ENGL 2074 University of Cincinnati Social Media and Its Role Now and in the Future

Social Media and Its Role Now and in the Future

ENGL 2074 - Social Media and Society

University of Cincinnati

February 16, 2024

Executive Summary

This document focused on the role of social media, now

and in future. To achieve this goal, it focused on a

number of issues that surround social media. The world

has experienced a lot of creations and innovations as a

result of the works of man. This includes the invention

of fire, the creation of the wheel, agrarian revolution,

industrial revolution, scientific revolution and at the

present moment, technological advancement. Each and

every day, the world is experiencing a lot of

development in the field of information, communication

and technology. As a result, the manner in which we

think, operate and interact with each other and our

environment has changed.

One of the greatest innovations that man has come up

with as a result of technological advancement is the

development of social media and networks. These new

phenomenon has taken over almost each and every

perspective of our lives. It has taken over the manner in

which we interact with each other and with ourselves,

with businesses, societies, professionals, institutions

and so on. However, like any other environment. It is

due to this fact that it was essential to conduct this study.

The aim of this study is to determine the role of social

media, now and in future. However, to narrow down the

scoop of the study, the following four research questions

were formulated:

I. How has social media changed the lives of

people?

II. What impacts do social media networks have on

businesses?

III. Is social media a fad or is it a sustainable force

that will change how we interact with one another

and with businesses?

IV. How is social media evolving and what is its

future?

These questions were formulated in order to guide the

line that the study would take. To ensure that these

questions were covered effectively and efficiently, the

following study hypotheses were formulated:

 Ho1: Social media has a huge impact on the lives

of people

 HA1: Social media does not have a huge impact

on the lives of people

 Ho2: Social media has a huge impact on business

entities

 HA2: Social media does not have a huge impact

on business entities

However, the time span for carrying out this study was

limited. This acted thus as a major limitation to this

study. Another limitation of the study was the fact that

the amount of relevant literature to support the study

was limited since the social media industry is a new area

of study. However, several methods were used to collect

the relevant data that was required in this study. Despite

the fact that social media is a new industry, document

review was the method that was used to gather a lot of

information pertaining to the topic of study. Books,

journals, magazines, theses, online publications and

other forms of media were used to gather supporting

information with regards to the study. These materials

were gathered from various sources including libraries

and online databases.

To support the information that was gathered from

document review, interviews were conducted. These

interviews were conducted on people and business

entities. This target group was essential in providing the

information that was required for the study as it aimed

to determine the impacts of social media on people and

businesses. The respondents for the study were

individuals between the ages of 12-65. This age group

is the most active proportion of the global population. In

addition, observations were also conducted. To ensure

that the data that was collected from these methods were

precise, several analyses were conducted. First, the data

that was collected from interviews and observations

were analyzed using a computer software package

known as SPSS version 16.

In addition, Porter 5 Forces, SWOT and PESTEL

analysis were conducted on the social media industry in

order to get an in-depth understanding of the industry.

From these analyses, it was identified that social media

plays a critical role in the lives of individuals since 77%

of the users who were interviewed had accounts in at

least one of the online social network sites. In addition,

73.3 of the business entities that were interviewed had

fun pages on social network sites. Therefore, this proved

that social network sites play a critical role in the lives

of people and businesses. Furthermore, the social media

industry was valued at approximately $100 billion and

more investors were still will to put their money in the

industry. Therefore, this proved that social media is not

a fad but a sustainable advancement to the future.

Despite minor setbacks and reputations that social

media has faced, such as the England riots of 2011,

social media has and will play a critical role in the lives

of people and business entities all around the globe.

Introduction

The world is currently facing a major transformation in

all aspects of life. The way things operate in the world

has become so different from the way it used to be

several decades ago. As a result, the lifestyle and

characters of individuals have gradually been modified

to fit into the changes that we are currently experiencing.

Several factors have contributed to the changes that we

are currently experiencing. Technology is one of many

factors that has contributed greatly to these changes that

we are experiencing. To be specific to the context of this

paper, social organizations and networks have taken

over the lives of many individuals all around the world.

Social networks are virtual organizations on the internet

that have been created with the use of sophisticated

computer software and commands. These networks

enable individuals to interact with each other

irrespective of their physical location, culture,

background and origin. With the use of these networks,

people can share a lot of information with their friends,

create and interact with new friends and discuss several

issues of concern. All this is possible without having

physical contact with one another. Examples of social

networks include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,

YouTube, MySpace and so on.

Social media has changed the manner in which

individuals and organizations all around the world

operate, interact, communicate and socialize. Ever since

they came into existence, social media and networks

have attracted the attention of millions of people in the

globe. Due to the influence that social networks have on

individuals and organization, they have managed to

change the manner in which the world operates. As a

result, a lot of factors in the world now depend on social

media and networks. From a humble beginning, social

networks have taken control of the globe and the manner

in which it operates.

Other than affecting and influencing the manner in

which individuals socials, communicate and so on,

social media has also played a critical role in

determining the manner in which businesses operate.

This has mainly been championed by the concept of e-

commerce. As Berry (2009) asserts, e-commerce is a

term that is used to refer to the process of selling and

purchasing goods and services over a variety of

electronic systems (p. 237). Examples of these

electronic systems include the internet, computer

networks and any other telecommunication network.

This technological advancement has come about

because of the massive advancements that are being

experienced in the field of Information Communication

and Technology (ICT). These advancements have made

the manner in which individuals, organizations,

societies, nations and the world at large operate.

Due to the advancement in the field of ICT, the term e-

commerce evolved rapidly to include a number of

additional auxiliaries. At the present moment, the term

is not only used to refer to the buying and selling of

goods and services over computer network but it also

includes other processes such as the development,

marketing, selling, paying, delivery and servicing of

goods and services over the internet or any other

computerised network (Boone and Kurtz, 2011). The

concept of e-commerce has gradually developed over

the last several years because of the increase in the rate

of internet use by many people all across the globe.

According to Boone and Kurtz (2011), e-marketing is

the base that supports global functions such as online

banking, electronic funds transfer, supply chain

management, mobile banking, online marketing,

electronic data exchange, electronic inventory analysis

and online purchasing of a variety of goods and services

that are available on the internet (p. 16).

From the above analysis, it is evident that e-commerce

has greatly influenced the manner in which operations

are conducted by firms and businesses all around the

globe. Many firms all around the world use the e-

commerce strategy to gain a competitive edge over their

rivals in the respective industries that they operate in. It

is due to this fact that firms should adopt and implement

this change and innovation. This will not only enable

them to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals

but it will ensure that the organization is run in an

effective and efficient manner (Boone and Kurtz, 2011).

Therefore, the adoption of social media and networks by

businesses has been as a result of the implementation of

e-commerce by businesses. Whether large or small,

local or international, most businesses have used the

concept of social networking to get a clear

understanding of their target market. In addition, social

networks offer businesses the chance to meet and

interact with their customers. This gives businesses the

chance to understand the needs of their consumers, the

market and any other external factor that may affect the

manner in which they run their operations. As a result of

having this information, such organizations stand in a

better chance of operating in an effective and efficient

manner by being able to meet the needs of their

customers and that of the market. As a result, such

organizations normally have a competitive edge over

their rivals in the respective industries in which they

operate.

However, with the current trends, it is evident that

businesses are mainly using social media for advertising

and socializing purposes. It has been identified that

brands use social media to connect with their

prospective customers. In addition, brands also use

social networks as a mantra to advertise their products

(Kaplan 69). Marketers have discovered that social

media is one of the most effective methods to reach their

target market during the 21st century. As a result, they

have tried to utilize social media to the fullest in order

to advertise their respective brands and meet the needs

and desires of their customers (Kaplan 69).

