A Study the History and Evolution of Social Networking and Social Media with its benefits

Exploring the Impact and Influence of Social Networking and Social Media

by Andleeb Javeed*, Dr. Anil Kumar,

- Published in Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education, E-ISSN: 2230-7540

Volume 18, Issue No. 4, Jul 2021, Pages 495 - 501 (7)

Published by: Ignited Minds Journals


ABSTRACT

The term Social Media refers to a collection of software websites that give users a place to post, share, and connect with one another. This interactive computer-mediated technology provides a means for people to communicate with each other in a variety of ways beyond simply changing their status or uploading photographs to social media. For social transformation, social media is a powerful weapon in the arsenal. It is frequently employed to promote public awareness of critical topics. Here, we'll take a look at some of the most popular social networking sites of the 21st century.

KEYWORD

history, evolution, social networking, social media, benefits, software websites, post, share, connect, communicate

INTRODUCTION

Social media is used by a huge number of people all around the world. The Internet's social media platforms enable people to share and create content. Facebook & Twitter are the two most popular services. For business and career advancement, LinkedIn is the place to be. Other websites cater to a younger demographic. To build social networks, most people use these sites. Individuals can use social media to stay in touch with friends and family members. Friends, family, former classmates, and coworkers are just a few examples of the people in their social circles. People can also connect with the friends of their friends on social media networks. Chat rooms were formerly the most common method of internet communication; now, social media has replaced them. Those discussion boards have a narrow focus. As a result of social media, individuals can now construct their own, personal spaces for discussion. In order to do this, they create pages dedicated to themselves. Photos, movies, text, and other user-provided content can all be included in the pages that make up the website. After that, the user's page can be linked to the pages of their friends. The level of privacy offered by various social networking platforms varies considerably. The identities of some of the participants are concealed. "Screen names" are the names given to members by other members. On other sites, users publish images & intimate details about themselves. As a result, many social networking platforms allow users to set varying levels of privacy for different groups of people. The popularity of social media has skyrocketed in the last few years. Approximately 1.5 billion people were using Facebook at the end of 2015. It is the most widely used form of social media. It is also one of the most popular websites on the internet. Followed closely by Twitter & Instagram. The combined active user base of these two services is in the neighborhood of 300 million. It's very uncommon to find sites like this one with a much smaller user base.

HISTORY OF SOCIAL NETWORKING & SOCIAL MEDIA

Social networking had its origins in the 1960s. Stanley Milgram, an American psychologist working at the time, discovered that every single American was interconnected. There were roughly six mutual acquaintances in between them. The concept of "six degrees of separation" was coined to describe this. Sixdegrees.com was an early social-networking service that began in 1997. Profiles and friend lists were made public by users. Everyone had access to the list of friends whose names appeared next to their own. As a result, social networking sites have these and other platforms, social networking grew rapidly across the globe. Sharing diary entries, images, videos, and other media was made simple. Twitter was created in 2006 as a micro blogging service. "Tweets" were limited to 140 characters in length. There's a lot less here than you'll find on other sites. As a result, mobile devices can quickly receive tweets. Rather than having everyone follow everyone else, each member has the option of selecting which members they want to receive tweets from. Since then, users have been able to upload photographs and videos on Twitter. In 2010, the social media platform Instagram was launched. It's a simple way for people to send each other pictures and videos. Two technological developments are essential to the current state of social media in this day and age. The first is a complex computer algorithm. Programs in the background update member pages on a regular basis. The second is the availability of high-speed Internet. You can post & view photographs, movies and music files with these high-speed connections. Few people had broadband connections in the 1990s. More than two-thirds of American households now have access to broadband Internet.

SOCIAL MEDIA TODAY

Numerous social media platforms target specific demographics. A passion for cars or sports may inspire a group to band together around a shared interest. Others are geared toward specific demographics. Social media has been used by politicians and entertainers alike. Their social networks can have tens of thousands of people on them. Social media is used by performers to inform their fans of future performances. Social groups can benefit from social media as well. There are a variety of these, such as sports teams, organizations, and charitable organizations. Mobile devices allow users to stay connected even when they aren't using their computers. People can also stay in touch using IM. It is a sort of real-time online chatting. For social transformation, social media is a powerful weapon in the arsenal. It is frequently employed to promote public awareness of critical topics. People are frequently motivated to take action through social media. It aids in the collection of philanthropic funds. leaders.

