Tag Social Media

It wasn’t long ago when an old school telegram was considered to be the coolest medium of establishing communication to present time when Facebook has almost doubled down its effort on the development of a mind-reading device. Social media has indeed crossed several stages of evolution, and stages that have established it as a platform that is here to stay and grow. One of the major factors behind the unprecedented growth that social media is witnessing both in terms of users and scope of constant growth is the technology used behind it.

The innovation in social media technology has come a long way since Six Degrees, the platform that ruled till 1997 and which in later years gave rise to  the new technologies for social media. The foundation stone of social media technology was raised in 1997 with SixDegrees.com, the first social media site.

The platform allowed users to create a profile page, curate a list of connections, and send messages to their network. At one time, the website had over one million users before being sold off for $125 million, and finally meeting a premature demise in 2001 with decline in the domain.

However, there were a few exceptions, at the back of their strong business model ready for growth from day one. Social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat continued to come on top of the social media landscape in terms of user count. In recent times, there were some other key names that joined the social media technology evolution landscape – Grindr, Vero, and Helo amongst others.

How Important is Technology for Social Media? 

Technology plays a major role in social media’s evolution. On a more precise level, it started with the inception of mobile apps and the advent of smartphones and laptops. In 2019 alone, according to a  report by Lyfe Marketing, over 91% of all social media users logged into their social channels through mobile devices.

Let us find out the list of technologies that are helping social media app developers take the platform to its next evolution set. 

Technologies Helping Social Media To Evolve

1.  Radio Frequency Identification Tags (RFID)

More commonly known as RFID, it’s  a small computer chip that can store information about an individual or object. These chips come with a unique serial number that can be connected to the data stored on the chip. Let us explain the application of this technology through this example: Suppose you are attending a music concert and scanning your RFID device with another RFID device that has social features integrated into it. By simply bringing your RFID device to another similar device, The RFID feature can allow you to like a band on Instagram or Facebook or even download some of your favorite music tracks on your device. 

The growing usefulness and popularity of RFID in the event and ecommerce business has led to many social media app development companies to incorporate RFID features into their mobile applications. 

2.  Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented Reality or AR and mixed reality have become one of the most popular features of social media apps. There are possibly multiple uses of AR by integrating it with the application, but the most  prominent and popular use is found in face filters. AR-driven filters first used by Snapchat are useful for both individuals and businesses by helping them to deliver engaging content.

Another important use of AR in social media is seen in the social media advertisements. Snapchat had previously created an AR-based app for Snap Original where the youth icon and rapper popularly known as Bhad Bhabie engaged with the users as if they were doing in reality.  

3.  Artificial Intelligence 

There are many new-age technologies that are hugely impacting the social media sector in recent time, but the one name which will be placed right at the top is Artificial Intelligence or AI.

AI is the quintessential component of every social media platform that is currently active in the market. The technology has become so important that now it’s involved as a default note in the social media development cost. 

Facebook used advanced machine learning for a number of applications such as face recognition in posts, targeting users for advertisements and even for improving their search functionality. LinkedIn finds use for AI in offering job recommendations, suggesting people important contacts with whom they should connect, and sending them relevant posts for their feed.

Snapchat has been successfully using the computer vision capability for tracking physical features and overlaying filters that move with them in real-time. These are some good examples that validate the use of AI in the different genres of the social media domain. 

4.  Blockchain

Decentralization of social media is one of the most important genres of the social media sector. There are many instances of social media and blockchain convergence that businesses from both sides are experimenting with. Here are some examples:

The social media networks usually depend on ad-based business models that has a common problem of creators not getting an equal compensation for their content on the platform. They actually need a professional contract to ensure the creators get the amount that their content deserves without any delay or unreasonable deductions.

Businesses are often forced to combat internet censorship. By adopting distributed ledger, the users can easily read and curate their own content with a guarantee that no authority will be able to block access to content. 

5.  IoT

Another very useful social media and technology trends is the Internet of Things. It’s a fact that social media depends heavily on technology for monitoring social media and some of the well known brands that use it are N&W, Disney, and Tencent, etc. 

Social media app development companies having loT skills are much sought after by businesses because they help them create solutions around real-time monitoring of data and insights emanating from social media.This proves very helpful as it enables them to make better business decisions. 

These are essentially five technologies that are taking the social media sector towards a new evolution era – one that will be truly democratic and transparent in nature. Do you wish to be a part of such a revolution?