As a result, marketers have come up with sophisticated

methods of marketing their brands via social media and

networks. This trend has increased especially within the

last two years. Social media marketing has increased

because of increased competition. As competitors utilize

various marketing strategies, their counterparts in the

same industry also come up with even innovative and

creative methods of reaching their consumers. This

increases the level at which social media and networks

are used by businesses to reach their consumers and

stand at a competitive edge. Social media has thus

become a platform of e-marketing for business entities

all over the globe. This has removed the physical

boundaries that are present between different states

making organizations operate on a global scale.

Background

The Internet

As Boyd and Ellison (2007) asserted, the internet is a

key accessory that has transformed life in the

21st century. The internet has made life much easier. It

has made the ease at which information is accessed to

be much easier. In addition, the internet has made

globalization through socialization and networking to be

a reality. According to Boyd and Ellison (2007), 32.7%

of the worlds population has access to the internet using

one way or the other. Most of the individuals who

comprise this proportion are between the ages of 12 and

65 (Boyd and Ellison 212). This age group comprises

the proportion of active individuals within the

population. Thus, from this information, it will be true

to conclude that the internet is an essential element of

life in the modern era. However, despite the fact that a

high proportion of the worlds population uses the

internet in one way or the other, most of these

individuals do not really have the background

information with regards to the growth and development

of the internet.

The internet developed from humble beginnings during

the 1950s and 1960s. The development of the internet

was directly related to the development of computers, a

phenomenon that was being experienced during this

very time (Gajjala 132). However, the earliest form that

may have led to the development of the internet was

Arpanet (Gajjala156). Released in October 1969,

Arpanet was a network that used packet technology. At

that time, packet technology was a new thing and

seemed to be sophisticated to many individuals. The

main aim of Arpanet was to connect computers in

UCLA and Stanford. Thus, in modern terms, Stanford

and UCLA were the first hosts in what were currently

refer to as the internet. On October 29th 1969, Stanford

and UCLA wanted to send a message across the

network. The message was the word ‘Login’. However,

the system crashed at the letter g. This was perhaps the

first message that was sent across an online network in

the history of the world.

Fig. 1. The Arpanet network (Adamic 4).

The Arpanet was just but the first step towards a number

of creations and innovations that led to the development

of what we refer today as the internet. During the same

year that Arpanet was launched, the UNIX, an operating

system was also launched. A computerised system

operates with the use of commands. However, for these

commands to function as a sustainable unit, it is

essential to develop an operating system that regulates,

directs and controls these commands in order to achieve

the desired output. Thus, the development of UNIX was

a major step towards the integration of the internet.

Many operating systems that are currently in use are

based on the UNIX. A prime example of an operating

system that is based on UNIX is Linux. Another

example is FreeBSD. According to Gajjala (2007), these

are the operating systems that are mainly used by host

serves and internet servers (181).

In 1970, there another developmental milestone was

experienced. An Arpanet network was developed.

However, unlike the previous one, this new network-

connected several parties. These included MIT, BBN

and Harvard. This network was more successful than the

previous Arpanet network that connected Stanford to

UCLA. The internet is currently based on these

networks. Later on, in 1971, another revelation was

unravelled; the e-mail. In 1971, Ray Tomlinson

developed a standard format that was used to be used to

set up a standard email address. He developed the

acronym @ that was used to separate the username from

the address. However, the e-mailing concept had been

in practice for sometime before this happened. From

several reports that have been documented, it has been

found out that during the mid-1960s, users of mainframe

computers used e-mails as a form of point-to-point

communication between one another. However, the

revelation by Ray Tomlinson in 1971 led to the

development of a standard format that is applicable up

to the present day. Currently, millions of e-mails are

exchanges across the internet by users from all around

the world. This has made communication via the

internet to be much easier.

From this time, the frequency at which innovations and

creations with regards to computing and networking

increased. In 1972, for instance, France developed

CYCLADES. CYCLADES was a network system that

resembled Arpanet. However, it did not last for long.

Despite its demise, its innovation and development had

a huge impact on system management. From it, it was

discovered that the main role host computers should

play is data transmission and not controlling the network

itself. Arpanet also experienced a lot of growth,

modification and development. According to Gajalla

(2007), the major milestone that was experienced in the

history of Arpanet was when the network was able to

support Trans-Atlantic communication in 1973 (133).

This connection was between the University College of

London. During the first year that this network was set,

e-mail accounted for three-quarters of the

communication (Lazer 15). However, 1974 saw an even

larger development in the world of computing and

networking. According to Gajjala (2007), a proposal

that aimed at linking all Arpa-like networks was

developed (184). This concept was referred to as inter-

networking. Unlike Arpanet and other related networks,

this new system would not have central control. In

addition, this new system was to be based on

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP/IP).

Since the development of the computer, it was quite

difficult to transmit information over networks since this

data had to undergo many changes in their form and

mode. Normally, data in a computer is always in a

digital format. For it to be transmitted over a network, it

has to be transformed into another format depending on

the mode of transmission. This thus led to the

development of a modem; a device that transformed

digital data from a computer to analogue format for

transmission. Once this information has been received

on the other end, the modem converted the analogue

data back to digital format to be used in a computer.

This function was only available for mainframe

computers. However, in 1977, Dennis Hayes and Dale

Heatherington developed the first modem that could be

used in personal computers (Hodge 97). This innovation

changed the manner in which people would

communicate over networks as now individuals had the

chance to access several networks with the use of their

personal computers. Thus, communication across

networks changed to include individuals, not

corporations, and research institutions. However, the

introduction of the PC modem to the public had adverse

effects on Arpanet users. In 1978, the first uncontrolled

e-mail was sent across the Arpanet network across

California. According to Hodge (2006), this message

affected over 600 users (101). This phenomenon, later

on, came to be referred to as spam. Currently, this is a

common occurrence across the internet. Thus, Gary

Thuerk, the person responsible for the unsolicited e-mail

in 1978, was the first person to ever make spam.

Currently, there are a number of computerised games

and graphics present on the internet. Creativity and

innovation have led to the development of 3D games,

virtual reality and computer simulations. However, all

these advancements come from an advancement that

was created in 1979 from a precursor of two games;

World of Warcraft and Second Life. The result was a

multiplayer game called MultiUser Dungeon. This game

was simple as it was based on a virtual textual world.

The game was characterised by role-playing, fiction and

chatting over the internet. From this simple game,

hundreds of thousands of games have been developed.

Also in 1980, two graduate students in the United States

developed Usenet (Gajjala162). Usenet provided a

platform where people could discuss several issues

present in newsrooms on an online basis. Here, people

had the chance to give out their thoughts and ideas

towards a specific subject. This was perhaps the begging

of modern blogging. During the same year that Usenet

was developed, scientists at the European Organization

of Nuclear Research launched a new program (Gajjala

170). This program was referred to as the ENQUIRE

software. It was used by scientists at the particle physics

lab. These scientists used the software to keep track of

people and projects. This was made possible by the use

of hyperlinks.

1982 saw a major advancement in the passing of

personal information over the internet. This came about

as a result of the introduction of emoticons. Scott

Fahlman proposed the use of emoticon ☺ after a joke.

This was the birth of the use of modern emoticons over

the internet. Currently, there are many emoticons that

are mainly used by individuals in chat rooms and social

media to express their emotions; hence the word

emoticon.