SOCIAL SAFETY

There are, of course, downsides to using social media. Members' information is rarely checked by most websites. As a result, people are more likely to use fraudulent identities. In particular, children are vulnerable to abuse. When youngsters agree to meet an internet buddy in person, it can lead to abuse. When a child posts personal information online, outsiders have been able to locate them. In order to maintain privacy, anonymity is necessary. However, there are other drawbacks to using anonymous networking. Online bullying & taunting are sometimes encouraged as a result. However, children aren't the only ones who suffer because of this. Adults might become victims of identity theft if they reveal too much personal information. In light of these risks, several social media platforms restrict users to be at least a certain age. Location affects them. The parents of minors should also be consulted before they utilize these sites. Parents are advised to keep a close eye on their children's online activities and the people with whom they connect, according to the experts. Children & teenagers are urged not to meet anyone they've met online. Embarrassment can also result from social networking. This is especially true when people use it to post sensitive information like credit card numbers or social security numbers. The poster of such information runs the risk of being haunted. Downloads from social media sites, on the other hand, have the potential to be infected with malware. Spam can be generated by posting email addresses. Security software is being used to address these concerns on some websites. But it's a never-ending fight.

STUDENT USE SOCIAL MEDIA

The vast majority of students have access to a mobile device that connects to the internet, which means that adopting mobile technology for educational purposes may exclude less than 5% of pupils. When it comes to education, social media is a vital tool for both communication & marketing. There has been a lockdown phase during the COVID-19, which has resulted in the closure of a number of educational institutions. As a result, social media has developed as a great place to share, review, & obtain quick answers to any questions you may have about any product or service.

post updates on classes, questions they have, and answers they've received. Additionally, kids can use it to communicate with their peers and exchange ideas. Teachers, too, are using social media to connect with their pupils, educate them, and clear up any misunderstandings they may have. When it comes to studying, social media is no longer only a distraction, but a daily companion for students.

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

"Social media's "intangible" or long-term benefits have a simple elevator pitch" (Hollier, 2009). Participating in social media helps to improve the customer's perception of the brand, which in turn aids in the development of the brand. In order to attract clients & potential employees, a firm needs to have a well-known and well-known brand. A business's reputation will improve as a result of using social media. A brand's consumer or corporate appeal can be summed up in a few short words. It helps to keep the brand in the thoughts of customers by creating a brand. The company's name can be continually re-emphasized via social media. The luxury of using a brand's product or service extends to the customer's experience of working with a firm as well (Carraher 2006). The experiences of a company's employees serve as a foundation for building brand recognition. In order for a company to be viewed as approachable and pleasant, it must be included on the internet (Carraher, Parnell, & Spillan, 2009). Brand value & brand attributes can be effectively conveyed through social media forums since they allow for open communication. The following scenarios are ideal candidates for social media use:

  • Employees & management should be able to openly communicate with each other.
  • Make it easier for employees to collaborate on projects and share their skills and experiences.
  • Webcasts and videos, rather than just plain text, are promoted by social media.
  • Assists in the exchange of information & ideas among present and prospective customers, as well as in the provision of any type of customer care or assistance.
  • A well-known community should be encouraged for members of the company's workforce to join.
  • Companies must guarantee that their staffs are complying to the standards & etiquette of social media in order to reap