Social media landscape in India is dominated by big names like Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, and Twitter. For example, a popular channel like Facebook has more than 300 millions users while Whatsapp has another 400 millions. Even a Chinese app TikTok had 150 million users. Besides, there are millions who are active on Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. Unfortunately, there is not even one Indian social media platform that is even closer to these behemoths in terms of popularity and user base.

Last year, in an unprecedented move, the government of India banned as many as 59 Chinese apps including the widely popular short video app TikTok. That was kind of an opportunity window, Indian developers had been looking for since long. Some smart entrepreneurs seized this opportunity to come out with their own app that can be truly described as the beginning of home grown Indian social media platforms. Let us discuss some of the leading names that have been creating a lot of buzz.

At present, with respect to the new IT act related to the functioning of social media, the government of India has taken a very strict stand against foreign based social channels like Facebook, Whatsapp, and Twitter. Therefore, time is ripe for domestic players to rise to the occasion and show to the entire world that when it comes to developing a versatile social media app, they are second to none, and they are quite capable of creating a product of international standard without any outside support.

The one name that comes right at the top is ShareChat, a short video, and picture sharing app. It is primarily a regional language social media platform that is changing the way in which the next billion users from India will interact on the internet.

ShareChat, the Bengaluru based app has over 60 million monthly active users spread across the country. It’s currently available in 15 Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Odia, Kannada, Assamese, Haryanvi, Rajasthani, Bhojpuri and Urdu. In a very short period, it has become so popular that a brand as powerful as Twitter decided to come onboard when ShareChat raised $100 million of funding last year. The Indian app is silently leading a social media revolution with a strong focus on regional outreach keeping its unique identity intact. The current move of the central government against leading social media platforms that have serious privacy, cyber security and national security risks is commendable. It will be even better if they offer a helping hand to these homegrown social media channels because that will be also ideal for the growth of Indian startup ecosystem.

There is another very interesting app called Public, which is essentially a video-only social media platform. It has registered an impressive 50 million users who are creating more than one million videos every month. India has abundant talent and resources and the vacuum created by the TikTok ban is a blessing in disguise for Indian app makers to create products that have the potential to do well in the global market. Currently, Public app is available in five Indian languages: Hindi,  Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu, and is aiming for over 100 million active users by the end of the year.

Another worth mentioning app is Roposo, which is a short-video making app. There have been more than 65 million downloads of this app in the country. Post ban on the Chinese apps, most ex TikTok users, and influencers with huge fan followings of their own, have migrated to Roposo in large numbers. According to Mayank Bhangadia, Roposo’s co-founder, it’s a clean and ethical platform. The objective of Roposo is to provide every talented Indian with an opportunity to grow rapidly.

There is another purely Indian social app called Chingari that is creating a lot of ripples among users.  It’s very similar to TikYok, the banned Chinese app. It has witnessed record number of downloads and over 2 million views per hour. The app was founded by  Biswatma Nayak and Siddharth Gautam last year and is currently trending at the top on Google Play Store, and has already been downloaded over 3 million times. The popularity of the app is attracting a lot of investors who may come on board to help scale up its operations.

Connectd India is another very exciting app which has positioned itself as an all-in-one app with features of many leading apps. The USP of this app is its unique feature of anonymous counseling service which will likely make it acceptable among youngsters.The future of home grown social media apps looks quite bright, and it will be interesting to see whether they will keep their focus primarily on the Indian users or will become truly global.

What is that one activity you find common among most age groups? The answer is quite simple. It’s the use of social media. Everybody seems so enamoured by the attraction of social media. It doesn’t matter where you go – park, playground, cinema hall, club, airport, office, school or even your own sweet home, you will hardly find anyone without a mobile in their hands. And every now and then, they would be checking their social media updates. 

According to a Pew Research Center report of 2018, around 88% of people in the 18 to 29 years age group acknowledged using social media. In the age group of 30 to 49 years, it was 78%. Although in the higher age group the percentage decreased marginally, but not too much. There were 64% people in the age group of 50 to 64 years who were frequent users of social media. Why is there so much addiction to social media? How does it affect the human brain?

The continuous flow of communication and connection that we get from social media is changing the way we think and react. We are developing habits which are good as well as harmful for our mental health. From a neurological point of view, social media has a major impact on human’s brain functions. It affects the brain in different ways that can trigger various responses. Getting a positive reaction on social media affects many parts of the brain. So, when you get likes on Facebook and Instagram, it activates the striatum and ventral tegmental regions of your brain that acknowledges rewards and appreciation. The positive feedback on social media releases dopamine receptors which are G protein regulating motor activity and neurological disorders.