1983 was the year that the internet experienced a major

change. On 1st January of that year, all computers

switched from Arpanet connections to TCP/IP

protocols. This change made it easier for individuals to

surf through the internet, network and link with others.

However, the transaction affected several computers. To

ensure that this new system is sustainable, effective and

efficient, the Domain Name System was created a year

later (Gajjala170). At the same time, the Domain Name

Server (DNS) was also created. The Domain Name

System is a system of naming computers, applications

or any other services that are connected to the internet.

The same system can also be used to name computers in

a hierarchical manner within a private network. Each

entity within the network is assigned a special name

with reference to all other entities that are present within

the system. This makes it easier for an individual to get

access/contact with a specific domain within the

network. As the internet was growing in size, the

Domain Name System made it easier for individuals to

search for a specific domain by providing addresses that

were much easier for an individual to memorise.

According to Gajjala (2007), this was much easier than

using IP addresses in order to get access to a given

domain (170). With this system in place, users could

easily put in an easy to remember the address for a

specific domain. Once this is done, the system then

automatically changes this address into the numerical

form of an IP address.

In 1985, the WELL, a virtual community was

developed. The WELL (Whole Earth Lectronic Link)

was developed by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant.

The main aim of this community was to bring together

the readers and writers from all across the globe. During

its early years of existence, the WELL mainly focused

on reviewing and analysing the Whole Earth Review.

The WELL became to be one of the largest virtual

gatherings and interaction of intellectuals in the world

during the 1980s. Due to this reputation, the community

kept on gaining more and more users. The WELL is still

in operation up to the present moment. Due to its

success, Wired Magazine has termed The WELL as the

most successful online community in history.

From the mid-1980s up to the early 1990s, tremendous

developments were made in the internet world. In 1986,

there was a major setback in the development of the

internet. This setback was as a result of protocol wars

between European states and the United States of

America. European states advocated for Open System

Interconnection to be used to connect computers on a

larger network. The USA, on the other hand, was not for

the idea. It advocated for the use of the Internet/Arpanet

protocol. These wrangles went on for quite some time.

However, the United States idea for the adoption of

Internet/Arpanet protocol was finally adopted by all

nations. This agreement made the use of the internet to

increase. The internet phenomenon now had a global

impact. By 1987, there were over 30,000 hosts on the

internet. This came about as a result of the adoption of

the TCP/IP system. This system made it possible for

many hosts to operate within the internet as compared to

the Arpanet connections that could only support 1,000

hosts. 1988 also saw an increase of users on the internet.

This increment was as a result of the introduction of

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) (Gajjala 174). This revelation

made real-time chat to be possible. In addition, it paved

way for the development of technologies that support

instant messaging that we are currently using. Thus, the

development of IRC was a major stepping-stone that

boosted communication at a personal level on the

internet. Modern chat rooms are currently based on this

platform. 1988 was also the year that the first major

attack on the internet was experienced. During this year,

a worm named Morris circulated throughout the

internet. The worm, developed by Robert Tappan

Morris, led to massive disruptions on the internet. Most

users of the internet were unable to access the system.

There were also massive system breakdowns as a result

of the worm. This brought about a major standstill in the

use of the internet. In 1989, Apple stopped participating

in the AppleLink program. Instead, it commenced on a

new program known as American Online (AOL) that is

still in existence up to the present day. This program

made it easier for average internet users to use the

internet effectively and efficiently. This program

success was based on the fact that it made individuals be

more comfortable while using the internet.

In 1989, the internet was in the process of taking a huge

turn. This came about as a result of the proposal of a

World Wide Web (Boyd and Ellison 219). This proposal

was written by Tim Berners-Lee. This proposal was

released on the March 1989 issue of the MacWorld. The

same proposal was also distributed in 1990. The main

aim of this proposal was to expound to CERN that the

use of a hypertext system would make the global use of

the internet to be sustainable. This proposed system

would also be in the best interest of CERN since it

would solve the problem of information loss; an issue

that was present with the current system that was present

on the internet. The internet at that time was organized

in a hierarchical manner.

CERN as an organization comprised of thousands of

people. All of these individuals were innovative and

creative. In addition, they always worked to achieve

specific goals and objectives as a team. However, their

organization structure was always a setback to their

initiative. This is because they were organized in a

hierarchical manner. This is not an effective system

since it does not allow free flow of information either up

or down the levels of management. The adoption of a

global hypertext system that was proposed by Berners-

Lee would end all this. This system would also solve the

problems of linked information systems, trees and

keywords. This new hypertexts system that was

proposed by Berners-Lee was to be referred to as the

‘Mesh’. However, while writing the code, Berners-Lee

changed the name to the World Wide Web (www).

Fig. 2. The proposed information system that Berners-

Lee presented in 1990 (Gajjala179).

During the 1990s, a lot of developments were

experienced in the internet world. It is the creations and

innovations of this decade that transformed the internet

to the status that it is currently in. 1990 saw the debut of

the first internet provider in the world; The World. The

World was a dial-up internet provider that targeted

organizations and individuals. Other than providing

internet services, The World also gave its users the

chance to connect to Usenet. It also offered e-mail

services to its users. The World is still in operation up to

the present day although currently there are thousands

of ISPs in the world. It is also in 1990 that the World

Wide Web protocol was completed. Berners-Lee finally

finished coding the World Wide Web. This work was

based on the proposal that he had presented a year

earlier. The World Wide Web was coded to meet

HTML, HTTP and URLs standards. A year later, the

first web page was created and released. Just like its

predecessors, the first web page had an explanation of

what it was, its uses and capabilities, its purpose and

most importantly, what the World Wide Web was all

about. This information was essential as it gave the

public essential information that created a form of

understanding of what the internet was and the

capabilities that it had. As a result, the mentality that the

internet was only for technical people was slowly dying

off.

With this advancement, the nature and extent of the

internet were growing at an alarming rate. It was thus

essential for the internet to be organized in such a way

that it will be easy to store, search, retrieve and access

files. The development of the World Wide Web played

a critical role in reliving this issue. However, as the

magnitude of stored and shared files within the internet

increased, a sustainable solution was required. This led

to the development of Gopher, an application that was

designed to search and retrieve documents that have

been stored on the internet. The gopher was one amongst

the earliest search engines on the internet.

1991 was also an important year in the world of

entertainment and communication over the internet. It is

during this year that the mp3 format was standardized.

This was a compressed form of music format that

enabled individuals to share music files and albums over

the internet. At the same time, the first webcam was

developed in 1991. Although the webcam application

was developed in an experimental design for

observation, the same concept was adopted to assist in

face-to-face communication via the internet. The same

application was also used for monitoring and

surveillance.

To easily access the internet, several browsers were

developed. In 1993, Mosaic, a web browser was

developed. Due to its user-friendly interface, Mosaic

made it easier for the public to access the internet. As a

result, it became the most common browser that was

downloaded and used by the public.

Fig. 3. The interface of Mosaic (Gajjala183).

The growth of the internet and the impact that it had on

the public could now be felt. More and more users

continued to access the internet. In addition,

applications and programs were being developed each

and every single day to ensure that the internet is user

friendly. Thus, as a result, the internet became part of

the lives of many individuals, especially in developed

nations. To keep up with this pace of development,

national governments and other organizations felt the

need to connect with the public via the internet. This

thus led to the government of the United States of

America and the United Nations going online in 1993.

As a result, the.org and.gov domains came into

existence.

