Blog: Social networking sites

To start I'd like to give my brother kudos for still not having a social media account at 19. At the time I asked him not to make one is was to keep his integrity secure from unwanted photos and comments. The most efficient way to avoid having privacy issues...abstinence. That wasn't for me and I signed my digital rights away at a young age, come to think was I allowed to click the terms and conditions? I am going to shelf this legal theory for now and dive into the workings of these companies and what separates them. 


To think there was myspace before facebook, why was facebook more successful? Was it because you had a Harvard dropout named Mark Zuckerberg oppose to the grinning myspace Tom. Myspace was my first dive into HTML without even knowing it, ripping templates to make my own page of the things I liked in a style unique to me...there wasn't a homogeneous profile and this made things unique but weird. Enter your friends profile and be greeted by blaring music and videos. Myspace was basically the facebook framework but you could use your own style sheet. 

Facebook didn't come to market to give you a your own profile/canvas to express yourself in a digital form. You could FILL OUT your profile but I wouldn't say you DESIGN it. Facebook was one of the first and greatest social experiments. You can almost say Facebook is the new phonebook, you scroll to a name in the phonebook and under the name you not only have methods of contacting, but you can share writings and pictures. So instead of calling your old friends from the phonebook or looking up a business to call, you can just search for them on facebook. Facebook took many of our analog methods and converted them into one digital platform; need to mail prints to family? post them on facebook, need to send an invite, make a facebook event, need to post a classified, use the marketplace. I can probably spend hours thinking of what tasks they made easier under there platform. With only a brush of my personal opinion, I would say watch out with what you post on facebook. We can do a lot on the platform and we need to understand what actions we do get recorded and what gets recorded as data now owned by facebook. 


Twitter was a platform I never latched to. Even having a cousin working for them in NYC since they opened here, he couldn't seem to sell me. Limiting a users characters essentially takes away someones freedom of speech. For a platform that picks up on society's most current and controversial topics, seems like you need more than say 300 characters not words to make scholarly statements. I call twitter "headline news". Looking back, when I first made a twitter I was more concerned on what to say than how to say it. I felt like I needed to make a post to be relevant. Twitter is similar to facebooks use of posting status's, photos, and videos but that's about it. I think business's are realizing that twitter is a great platform to engage in because of the limits twitter sets on content. In some cases, people don't want to hear or see it all, they just want what matters. So you can tell your consumers instantly that you are having supply issues and give a return date. 


Instagram brought up my curiosity and probably my creativity. It's major pitfall in society but what keeps it alive is the constant one-up factor. Who can take a picture from the highest cliff, in the bluest ocean, in the coolest clothes, at the best concert, with the fastest cars...and with the most beautiful people. The problem with instagram today seems to be the influencers themselves and FTC not able to manage every post for advertisers. There was an influx of people, investing money into there INSTAGRAM BUSINESS by renting house, cars, models, and such to act successful and gain followers. Then sell to those followers. Post more and do it all over again. Where do the legitimate people fit in that do it to connect on a social platform? As of recently I have been following more inspirational pages, Artist, and Galleries. Instagram only lets you post photos and videos so it is perfect to display in an artistic manner. 



Lastly, let's talk about Snapchat, the platform started for college kids to send [blank] to each other. Oh wait did I say nudes? It is a platform where your footprint doesn't exist, take photos or videos in real-time or from camera roll and send to friends. Thats about all you can do. Did I mention Snapchat calls themselves a camera company? In the class of Nikon and Polaroid. Let's think of them differently now, you don't get an early $3b offer for facebook for sending nudes. They got the offer because Snapchat was doing the whole social media thing differently and Facebooks own Instagram quickly picked up. Snapchat had stories first, posting your own daily vlog, but what we really love about snapchat is how beautiful they make us look. Need perfect skin? Use snapchat, want to puppy ears?, snapchat, dancing hotdog..I think you get it. Now that is what separates snapchat, there camera software. I was once told that photos are taken better within the snapchat app oppose to the iPhone camera. I never gave it a full test but I can see how it makes sense. 


Which one is the best? For someone who is worried about data privacy, snapchat and use a fake name at signup. Wanted to stay in touch with friends and family, that would be facebook. If you want to see photos and videos of what interests you the most, Instagram. Wanting to see the fiery keyboard debates, check twitter.