Social media began as the ultimate way for people to connect and share their lives with others. Starting primarily online and on the computer, with the expansion of smart devices, such as the cell phone, or smart phone, social media has truly flourished and evolved into a rather in depth part of modern life. Everywhere you look or turn there are tags for social media.
When you go to the gas station and even at the grocery store, there are ads encouraging you to look them up on social media sites. Facebook, Twitter, and even LinkedIn are some of the most common icons that you see featured on physical advertisements. Even if cell phones had not advanced as they have, social media was one facet of marketing that was going nowhere. Even before the use of smart phones increased, people where becoming completely immersed into these social media sites.
Why is social media so catchy?
Social media thrives on the human desire to feel connected with others. Even the outcast of society have some deep desire to connect or communicate with other human beings. The big starting feature to sites such as Facebook, was it was meant to be a means for family and friends to keep in touch, no matter how far apart they were. People could post short blurbs about their day and share photos from their life. It was a great and cost effective way for family and friends to still feel connected when they were separated by long distances, or as a venue to socialize outside of school or work. The fact that is is completely free makes it very appealing, along with it becoming so synonymous with being part of today’s society, that if you refuse to make use of it, you are considered strange.
How it went from being just on the computer to being everywhere.
The widespread popularity of social media is largely in part do to its migration or rather its integration into smartphones. People no longer needed to log in from home, or their laptop, they could keep connected with friends and family all the time. Giving people that sense of powerful communication in the palm of their hand helped an already increasingly popular entity flourish into the current and massive entity that it is. Most places you go now a days count on you having your phone and a Facebook account, using social media marketing tactics to grow their brand. It is quite common for companies to offer exclusive deals to those who connect with them through social media venues. In large it was the addition of social medias ability to become mobile with the cell phone that has allowed it to adapt and grow as it has.
Other aspects of social media that have grown thanks to cell phones.
As social media has grown, so too has it evolved from merely a social media alone. It has become the ultimate platform for entrepreneurs and businesses to make both loyal customers and money. The addition of what has been deemed “freemium” games began on social media sites, in particular the most infamous being Farmville and Candy Crush Saga. These two games have plenty of free content, however they offer several chances for people to enhance or boost their game playing experience by buying extra content with real money. Simple and sometimes addictive, these colorful and entrancing games have grown in use through social media, branching out even more as stand alone apps that tie back to social media. These too were also made more possible and widely endorsed thanks to cell phones and social media.