There was another experiment carried out by employing the MRI test to monitor brain activity during social media use and found similar results. Researchers also analyzed teenagers’ brains and discovered that after receiving more likes on their Instagram pictures, there was increased activity experienced in their neural regions of the brain that controls the reward processing, attention, and social cognition. The heavy users of social media should be aware of the consequences of the channels they use since it’s so closely connected to their reward system. Addiction to drugs and gambling have a direct connection to the reward system of an individual’s brain. Therefore, social media users need to be watchful of their activities on their preferred channel.

Social media also affects the decision making capacity and the parts of the brain controlling the emotional processing functions. In another experiment done on adolescents, it was found that whenever they felt left out on social media, it affected the emotional and sensory processing region of their brains. This happened when they were excluded from some chat, group or events on social media.

The research still seems to be in its initial stages as to how social media use affects the average human brain. Although we are now better informed than earlier, yet a lot still needs to be learned. 

Social Media is a very important tool that affects our life in many ways. It doesn’t matter wherever you are – US, Brazil, France, Italy, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, India, China or Japan, there is a very high probability that you may have an active presence on one or the other social media channel. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Whatsapp have not only connected people around the world but also entwined their lives. It has made us aware of people from different countries having their own languages and culture. Before, social media became such a rage, we had little means to know what is happening elsewhere. Forget about what was happening in a distant country, we were not even aware of what was happening in our own country. 

Although we had newspapers, radio and television news channels, they were generally very selective about the news they wanted to share with the public. Moreover, most of these mediums were owned by corporates who were under pressure to tow the pro government stand. Once social media made an entry in people’s lives, all this changed. They soon undermined the monopoly of traditional media because of their authenticity, and the speed at which they delivered the news. It became a powerful vehicle of change in society after making people aware about the issues and problems facing them at large. 

For almost one and a half years, social media has kept us informed about the corona pandemic. It is mostly through channels like Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp, we know what measures other countries are taking to control its spread. We also come to know about the extent of infection and the casualties caused by the virus. International organisations such as WHO, UNICEF and UN keep issuing important updates and notifications related to the pandemic, and it is again social media channels that keep us informed. Since the pandemic became more lethal and started taking a heavy toll on human lives, scientists and researchers all over the world have been busy developing an effective vaccine to control it. Social media has continuously kept us in the loop about the development process of vaccines and also about the latest mutants of coronavirus.

Social media has always raised issues of women empowerment and sexual harassment at work places. It was in Oct 2017, when Alyssa Milano, the American actor through a tweet shared about her own exploitation, and asked her followers to do the same. Her tweet soon became viral and got more than 50000 likes and 25000 retweets. That one tweet created the #MeToo movement that spread from Hollywood to Bollywood, and from power corridors of White House to the corporate meeting rooms of Mumbai. Everyday, new revelations came about how rich and powerful men from film industry, business and politics misused their position and openly indulged in sexual harassment of women who came to them for some work or favour. There were countless women who showed courage and resolve and came forward to share their ordeal in the hands of powerful men who were otherwise highly respected in the society. Nobody had any clue that these so called men of honour were actually molesters, rapists and lechers. President Trump was also named by a couple of women for his indecent and disrespectful gestures towards them in the past.

Hashtags are very important tools on social media through which you can reach a larger audience to share your stories. In recent times, issues such as #BlackLivesMatter and #WeAreHere came to the forefront only because of social media. These are type of news that mainstream media don’t find interesting, and so they deliberately avoid them. It is left to the social media where those directly impacted by issues get a chance to speak and express themselves. People also get first hand information from real victims. Sometimes, even the government and the concerned authorities come to know about the problems that people face. Based on these feedbacks, the necessary steps are taken by the officials.

Social media is also used for raising political protests in some countries. #UmbrellaRevolution and #Resist are some of the fine examples. It is also used for charity and benevolence purposes with hashtags such as #IceBucketChallenge. Besides, social media also stood for victims of terror attacks and natural disasters with popularising hashtags like #PrayForParis and #PreyForJapan.

Everyday, one or the other campaign is usually started on social media channels like Twitter and Facebook to raise awareness. Users of such platforms have realised that they can rely on the power of social media to spread their message to a larger audience that will ultimately put pressure on the government to act. This trend will likely continue in the future too because day by day the popularity of social channels is only increasing.