A third method for businesses to build brand recognition is to join an existing forum & launch a new forum for stakeholders to participate in (Kukulska-Hulme, 2010). A solid reputation & strong advocacy can be built if this is done correctly and effectively. This means that people will be more likely to talk favorably of the company (Carraher, 2011). As opposed to crisis management, one of the primary challenges for social media is to be a credible source of communication. Reducing rumors & negative discussion can be accomplished through the use of social media, which can be used to be truthful, open, and prompt in the dissemination of information about a company's problems (Hollier, 2009). Online interactions can be monitored for a fee using a variety of services. They do a qualitative & quantitative analysis of how online debates are conducted and how much information is disseminated. Social media, including Facebook, blogs, and YouTube, have become a key source of new employees. About 80% of organizations utilize LinkedIn as a recruiting tool, which is another similar source. Additionally, social media has become one of the quickest and most effective ways to boost productivity & enthusiasm in the job done by employees. Companies can keep tabs on their staff's innovativeness and passion by utilizing these tools.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Daniel Redhead et al. (2020) Societies within and between species are frequently governed by relationships of power & dominance. It is not necessary for social hierarchies in humans to rest on dominance relationships when there are several culturally valued axes of distinction. As a result, humans are able to navigate a wide range of status domains, i.e. relative standings. Aside from dyadic interactions, these hierarchies are frequently more fundamentally directed by subjective peer evaluations & group perceptions, even though these hierarchies may be built from these interactions. In the past, researchers have often concentrated on the diverse aspects that form individuals' relative position, with some stressing individual-level traits & others describing emerging macro-level structural effects. Individual-level & meso-level features of social networks in which individuals are immersed are key for understanding the many processes of status differentiation among groups, as we show here, in a synthesis of work across social sciences. To be more explicit, we've found that people not only operate in many social hierarchies at once, but also inside multiple, interconnected social networks. There are major dynamic feedbacks between social hierarchies & characteristics of social networks, as the aspects of social links, their structural aspects, Chen, Long et al. (2020) From physical networks to cognitive information, cyberspace weapons are becoming more sophisticated. Future developments will focus on technologies like network penetration, public opinion guidance & attacks, and cognitive intervention and control, among others. Cyberspace's cognitive domain will be the manipulation of public opinion and the manipulation of audiences. Networks like social networks and mobile phone communication networks have played a significant part in organizing and preparing a number of high-profile events that pose serious challenges to national security & stability of international relations. We investigated & clarified social network actors, the environment, scene, manipulation, and the ethical framework.. We've come to the conclusion that there are six basic types of social public opinion weapons: Bot, Botnet, Troll, Real people & events can be manipulated, cyborgs can be hacked or stolen. Since social network warfare is a new war situation in the framework of big powers, the conflict between camps can be observed in social media. A state's Internet area is monitored to construct defenses while it uses social media platforms to penetrate its enemies and mediate war. The virtual space's outside boundary is marked by a digital wall. Military countries including the United Kingdom, the U.S, & Russia have taken the initiative to lead in the sphere of social media in recent years as the trend towards weaponization of social media has become apparent. The fundamental theories of cognition are being bolstered in all countries. There have been a slew of fundamental research initiatives focusing on information, biology, networks, and cognition all at the same time. Combat practice reveals that social media is more effective than some traditional combat approaches, even if it isn't a direct comparison. Social media has played an increasingly important part in modern warfare, becoming a multiplier of forces as a result of the prominence it has gained. In major countries nowadays, social network users are deploying weaponry aimed primarily at incident & public opinion reconnaissance, sentiment analysis & active engagement. Component models and software architectures for social weapons have been identified through our investigation. Social media is being used by every country to promote political misinformation and impact the digital information environment. Articles like this one help us better understand and predict the future of public opinion battles in the social network & propose a framework for the social weapon arsenal. There has been a constant improvement in the technology, scope, and accuracy of social media weaponry. It's becoming more and more common for countries to significantly alter their cyberspace security policies. DU JIN (2020) Young people's lives have been transformed by the continual presence of social media. As a consequence, the widespread usage of social networks has altered numerous educational methods and processes. There has been a steady rise in the instructors, friends, and online knowledge-sharing has a substantial effect on students' school performance.. Several parts of this study, which intends to provide light on the usage of social media by students in higher education, are included. Students' inventive, dynamic, & research-oriented behaviours are rewarded when they use online social media for cooperative learning. Basically, it's a question of academic proficiency. This study acquired and analysed data from several social media platforms in higher education in the field of computer science. EBSCO, IEEE, & ACM digital libraries were used to acquire data. These attributes were found to be influenced positively by social a network, which suggests that their use in higher education should be increased. There has been a lack of utilization of internet social networks by teachers and educational institutions. Lela Susanty et al. (2020) tries to demonstrate the good & negative effects of social media on the development of young people. Discusses how social media affects a person's social capital, personal safety, psychological well-being and educational success. This research is based on some of the blogs that have been written about the same subject matter. Social media usage is a factor in the selection process. The research methodology employed in this study is based on a theoretical framework designed for synthesis of literature. A growing body of evidence suggests that children & young adults can benefit greatly from the positive influence of social media in terms of their ability to communicate more effectively, gather data, and enhance their technological knowledge. Despite this, they are at risk of mental stress, cyberbullying and online sexual harassment because of Facebook. According to the findings of this study, social media plays a vital part in the daily lives of young people. They get the benefits of enhancing their socializing by enhancing their ability to communicate with family and friends. Youth can also utilize social media as a resource for learning new skills, such as how to use the latest technology to improve their health and education. Grzegorz Mazurek et al. (2020) To put it another way, academics are under more scrutiny than ever before because of their citations. We want to see if the use of social networking sites (SNSs) may help boost academic citations, and we want to know which SNSs are most beneficial for this goal. Studies in the fields of social networks, SNS, & higher education as well as empirical study results were used in this project. The more prominent a researcher is in academic, professional, relationship, and micro blogging SNS, the more likely he or she is to be cited in academic publications. Research Gate, LinkedIn, Facebook, & Twitter are used in this study to examine the relationship between a researcher's