At this time, Mosaic was the most common browser that

was used to access the internet. However, in 1994,

Mosaic faced its greatest competition ever; Netscape

Navigator. Netscape Navigator was a primary product

of Netscape Communication Corporation. Netscape

browser was based on the Mosaic browser although it

had a few modifications that made it to be a better

browsing program. Netscape was launched a time when

the internet was undergoing a great revolution;

commercialization of the internet. Netscape took

advantage of this by having desirable features that

enabled users to use it for a variety of functions. In

addition, the browser was offered free of charge for

those individuals who did not use it for commercial

purposes. This made the program to be a platform of the

windows operating system. In addition, ISPs and

computer review magazines played an essential role in

making the software to be readily available to the public

(Gajjala182).

A key factor that perhaps made Netscape be a superior

browser as compared to Mosaic was the manner in

which it used to load its pages. The browser had the on-

the-fly capability. This made the browser to be able to

load graphics and images as the web page continued to

load. This was a key advancement as compared to earlier

browsers that waited for graphics and images to be

loaded first by the network connection before they

displayed the entire web page. Thus, while using the

earlier versions of browsers such as Mosaic, users had

to stare at a blank page before the network connection

loaded the entire page. This process could take as long

as several minutes. Thus, the capability of Netscape to

systematically load pages while displaying graphics and

images attracted users during the mid-1990s into

downloading and using the browser. In addition,

Netscape developed the Secure Sockets Layer in 95.

This encryption made it possible for users to conduct

secure financial transactions such as credit card

payments online. This development further increased

the popularity of Netscape to internet users.

This development also led to the introduction of online

stores. Echo bay (later named eBay), launched in 1995

was among the earliest online stores where users could

buy and sell goods over the internet. Amazon.com, also

launched in 1995, also offered online purchasing

services. Towards the close of the 1990s, Netscape

strived hard to ensure that it remained the leading

browser in the world. To achieve this, it developed new

technical advancements that made it an even superior

browser as compared to other browsers that were

currently available. In its 2.0 version, Netscape

introduced cookies, JavaScript and proxy automatic

configurations (Gajjala184). In addition, Netscape

developers ensured that the browser was available for all

operating systems. This included Windows, Linux,

Macintosh and many other subsidiary operating systems

(Gajjala184). Furthermore, Netscape developers

commenced on a program known as Constellation. This

program aimed at making users access their files

regardless of the which computer they are using, their

location on the globe or the operating system that the

computer was using. All these factors played an

important role in the success of Netscape Navigator.

However, towards the close of the 1990s, the use of

Netscape among internet users started to decline. The

success that Netscape had experienced between the mid-

1990s to the end of the same decade made other

companies to realise the web browsers was a lucrative

industry that should be ventured into. One of the

companies that primarily made this discovery was

Microsoft (Gajjala185). To venture into the industry,

Microsoft adopted the basics of Mosaic in the

development of their new web browser. After years of

research and development, Microsoft released its web

browser, Internet Explorer. To market the product,

Microsoft used the Constellation idea that Netscape

developers had incorporated. Thus, Internet Explorer

could be used in any computer at any part of the globe

regardless of the operating system that the computer

had. This concept thus made Internet Explorer be the

main competitor of Netscape. The Version 1.0 of

Internet Explorer was only available for Windows 95.

Version 2.0, released in 1996 could operate in both

Windows and Macintosh. However, both of these

versions were considered inferior browsers as compared

to Netscape.

When Internet Explorer 3.0 was released into the market

in 1997, it had a relative impact in the market share of

browsers. This version was able to actively compete

with Netscape although the former was still considered

a better browser due to its reputation and features.

However, things took a different turn when Microsoft

released Internet Explorer version 4.0 in 1999. At this

time, Netscape had launched its version 3.0; the

Standard Version and the Gold Version. The standard

version had additional functions such as WYSIWYG,

news briefs, e-mail capabilities and so on. This

increased version increased its size and reduced its

speed. The Gold Version (considered as version 4.0) on

the other hand was later on renamed as Netscape

communicator. The change in name made it to be

unpopular among web users. In addition, Netscapes

version 4.x was slower than Internet Explorer 5.0. The

increased features of Netscape browsers made the

program to always crush. In addition, it was buggy and

thus users had to refresh an entire page in case of a

malfunction. Furthermore, Netscapes interface was

viewed as outdated as compared to Internet Explorers

interface. Thus, once a dominant browser, Netscape user

share had declined and was almost wiped off from the

market in the early 2000s.

The competition that was present between Netscape and

Internet Explorer and other browsers had an overall

positive effect on the users of the internet. It is through

this competition that several advancements were made

on internet browsers that made the internet to be user

friendly. In 1996 for instance, Hotmail was launched.

This was the first webmail service. This made

communication across the internet to be much easier.

Two years later, the internet was used to broadcast its

first news; the scandal between Bill Clinton and Monica

Lewinsky. This story had been killed. However, its

publication online in The Drudge Report made the story

to hit headlines all across the globe. Also in the same

year, Google, an online search engine, went online.

Google is now one of the most reliable search engines

online. It also offers other auxiliary services such as

Google Maps, Google Scholar, Gmail, Google Books

and so on. Also in 1998, internet sharing became a

reality. This was after Napster was launched. Napster

enabled millions of users online to share music files on

an online basis. This made availability and circulation

of music and other audio materials to be much easier. In

the year 2000, the internet experienced the bubble burst.

This led to the collapse of several technology companies

that had invested so much on the internet and had not

realised profits before then. Most of the companies that

were severely affected by the bubble burst ceased to be

in existence by the year 2002. In 2001, Wikipedia, the

largest online encyclopaedia was launched. Now,

millions of users rely on Wikipedia to access

information of all genres. In addition, anyone can upload

or edit the information that is contained on the website.

The development of modern browsers such as Netscape

and Internet Explorer also brought about changes to the

interface of the internet. Initially, the display of

browsers was not always what one would get because of

trying to access the information in hard copy. However,

after thorough research and development by Netscape

developers, the concept of What You See Is What You

Get (WYSIWYG) was developed. With this capability

present in browsers, it made it possible for users to view

anything on an online basis in a manner that is close to

its result. Thus, users did not have to use sophisticated

commands to manipulate information that was

contained on the webpage. This made it possible for

users to easily edit and manipulate the layout and once

this information is printed, it looked more or less the

same as the information that was contained in the

browsers interface. WYSISYG was also adopted by

other computer programs like Microsoft Word,

PowerPoint, Excel and so on.

The end of the bubble burst saw the development of a

new concept on the internet; social media. A number of

websites, MySpace being one of them, pioneered this

new concept. Since its debut in 2003, MySpace came to

be one of the leading social networks online. Between

the year 2005 and 2008, MySpace became the most

visited social network in the world. In 2005, the website

received more visits than Google in the United States.

By the year 2009, MySpace had a workforce of

approximately 1,600 individuals. However, the

introduction and growth of Facebook had a negative

impact on the growth and development of MySpace.

Facebook was launched in the year 2004 as Facebook.

During its early years, theFacebook was only accessible

to university students. However, the site was later on

renamed as Facebook after the acronym ‘the’ was

dropped. It provided an avenue where students could

chat, share photos, state what they are thinking and so

on. However, by the year 2008, Facebook had grown

and it was the number one website on the internet to

have individuals from all around the world. Its rise in

popularity made other social networks such as MySpace

to lose their popularity.

