The Evolution of Social Media
Exploring social media's journey from inception to its pivotal role today in communication, business, and more.

In 2021, the Nigerian government banned Twitter for seven months. The meltdown was palpable. Nigerians quickly turned to the use of VPNs to continue their use of the social media platform. Twitter had become such an integral part of life for those users that they simply couldn't let go.

Social media has become a huge part of our day-to-day lives. Many businesses depend on social media, people use it for entertainment, and we also go online to get information. In a nutshell, we are borderline dependent on social media.

Indie artists also depend on social media for coverage. It offers the chance to reach people from across the world. Social media hasn't always been this powerful, however. Less than fifty years ago, social media was still a dream in the minds of its creators. In this article, I'll stroll down history lane to see how this dream blossomed into the enormity it is today.

History and Evolution

The originals

The basic concepts of social media began a long time before the first social media platforms but we'll skip the prehistoric lecture. The first set of social platforms were blogging sites for the most part, but in 2002, Friendster was launched. For the first time, users could connect with people online and share content with each other.

One year later, LinkedIn and MySpace came on board.LinkedIn targeted professionals who wanted to connect with each other while MySpace focused mainly on music sharing. In the next two years, Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube were launched.

YouTube was the first platform focused on the sharing of videos. Facebook started as a platform where Harvard students could mingle and share thoughts. Reddit was tailored more toward building communities.

The second generation

After the boom of the first generation, the world was awash with social media fever. Developers rushed to create the next big social media platform, but only a handful succeeded, none more than Jack Dorsey with Twitter. The era of short-form written content was fully in swing.

One year after Twitter, Tumblr rolled out as another microblogging platform. It has grown to host hundreds of millions of blogs.

Gen Z

I call this current generation of social media the Gen Z era. It all began with the release of the iPhone in 2007. It was a game-changer for social media applications.

Do you mean I can carry around my internet friends and blogs in my pocket? Insane!

At the same time, social media applications started to become more visual. Instagram was the first product of this new shift. Within a week, over a hundred thousand people had signed up. Today there are about two billion users on Instagram.

Snapchat arrived in 2011 with one brand new feature, disappearing messages. It allowed users to post and chat without the worry of long-term consequences. The real Gen Z application, however, was still on the way.

At some point, young people decided they didn't need attention spans. Enter TikTok. In 2016, it was released in China and became available elsewhere a year later. It featured short and entertaining videos. Today, it's the fourth largest social media platform in the world with over a billion active users.

Evolution of Use

Peer-to-peer communication

Social media started out purely as a means of communication. Facebook, for example, was used by Harvard students at first. It was all about checking in with your friends without the barrier of space. Over the years, each of the social media applications has steadily improved its peer-to-peer communication features.

Snapchat made disappearing messages popular, and now WhatsApp has included it. We can reach out to loved ones all over the world and share different kinds of content with them. We can send them videos, pictures, audio messages, and regular texts.

That said, this was only the tip of the iceberg.

Entertainment

We all use social media for communication, but it's also a massive source of entertainment. It has gotten to the point that addiction to social media is now a thing. TikTok gave us short-form video content, Instagram and YouTube have followed suit. I'll confess I've found myself scrolling through video after video on Instagram and YouTube especially.

YouTube does much more than shorts. The main feature of YouTube is long-form video content. It's home to millions of videos. Entire concerts, music videos, and even whole movies can be found on YouTube.

So social media is a huge part of the entertainment industry. As an artist, you upload your music on social media in a bid to reach as many people as you can. You'll do that with videos, blogging, and interacting with fans online.

Business

Most importantly, social media is a massive part of the world of business. Again, the main thing social media offers is reach. It's home to all the tribes of the world, so it's safe to say you can cover the entire world using social media.

If you see your music career as a business, which it is, you're compelled to take advantage of social media. Think of the music as the product and you as the salesman. If you run a business, wouldn't you want to advertise it in spots where you know you'll get the most coverage? The same thing applies to your music.

Music Industry Focus

For many indie artists, the arrival of social media meant a shift in power. The record labels who held the keys to the industry were no longer in charge. The most difficult part of music is distribution and promotion. Streaming platforms fixed the distribution problem and social media solved the promotion problem.

One of my favorite examples of indie artists making use of social media is Canadian rapper Connor Price. He grew from a few hundred streams to hundreds of millions of streams in less than a decade without any labels backing him. How did he do it? Social media.

Social media offers a variety of promotion options. Connor Price used short Instagram reels to market his content and funneled his new fans to his Spotify page. Instagram is not the only way to do it. There are different social media platforms that offer different options so you can pick whichever one suits you best.

Either way, one thing remains true. Social media opened up the world on a scale never seen before. If you want to effectively promote your music, you must take full advantage of social media.

Final Thoughts 

Whatever your thoughts on the potential dangers of social media, one thing is clear. It's important to understand what it is and how you can use it to better your life. This helps you filter out things that could lead to future issues.

So don't ignore social media. Learn how it works as much as you can. It holds the keys to the world.