Elisabeth Staksrud et al. (2020) This chapter describes the available information about how children use social media: the risks, the damages, and the advantages. It draws from a wide range of disciplines, including communication studies, psychology, sociology, anthropology, & medical science. A broader discussion about the so-called "smartphone addiction" has sparked concern about social media's negative impact on children's social development and general well-being. Cases of "sharenting," as parents post about children on social media without their children's consent, are discussed in the section. As the term implies, "parental mediation" describes a variety of methods parents and other caregivers employ to keep an eye on how their children utilise the internet and other digital resources. In addition to providing channels for civic participation and digital citizenship, social media can be a useful tool. Landge Yogita Vasantrao (2020) Based on this topic, the researchers conducted a study on the perceived effects of using social networking websites on adolescent students' adjustment, study habits, & academic performance. To find out how much of a positive or detrimental impact students' use of social networking sites is having on their overall development, this study looked at three factors. As a result of the widespread use of social media, today's youth are more equipped to interact with one another around the world. Because of SNSs, they have more chances to experiment and explore, which increases their chances of being affected. Social media has an impact on adolescents in a variety of ways. Research into how teens adapt their environments and how social networking sites influence their study habits is essential in this setting.... While much research has been done in the past to discover the link amongst students' study habits and academic achievement, the impact of social networking sites needs to be examined further. Kalpana Shamrao Sonawane (2021) Social networking has only been around since the late '90s, but it's grown quickly since then. As a means of communication between people and groups, it has been found to be a useful tool for facilitating long-term relationships between people and groups. It is possible to silently promote the services of Library & Information Centers in order to enhance the knowledge of professionals and other clients in the LIS industry. For COVID-19, social networking sites serve as strong communication tools. The social media platforms are a tool for bringing together the elderly for no particular reason. Today's social networking websites help to advance the profession of librarians as well as the offers of libraries. Traditional library products and know-how tools have been completely transformed by the rise of social networking. Social networking library experts can reach a wide range of consumers quickly and supply moderately comparable it easier for librarians to cultivate more intimate relationships with their patrons. Social networking in academic libraries has both advantages and disadvantages, as discussed in this study, which begins with an introduction to social networking & media, then moves on to analyze the goals, importance, and implications of these technologies. Veronika KHUDOLEI (2021) It has been established that social media has a significant impact on the growth of a company. For the first time, the most popular social media networks in the globe have been determined by marketers. For businesses, the most important social media opportunities are mentioned (revenue, brand awareness/development; networking; and recruiting). If you're a business, social media has a lot to offer. Customer insight enhancement, improved customer service, cost efficiency; connectivity, building brand recognition, and sales are just a few of the advantages that come with this. Analytical & empirical studies have led to the suggestion of social media as a vehicle for promoting small businesses. Stable operations will be achievable in the short and long term if they are implemented by business owners.

CONCLUSION

Individuals all around the world are now interacting & communicating in entirely new ways thanks to the rise of social media. There has been a constant evolution in social media since the dawn of human communication. People's methods of meeting & communicating are constantly evolving thanks to social media. One such revolution is being ushered in by the Global Positioning System (GPS). Members' locations can be tracked by a network using it. This can be used in a variety of ways. Apps like Facebook and Twitter can be used to quickly find out if a person's friends are present in a large group. These tools could become even more powerful in the future. The use of social media in marketing campaigns is a low-cost option. Marketing items and services at a low cost was the initial usage of this method.

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Corresponding Author Andleeb Javeed*

Research Scholar, Sunrise University, Alwar, Rajasthan