The growth of social media was however supported by

the shift from the use of Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. The terms

Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 are just but technical names that

are used to describe the distinctive features that were

introduced in different eras (Lazer 17). It is believed that

the term Web 2.0 was coined by Darcy DiNucci in 1999,

the term received a popular application in the year 2004.

Although there are no huge technical differences

between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, the major factor that

differentiates them is the fact that websites that use Web

2.0 have Rich Internet Application (RIA). This thus

increases the rate of interaction of users. In addition,

these sites are user-driven as users are able to

manipulate the content that is found on these websites.

However, there are some other minor differences

between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. These differences are

highlighted in table 1 below.

Factor

Web 1.0

Web 2.0

Broadband Speed

The highest

Browsing speed that

was recorded at the

time was 128 kbps

At the present moment, people

are enjoying browsing speeds

of as much as 2.0+ Mbps.

Social Interaction

Poor

Efficient

Content

Generation

Limited

Open to Everyone

Factor

Web 1.0

Web 2.0

Viewing and

Interacting with

Rich Media

Slow and

Cumbersome

Fast and Efficient

Technologies

(RSS, AJAX, Tag

Clouds etc)

Not Available thus

making the internet

and refreshing time

to be slow

Available hence refreshing

time has been reduced and the

internet is faster reducing the

ease at which information can

be accessed.

Open Source

Movement

Rigid

Allows individuals to code,

program and upload their

websites

Viral Marketing

Tedious. People had

to undergo several

procedures to like

and share something

on the internet.

Easy. All that one needs to do

is to click on the share button

and the information shall be

passed to all your friends

online.

Web

Development

Cost

High

Low

Table 1.

From the table above, it is evident that despite the fact

that Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 had the same technical base,

Web 2.0 made the utilization of the internet to be much

easier for ordinary users. This was thus a major factor in

making the internet to be popular within the community.

It thus should be noted that it is in the same year (2004)

that Web 2.0 went mainstream that the concept of social

media started to grow and develop at an alarming rate.

This came about as a result of the fact that users now

had the chance to create their own content online, share

the same information with anyone in the world and

connect and communicate with individuals from all the

corners of the globe. It is this concept that most of the

social media presence in the world is based upon.

As a result, 2004 was a remarkable year both for the

growth of the internet to common users within the

community and the introduction and development of

social media networks. As a result, several social sites

were developed. Digg, a social news network went

online in November 2004. Other social news sites that

came about, later on, included Yahoo! Buzz, Mixx and

Reddit (Lazer 18). At the same time, social networks

such as Facebook and Twitter developed. It is almost at

the same time that YouTube, a streaming video website

was launched (2005). The Web even grew further as

other sophisticated sites came about. Hulu, launched in

2006 was one of these sites. This site enabled users from

all across the globe to share movies and other materials

of video content. At the present moment, there are

thousands of sites like Hulu online.

By the year 2007, the internet had become an integral

part of many individuals. This mainly included

teenagers and middle-aged individuals mainly from the

developed nation. The need for having all-time access to

the internet grew. In addition, it became clear that

people needed to have the internet almost everywhere.

It was thus imminent for the internet to be introduced in

cellular phones. However, Apple Inc. in the month of

June 2007 brought about a gadget that would change the

communication industry. This came about when Steve

Jobs, the then CEO of Apple Inc. Launched the iPhone

(Lazer 19). The iPhone had all the capabilities that the

iPod, an earlier product of the company had. However,

the gadget made its users access the internet much easier

and at great speeds.

The use of the internet was even made much easier with

the numerous applications that the phone had. Thus,

accessing sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and

so on was made much easier. In addition, the phone had

the capability of taking pictures, recording videos and

storing various form of media that the users could easily

share with their friends via the internet. Since then, there

have been several generations of the iPhone. In October

2011, Apple Inc. launched the iPhone 4S, the latest

iPhone in the market. In addition, their company has

also developed other gadgets that have made internet

access to users to be much easier. Apple Inc has released

tablet computers that have increased the ease at which

users access the internet. Apple Inc. in January 2010

released the iPad (Lazer 19). In March 2011, the second

generation of the iPad, iPad 2 was unravelled by the then

CEO Steve Jobs. These tablets changed the means

through which people accessed, shared and utilized

audio-visual media for personal and business purposes.

Other brands such as Sony, BlackBerry and Samsung

have released smartphones, computers and tablets with

the same goal and overall outcome as Apple Inc. This

has made the internet to be accessible to users all around

the world.

Perhaps it is in the year 2008 that the internet was seen

as being a positive influence within the community. This

impact was greatly felt in the United States of America

and was admired by almost all other countries in the

world. During the 2008 presidential elections in the

United States of America, voters had the option of

voting via the internet. This concept was widely used by

many individuals during the election. Users found it

much easier to vote online as this mode was easier,

faster and did not involve many technicalities that other

voting methods had. In addition, tallying of the votes

was done automatically thus the results were received

almost immediately after the last individuals cast his/her

vote. During this election, candidates used social media

as part of their campaign strategies. These mainly

included social media sites such as Facebook and

Twitter. In addition, they posted their advertisements on

sites such as MySpace, YouTube, Google, Yahoo and

so on. Thus, the 2008 presidential campaigns in the USA

mainly relied on the internet to gain public support.

The internet has also brought about wrangles and

disagreement among several parties. These wrangles

have mainly come about because of a party feeling that

his/her rights have been infringed by the actions of the

other. As a result, several arguments and lawsuits have

been filed. One of the deadliest wars that have been ever

fought with regards to the internet was experienced in

early 2012. This war came about due to several bills that

had been presented to the senate in the USA. These two

bills were:

I. Protect IP Act (PIPA).

II. Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

These bills were presented in the US senate as a result

of the high level of piracy that had developed on the

internet. This piracy mainly affected the music and film

industry. As a result of file-sharing services, users of the

internet were now able to upload and download media

files of all types online. As a result, the number of

pirated copies of books, films, music and other media

files that were circulating on the internet was

overwhelming. This greatly reduced the sales that the

owners of these materials would have otherwise

received as a result of their hard work and

determination. Although these bills had the right motive,

the manner in which they were to be implemented was

the main cause of the conflict. According to these new

laws, website hosts were to be directly liable for the

content that their subscribers would write or share

within their websites. To ensure that this issue does not

happen, it was thus essential for the hosts to check each

and every entry that their users had uploaded on their

websites to ensure that these entries did not infringe the

rights and freedom of any individual either directly or

indirectly.

However, according to giant internet companies, these

acts will make them be media police. This will arise as

a result of them blocking internet sites that conduct

digital media file-sharing services. Thus, this will be an

additional job that may lead either to internet blackout.

To react to these new bills, giant companies such as

Google, Wikipedia, Bing, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit

openly disagreed to these new proposals. Wikipedia is a

prime example of an internet company that greatly

disagreed to these proposed bills. To show the attitude

that the company had towards this idea, the English

version of the website was blacked out for 24 hours on

January 18th 2012.

On that very same day, Reddit and Boing Boing also had

a blackout. In addition, websites such as Google had a

link to a message that addressed the issue. All these

actions were meant to sensitize the public about their

rights with regards to the internet. In most of the

messages that were published online, a common phrase

was present, ‘let everyone know’. This message is a

clear indicator of how the internet has taken over our

lives. It is through the internet that individuals access,

share and store information. Thus, this campaign by

giant internet companies suggests that it is essential for

the users of the internet to protect the internet as it is

their main source of information, socialization and the

base of the worlds future.

Social Media

Since they were first introduced on the internet, social

media networks have attracted millions of users.

