a market will be a problem for your competitors and not you, however evolving and maintaining is as important as being first to it. This seemed to be the clear trend by the early 2000s where social networks were slowing starting to pop up everywhere, a few being LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, and the older ones dying out, the reason – the idea of the social networking was evolving – It now seemed more important for people to be able to “discover” new people and who had similar interests as you had, as well as “discover” new content which was similar to what you liked, because the idea of the social networking evolved from connecting to discovering. These were ideas, later companies were able to capture on and also given the fact that they were able to learn from the mistakes of their “predecessors”, they were able to better design and implement their ideas.
- A Change in format
Perhaps the next gradual change involved moving from the traditional format of text to more technological complex format such as videos and pictures. Technological complex meaning that they were heavier and little more complicated formats to handle. This change or difference in the medium of communication attributed to another branch of social networks which dealt with these specifically such as YouTube for videos and Napster for music. The change in medium meant people could now express differently and in a way given more freedom over thoughts. This would require its own set of ideas and contributing factors of accessibility and implementations.
- Evolving Technology
Not a factor per se, but an opportunity for social networks to evolve through the latest technologies and the ideas they bring along with them. The most iconic evolution of technology being from the personal computer to smartphones. The advent of the smartphone saw a new breed of social network sites, which could now so conveniently be viewed from the comfort of a phone, such as SnapChat, Instagram, Whatsapp. And from here of course we are back to square one – The Idea where the very idea of a social network is being imagined, more importantly the medium.
The Effects
Like it or not social networks are here to stay and with the advances in technology, the idea of the social network will continue to evolve. Interestingly, social networks have brought along a number of ideas with it. In the technology and business space the ideas are limitless. One of them being the whole idea of recommendations. Social networks were probably the first platforms which could fully utilize the concept of recommendation systems, and hand in hand came targeted ads and better business models to run companies.
But perhaps the biggest impact is how humans socialize on a day to day basis. Given that social networks are mostly targeted to the younger crowds, the social network has always been at the fore fourth of communication for younger generations and in a way shapes the next generation of how we communicate and with that multiple implications. The main benefit being how knowledge can be learned through other people and how we can meet up with people, or still keep in touch with them, acting like memory boxes. The concern being that of privacy issues, misuse of data from companies side and also misuse of the platform in a hateful way by users side, which can make the environment toxic. More severely social networks also tend to alter the way we now understand social interaction or other social aspects such as having an opinion, knowing your social boundaries, what can and cannot be put up for people to see. Although this is not directly from the medium itself, but rather the medium has allowed for an improved use of the network itself.
My opinion – The internet is here to stay forever and social networks won’t die, rather they will become more advanced as we reimagine applications of the technology we use, however if social networks are to become a more fundamental part of lives, then it is important to keep note of them.
References
- Edosomwan, S., Prakasan, S.K., Kouame, D., Watson, J., & Seymour, T. (2011). The History of Social Media and its Impact on Business.
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2018/04/08/why-facebook-triumphed-over-all-other- social-networks/#37a6ef166e91
- Mcintyre, K. (2014). The Evolution of Social Media from 1969 to 2013: A Change in Competition and a Trend Toward Complementary, Niche Sites.
- https://www.digit.in/features/internet/the-origin-and-history-of-social-media-31655.html
