What’s your AIM?

Just the other day I “celebrated” my 9th year anniversary of being a Facebook user. So by doing the math correctly I was 13 years old when I made my Facebook profile and my parents were PO’d. Sure they were aware that I had a Myspace account but they didn’t care all too much as other kids my age had one as well. However, Facebook was “no place for a child”. I then followed up with strategic powerpoint slide-show as to why I made one with the emphasis that I wanted to stay connected with my older siblings who had moved out of our home state of Texas. I knew at an early age that I wanted to keep in virtual contact that phones (at the time) just could not do. It’s funny looking back at what I felt I had to do to keep my Facebook account from being deactivated by my parents but I’m glad I did what I did. The early steps of Facebook and the posting/sharing of content in it’s primitive years is interesting to look at because I can remember it all. It wasn’t as fun, creative or customizable as Myspace and it was not nearly as interactive. It’s fascinating to see what great lengths, capabilities and mediums we have now to keep in touch with loved ones….and that’s just scraping the surface.

 

In the article done by David Beer, it outlines the humble beginnings of social network sites and brings about some names that have already been forgotten. The building of blocks that lit the path that would eventually create the big names like Facebook and Twitter alike were necessary as the world continued to have the urge to connect with people. It mentions in the article that people wanted to connect with others they knew or by second-degree connection rather than just flat out complete strangers while online. Early dating websites like Match.com allowed connection of strangers while on the other hand websites like Classmates.com allowed you to re-connect with past classmates and others of association. I can remember my older siblings sneaking into the computer room at night while the rest of us were “asleep” so that they could connect on places like AOL messenger with their friends and classmates and wake me up in the process with the loud dial-up noises. Since the beginning of SNS, us users as a community have craved to connect and continue to search for the next innovative manner in doing so.

(via daisysdeadair.blog)

This leads me to two questions:

What advantages (besides connection) do SNS create for us (if any)?

AND

What does it mean to you for a brand to be socially responsible? 

Shirky offers some insight to that very question in the NPR article “Here Comes Everybody”. He gives the analogy that the hive is society as a whole while every individual is a mere bee and therefore the bees help shape the hive and the hive then shapes the lives of the bee inhabitants. If you still don’t follow, then think of it this way. We are the gatekeepers of what we accept as individuals and the extent of allowing it into our lives as well as the gatekeepers as society as a whole and vice versa. It never ends and because of that we are constantly re-shaping and creating new boundaries as well as new tools.

(via NYMag )

I know there are new sites and technology advancements being made everyday whether I know about them or not but I do often ask myself the question of WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE CREATED NEXT? Take for instance VINE. It was a craze that nearly everyone wanted to hop on board with and create short clips of content. It became a community and “Viners” eventually became a profession. Crazy huh? As of today, it no longer exists but we still can recognize the logo and the people who did make a living off of it. We still have the big names (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) but I only care to know what new creation is going to sweep the world. Is there anything else that can be done that hasn’t already been created? Will it take storm or will it fail? Only time will tell. I for one believe the future of it all is definitely in the masses hands.

(via Giphy)