According to Boyd and Ellison (2007), most of these

users have made social media sites to be part and parcel

of their lives (213). This is because these users use these

sites on an almost daily basis. Some of the users never

log out from these sites since they form a platform

through which they interact with the outside world.

Now, there are hundreds if not thousands of social media

sites online. Each one of these sites is unique in the sense

that it has different affordances. This makes each site to

attract different kinds of people who have similar

characteristics, likes and interests. Most sites attract

individuals who have a common characteristic. This

might be racial background, language, sexuality,

culture, religion or nationality. However, the

technological base that these sites have is relatively the

same. The manner in which these sites operate is also

somewhat different. There are sites that operate on

blogging, mobile communication and so on. On the

other hand, there are those sites that concentrate on

video and picture sharing. Despite these differences, the

end result that users achieve after utilizing these sites is

more or less the same. Currently, the giants of social

networks sites include Facebook, Twitter, Google+,

YouTube and LinkedIn (Boyd and Ellison 214).

Definition of Social Networks

Several statements have been advanced to define the

term social network sites. According to Boyd and

Ellison (2007), social network sites are web-based

applications that enable users to create personal profiles

that are public or semi-public that are only viewed by

individuals within the network. These sites normally

have a list of users who can share information with one

another. Thus, users within the same network are able to

view some (if not all) of the information that is

contained in the profiles of the respective users. In

addition, users are able to traverse the connections that

have been made by the host and at the same time, they

have the chance to create their own networks and

connections within the site. However, the nature of the

connection and the manner in which they are named are

variable. This mainly depends on the networks tastes

and preferences.

In normal circumstances, the terms of social networks

and social networking are often used interchangeably.

However, on technical grounds, these two terms are

somewhat different in their meaning and application.

However, the term networking is normally not used to

describe social networks due to two things. These are:

I. Scope

II. Emphasis

The term networking is normally used to describe the

process through which a relationship between two

individuals who have no prior relations is initiated

(Boyd and Ellison 215). In normal circumstances, this

does not occur in social network sites and if it does

occur, it is not the main motive of social network sites.

It should also be noted that networking is not the factor

that differentiates social networks from other computer-

mediated communication (CMC) sites that are present

on the internet.

Thus, what makes social sites to be different from CMCs

is not the fact that it enables users to meet a stranger but

it gives them the opportunities to create their profiles

that enables their social networks to be visible to other

users within the network. This thus brings about the

opportunities of such individuals to search and interact

with other users within the network who may or may not

be familiar to them (Neti 3). According to Boyd and

Ellison (2007), the main goals of users of social

networks are not to meet with strangers but to

communicate with those individuals who form part of

their larger social network. It is due to this fact that these

sites were referred to as social network sites. For

instance, when Facebook was launched in the year 2004,

its main aim was to enable college students to

communicate with their friends within the campus and

to share photos and videos in the process. This is the

main essence of social networks.

While social network sites have developed various

features that differentiate them from other sites, there is

one unique feature that is found in almost all of these

sites. In most of the social networks, users have profiles.

A key feature that is found on the profile of users is the

friend list; a list that contains the names of all the friends

that a specific user has. Furthermore, the users who are

a part of the friend list are also members of that specific

site (Boyd and Ellison 217). In addition, the profile of a

specific user contains several other details pertaining to

their personal profile. This information is mainly

generated while the user was signing up to be part and

parcel of a specific social network site. To gain this

information, a user is expected to fill out a form (or

forms).

These forms normally ask the users specific questions.

It is the answerers that the users gives that are used to

generate the information that will be contained in his/her

personal profile. However, with the advancement in the

internet, users now have the chance to edit their personal

profiles to reflect their own personal tastes and

preferences. To further enhance the profile of users,

most sites encourage their users to upload a profile

picture. Sites such as Facebook also allow their users to

add multimedia files and application. This, according to

the developers of the site, enables the profile of their

users to be more attractive (Haythornthwaite 127).

Users also have the option of controlling the set of

information that can be made visible to other users

within the network. In addition, users also have the

option of editing the individuals who can access their

personal profile. Other sites like LinkedIn for example

control the ease at which users can view the profiles of

each other.

This mainly depends on whether a user has a paid or free

subscription. The users who have a paid-for the service

normally can view more content on the profiles of other

users as compared to the users who have not paid for

their subscription. All of these concepts came about

because of the need for privacy in social network sites.

This ensures that the right of users is guaranteed.

Initially, the profile of most users was made visible to

almost anyone. For instance, sites such as Friendster and

Tribe.net did not have any form of privacy on the profile

of their users. Thus, the personal information of users

could be accessed by anyone who was in the network.

To make it even worse, such information could be

accessed via search engines. This really infringed the

right to privacy of many users. However, at the present

moment, most of these sites allow their users to set up

their preferred privacy settings to control the extent at

which their profiles can be viewed within the network

itself and on the internet. The manner in which the

profile of an individual is displayed and can be accessed

by other users within the network and the internet forms

the main basis in which social network sites differ from

one another.

Once an individual has joined a specific social network,

he/she needs to commence on the process of searching

for friends. In most cases, social networks have systems

that will make it easier for an individual to search for

friends. This search may be based on the region in which

the user is currently located at, education background,

profession and so on. However, in most cases, users

normally search for friends themselves since they know

the names and other identification procedures that their

friends use within the network. Once the user has found

friends, he/she needs to state the nature of the

relationship that he/she has with another user within the

network. Different networks have different means

through which they use to state the relationship that

exists between two different users. The name that exists

between two users depends on the nature of the site. A

site like Facebook for instance requires that the nature

of this friendship be confirmed on both ends. Thus, the

relationship of this status is referred to as ‘friends’. On

the other hand, there are sites that do not require a two-

way confirmation of the relationship. Twitter is a prime

example of this. Thus, such a relationship on this site is

referred to as ‘followers’. Other sites also have a

relationship between their users referred to as fans.

The link of connection that exists between friends in a

social network is a feature that makes social networks to

be different from other computer-mediated

communication sites. Regardless of the various features

that social networks have, most of them allow friends to

access the profiles of their friends within the network. In

addition, users are also able to traverse through the

network by clicking on various users who are on their

friend list. Once they click on a specific friend, they are

able to access their profile. This includes their friend list.

In a site like Facebook, such a user can be able to check

the mutual friends that he/she has with the selected

friend. In addition, he/she can also see the names of the

other friends that the selected user has. At this moment,

he/she has the option of deciding whether to send them

a friend request so that they can be friends. This concept

increases the networking capability of social sites.

While accessing various networks, users have a

different mode of communication that they can utilize.

Most sites give the users a chance to state what is on

their mind at a specific time. In Facebook, this concept

is referred to as ‘status update’. In Twitter, this concept

is referred to as tweeting. Additionally, in most sites,

users have the option of leaving comments (although

this name may vary depending on different sites). This

comment can be on a picture, a link or an update/tweet

of a user. The number of users and comments that can

be left on one entry is unlimited. Users also have the

option of a private communication platform. Here, users

can send private messages to each other. This form of

communication is different from the rest since only the

sender and the recipient of the message are able to view

the content of the message. Other sites also have the chat

option. Here, users who are online at the same time can

send instant messages to one another. In some

occasions, some sites have chat runs that are either open

to all users or are private. Here, users can talk about

anything. This brings about virtual communication as

they were all together at one physical location.

Social networks operate beyond status updates,

comments, private messaging and instant chat.