The entertainment industry in present times is not what it used to be a decade back. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter have changed the dynamics of entertainment. Let’s discuss how social media has changed our relations with entertainers, how they became so famous and what is their income model.

Social media has provided an ideal platform for the celebrities, actors and models who use these popular channels to post their photographs and information about their upcoming projects.The moment they post something, fans and admirers go berserk and reply back with likes and comments. They also send direct messages (DM) in the hope that the celebrity might reply, and when someone manages a reply, he/she goes to cloud nine. This is the power of social media. And this is not just limited to Hollywood, but is common around the world. You go to any part of the world, celebrities behave the same way. They want adulation, and fans give them just that. Even Bollywood stars are no exception, and Indian social media can vouch for that. 

Social media has changed the way celebrities are created. There are many influencers who are famous for the sake of being famous. They are no great achievers in any field, but social media especially Instagram is packed with their pictures, news, quotes and updates. For example, Kim Kardashian who is one of the leading influencers on social media without having any significant contribution in either films, music or modelling. You will often find her promoting either a cosmetic label, fitness product, or any other brand for which she charges thousands of dollars.

Social media has also come as a boon for such Hollywood stars who are not among the A listers. They have a huge following on social media and any top producer will love casting them in his project because their popularity will ensure the success of their ventures. Celebrities like Dwayne Johnson are not known for their acting skills, still his films are super duper hits. This is all due to their massive popularity on social media. In fact, social media itself has become the biggest reality show and everyone wants a piece of it.

Monetization of Popularity 

Social media has now become much more than just a communication platform. It’s a channel where you make money. In the past, the chartbuster singers hardly released a single album in a year, but that is not the case anymore. Now, you have YouTube, Instagram and Spotify stars who release their albums online on these channels and earn millions. And they don’t limit themselves with a single release, but are very prolific and come out with a new song every two to three months. This keeps them popular and rich at the same time. Can they ask for more? Social media has become a great medium for making money. For example, even if you have 1000 followers on Instagram, you can easily monetize that to have a regular income. There are many start-up brands that like to work with such minor celebrities since they cannot afford big stars. Many such small time influencers on social media in course of time became big names and started earning millions. The process of making a celebrity was turned on its head by social media. Now anyone with the right attitude and zeal can earn name and fame on social media.

Democratisation of Stars

Social media has demolished the idea of ‘elite class” and brought a level playing field. Now, the stars cannot guarantee the success of a project on the strength of their past achievements. Everybody – Big, small, or struggling artists have an equal chance to be successful. You don’t need to have a lot of connections to book a studio recording deal. You can release your number on the social media itself. In fact, the traditional ‘elite class’ now has a negative connotation, and is seen with contempt. Such celebrities are now considered ignorant of the real world.

Social media is particularly the most ideal platform for newcomers who are planning to make it big in the world of entertainment. Now they don’t need big production houses, endorsements, or advertisement blitzkrieg to promote themselves. They need only two things: talent, and attitude – the rest social media can take care of. In fact, to the courtesy of pandemic, whatever aura they had around them because of their stunning looks and appearance seems to have dissipated. They look so average in their homes without the support staff that made them look like Gods. In normal times, these mega stars were surrounded by a bevy of makeup artists who made them look like Greek Gods, but the pandemic has changed all that. They look as ordinary as any other person walking down the street. The aura of super stardom has vanished. This is the biggest reality check for audiences.

Social media has removed many stereotypes in the last few years. One doesn’t need to be based in a metropolitan, or a big city to become a star. Therefore, on social media, it’s not important which particular place you belong to, but what skills you possess as an artist, or how popular you are among the audience is more important. Social media has changed the way we entertain. Now, “fifteen minutes of fame” has become a reality. We don’t go to movie theatres to watch a two hour long film. We are happy watching 15 minutes of Kapil Sharma stand up comedy on the youTube or Netflix. Now, Salman Khan’s big budget ‘Radhe’ fails to bring us to the cinema halls, because we are happy watching Manoj Bajpai in “Family man” and Pankaj Tripathi in “Ludo.” We don’t buy costly albums anymore, we rather watch free streaming of songs on social media. In short, social media has completely changed  the modalities of how entertainment is provided and how we receive it. In all likelihood the trend will continue in the future, and all those associated with the entertainment world have to brace up for this new reality. Now, audiences are the real king and only they will decide what type of content to be made and how.