Additional features that these sites have depended on the

nature of the site (Nora 76). There are those sites that

allow their users to share photos and videos across the

network. In addition, other sites are based on cellular

phones that allow their users to send instant messages.

There are some that integrate both of these options. All

this depends on the nature and preferences of the sites

itself and the users that the site contains (Nora 81).

According to Boyd and Ellison (2007), different social

networks have different target groups (217). These

target groups depend on the geographical location of the

users, their language, culture or background. However,

this is not always the case. Orkut, for instance, was

based in the United States. During its early days, the site

had an English interface. However, with time, the site

was taken over by Portuguese Speaking Brazilians who

now form the dominant group accessing the site. Other

sites are designed to attract individuals with similar

interests, religion, sexuality or social identification. To

an extreme extent, social networks have been created for

dogs and cats (Dogster and Catster respectively) (Boyd

and Ellison 217). However, the owners of the pets who

are the users of these sites have to manage these profiles.

History of Social Network Sites

According to the definition that was given to the term

‘social media networks,’ the earliest site that fitted this

description was referred to as SixDegrees.com. This was

one of the earliest sites that allowed users to make and

edit their own personal profiles, create a friends list.

This site was launched in 1997. However, by 1998, users

were able to surf through the profiles of the individuals

who fell within their friend list. This made it to be a

spectacular website where people could get to know

more about other individuals and more importantly,

more about themselves.

However, it is essential on this point to note that

SixDegrees.com was not the only site at that time that

had a feature that allowed individuals to create their own

profiles. It was also not the first site to come up with the

concept itself. This is because, by this time, there were

a number of dating sites and community sites that

required their users to create their profiles. Examples

included Classmates.com, AIM and ICQ (Boyd and

Ellison 220). With regards to dating sites, for instance,

users had to create a profile in order to make it much

easier for other users to determine whether they were

compatible or not. However, the key difference that

made SixDegrees.com be different from other sites was

the fact that users were able to surf through their friend

list, a concept that differentiates social networks and

other computer-mediated communication sites that are

present online.

SixDegrees.com was a social site that had a main

motive; to connect people and enable them to send

messages to one another (Boyd and Ellison 214). This

was a strategic plan that enabled the site to attract

millions of users. However, despite the huge number of

users that the site received, it failed to be sustainable in

the long run. This led to its closure in the year 2000

(Boyd and Ellison 214). On an interview, the founder of

the site, Andrew Weinreich, stated that the site was

simply ahead of its time. Individuals needed to use the

site but they did not have the resources or the

capabilities to support their urge. Weinreich asserted

that at that time, the internet was not easily accessible to

most people (Boyd and Ellison 214). It was thus difficult

for friends to communicate with one another, as it was

difficult for individuals to be online at the same time.

Users also felt that the site was not adventurous enough.

After sending or accepting friend requests, the simply

did not have much to do and most importantly, they

were not willing to meet with people they had just met

on the internet.

At the same time period, social media sites that were

emerging came up with new features and strategies that

enabled them to support a number of factors that later on

came to define social networks. This included the

creation and editing of personal, professional and dating

profiles and managing the friend list. According to

Stelzner (2010), after its debut in 1999, LiveJournal

enabled users to achieve a single-directional

communication set up (14). In this site, users operated

by following the journals of the individuals who formed

their friend list and at the same time, manage the profiles

of these individuals. The growth of such features made

several sites to modify their platforms by adopting them.

Cyworld and LunarStorm are just but a few examples of

sites that modified their platforms to include friends list,

profile management, diary pages and so on. This led to

the growth and development of a new paradigm in the

world of social network sites.

However, the year 2001 saw the development of a new

wave in social network sites. This came about after

Ryze.com was launched. Unlike other sites that enabled

their users to connect and communicate with friends,

Ryze.com came with a different approach. Its main aim

was to connect business networks and people. The

founder of the site asserted that he introduced the site to

connect businessmen, entrepreneurs and investors.

During its early days, the site connected business-

minded individuals in San Francisco.

At the same time, Ryze.com was inter-related with the

founders of other social sites. These included LinkedIn,

Tribe.net and Friendster (Stelzner 15). The relationship

that existed among these sites was because the member

sites that formed this union would never be involved in

any competition whatsoever. However, with time things

did not go as planned. Ryze.com never gained the

popularity that it expected. LinkedIn on the other hand

become ended up being one of the most powerful social

sites on the internet connecting businessmen, scholars,

employers and individuals who are looking for

employment. Friendster also grew up to be a significant

figure on social media sites. However, its demise led it

to be one of the biggest disappointments of the internet.

Friendster commenced operation in the year 2002. The

site was an affiliate to Ryze.com. It was launched to

compete with Match.com, an online dating site that had

become profitable in the course of its operation. The

main essence of Match.com was to make stranger who

had similar interests to meet and possibly commence a

romantic relationship. Friendster on the other hand had

a similar strategy but its approach was somewhat

different. Friendster was also a dating site. However, it

aimed at making friends-of-friends meet. This was due

to the notion that the chances of friends-of-friends

meeting and starting a romantic relationship that would

be sustainable was higher than friends and strangers

meeting. In its early days, Friendster attracted three

different kinds of users; bloggers, attendees and men

who were gay.

During its first few months of operation, the site

managed to attract over 300,000 users all of whom knew

about the site via the word of mouth. However, the

growth of the site was halted after the development of

technical and social hitches. The servers and databases

of the site could not handle the huge traffic that the site

was experiencing. This led to the site becoming faulty

on a regular basis. The overall effect of this situation led

to the frustration of users, most of who had adopted and

were using Friendster emails. This effect was

particularly disappointing to the new users who had just

heard about the site from media coverage. In addition,

users normally bumped into individuals that they did not

want to get involved with online. These included bosses,

teachers, parents, former classmates and to some extent,

some close friends. Furthermore, the site began to

prevent its users from conducting certain acts that had

been the trademark of the site. During its early months

of operation, the site did not allow users to access the

profiles of individuals who were beyond the fourth

degree.

These were friends of friends of friends to friends.

However, users were determined to get access to as

many users as possible. Thus, to achieve this, most users

began to add strangers to their friend list, an act that

made them become ‘most popular’ users on the site.

Some users, however, used a different approach. They

pretended to be celebrities by posting fake pictures and

adopting a fake profile. This made them be attractive

and hence gather more friends on the network. Such

individuals came to be referred to as ‘fakesters’ on the

site. Fakesters became so common that normal users

added them as their friends in order to search for more

friends. The site did not approve of this and deactivated

the users who had a fake profile picture. This ensued

rage among users who felt that the site did not live up to

the expectations of the users. As a result, most of the

users left the site because of the deletion of fakesters and

users who did not have genuine photos. This issue was

also coupled with the fact that the site was prone to

technical hitches and social collisions made the side to

be unpopular (Boyd and Ellison 215). This led to the

loss of the popularity of the site in the United States.

Social Networks Become Mainstream

After the year 2003, many social network sites were

launched on the internet. This phenomenon made Clay

Shirky, an internet analyst, to come up with the term Yet

Another Social Network Service (YASNS) (Boyd and

Ellison 216). Most of these sites tried to incorporate

concepts that had been seen earlier in other social sites.

One of the components that were adopted in these new

sites was the profile-centric concept. Most of the new

sites that were launched since the year 2003 enabled

their users to create and edit their profiles and friend

lists. Other social sites tried to target a specific group

within the population. This included individuals with

similar tastes, preferences, interests, religion, language,

cultural background, political ideology and so on. Most

of these sites focused on trying to get international

attention. However, there are sites that sought to attract

professional audiences.

These included sites such as LinkedIn, Xing and Visible

Path. Other sites such as Dogster and Catster were

launched to link passion-centric individuals who shared

a common interest. In this case, the main interest was

the love for pets. Other sites that came up had a religious

theme. A prime example is MyChurch. The aim of this

specific site was to connect Christians and churches.

Thus, at this time, many social network sites were

present on the internet but each one of them had

different interest, goals and objectives (Barnes 3). This

growth further increased the concept of user-generated

content in social media. In addition, many

transformations were experienced in other websites. The

sites that were mainly affected by this phenomenon were

files that supported media sharing. Some of these sites

adopted basic concepts from social media files. These

transformations made these sites to change into being

social network sites (Barnes 3). Examples of such sites

include YouTube and Flickr (Barnes 3).

By the year 2005, the number of social network sites that

were present on the internet was increasing by the day.

However, the popularity of these sites seemed to be

found outside the demographic areas where the founders

expected to get their target market (Boyd and Ellison

217). This situation was similar even to sites that were

founded by giant internet companies such as Microsoft

and Google. Google, for instance, launched Orkut, a

social network site that was supposed to attract US

users. However, the site failed to become popular among

Americans. Despite its shortcomings, the company

managed to attract a peculiar group of individuals;

Portuguese speaking Brazilians (Boyd and Ellison 217).

These were Brazilians who resided in the United States

and Brazil. After operating for several months, the site

launched a Portuguese interface and eventually went on

to become the national social network site for Brazil.

Another social network site that had a tremendous

impact on the world of social media was MySpace. The

site was launched at Santa Monica. According to Tom

Anderson, the founder of the site, MySpace was

launched to compete with social networks such as

Friendster, Xanga, AsianAvenue and so on. To be in

particular, MySpace wanted to attract users who had

been deleted from Friendster as a result of them being

regarded to as fakesters. As a result of the deletion of

their accounts, the users of Friendster felt that the site

did not have their interest at hand. This led them to leave

the site and looking for better alternatives. MySpace

thus offered such a platform to attract the users who

were not satisfied with the services of Friendster and

other social network sites. This predicament thus made

MySpace grow at an alarming rate. One of the main

group of individuals that the site managed to attract from

Friendster was the Indie-Rock group; a group that had

been estranged from Friendster as a result of them

failing to comply to the rules and regulation of the site

with regards to their profile management (Boyd and

Ellison 217).

Having bands as part of their target group were not the

main intention of MySpace. However, such users were

welcomed into the site. These users begun to create their

profiles, connect with other bands and promoters and

communicate to the fullest. At the same time, promoters

used MySpace as an Avenue to promote specific bands,

concerts and provision of tickets to various events. This

prompted MySpace to connect with various musicians

in order to come up with strategies that will enable them

to become more popular online (Backstrom and

Huttenlocher 52). This act led to the development of a

different kind of relationship that did not exist in

Friendster; Band-Fans relationship. Bands and other

musicians were able to get the support of their fans via

the site while fans were able to get the attention of their

celebrities. This increased the rate at which the site

grew. Another factor that made MySpace become a

sustainable site was the fact that the site always

integrated features that corresponded to the demand of

its users. In addition, users also had the capability of

customizing their pages as per their tastes and

preferences.

By the year 2004, MySpace started to attract a new

group; teens (Backstrom and Huttenlocher 52). This

group of users joined the site for several reasons. A

major factor that made them join the site was the fact

that they would be able to connect with bands and rock

stars. Older individuals introduced other teens to the

site. Once they became active members, most teens

encouraged their friends to join the site. The

introduction of new users from a different generation

into the site provided a serene environment for the site

to become even larger than the founder had expected it

to be (Backstrom and Huttenlocher 53). However, most

of these new users were minors. To maintain them,

MySpace amended its rules to allow minors to access

the site.

Thus, by the end of 2004, MySpace had three different

groups of users; bands, post-college individuals and

teens. However, since the site did not gain public

address from the media, a small proportion of the

population knew of its existence. In 2005, News

Corporation purchased the site at a fee of $580 Million

(BBC 4). At this point, the publicity of the site increased

due to the high media coverage that it gained. This in

turn increased the number of users that the site had.

However, the site soon began to experience criticisms

from the media and the public. One of the main scandals

that the site experienced was the allegation that it

encouraged sexual encounters between adults and

minors (Boyd and Ellison 218). This allegation led to

the development of moral panic from the public towards

the site and social network sites in general. However,

after investigations were conducted, it was concluded

that these allegations were exaggerated.

Social Network Sites Become a Global Phenomenon

By the end of 2005, MySpace had become the most

popular social network site in the USA (Boyd and

Ellison 218). However, at the same time, MySpace and

other social network sites had begun to seek

international audiences. Thus, the concept of social

network sites begun to hit the global network. MySpace,

for instance, was popular in the USA. However, the site

was also popular in other overseas countries such as the

United Kingdom and Australia. Orkut, a social network

site that had an American Origin became the most

popular social network site in Brazil. Later on, Orkut

started to attract a massive audience in India. Other

social sites that were operational at the time were Mixi,

LunarStorm, Hyves and Hi5 that were operational in

Japan, Sweden, Netherlands and Latin America

respectively (Bahney 136). Bebo, one the other hand

became quite popular in the UK, Australia and New

Zealand.

This phenomenon prompted various communication

and community organizations and websites to adopt the

concepts and features that social networks used. This

ultimately transformed them to become social network

sites. A prime example is QQ, a Chinese instant message

site that adopted social network service features. With

the creation of user-profiles and the development of

friends list, QQ became the largest social network site

in the world in terms of users. Cyworld on the other hand

adopted the same concept. In the end, it managed to

attract the Korean Market. Blogging sites that adopted

social network sites features also became quite

common. In the United States, for instance, blogging

sites such as LiveJournal, Vox and Xanga managed to

attract huge audiences within and outside the nation. In

France, Skyrock, also a blogging site, was able to attract

huge audiences among the French community.

Windows Live Spaces, another blogging site, managed

to attract a huge proportion of internet users in Mexico.

Thus, according to Bahney (2010), the social network

fiasco had become a global phenomenon by the end of

2005 and early 2006 (144).

The growth of these sites took different approaches.

Some of the social network sites relied upon the users to

spread the word about their sites. Other sites relied upon

media coverage in order to improve the popularity of

their sites. However, one of the most effective and

efficient modes of expansion into larger markets was

through the utilization of the concept of expanding niche

communities (Neti 4). A social site that effectively used

this concept was Facebook. Facebook commenced its

operations as a social network site dedicated to join

students from Harvard University. To achieve this,

students within the university used the site as a platform

to connect and communicate with their friends within

the university partial.

Students also had the option of sharing videos and

images with users who were found within their friend

list. However, for an individual to open up an account

with Facebook, he/she required to have a harvard.edu

email address. This required thus limited users within

the network to be only from Harvard University. With

time, the network grew. This prompted the network to

incorporate users from other universities. This thus

made users connect with individuals from other

universities. However, the requirement to join the site

was still the same; users had to have email addresses that

corresponded to their educational institutions. This

requirement thus made Facebook to only be accessible

to users within a specific community. As a result, users

within the network developed an intimate relationship

and culture as a result of the relationship that they had

with each other and the site itself.

By the year 2005, Facebook incorporated high school

students within their network. In addition, the site

allowed corporate networks within the site. With this

rapid expansion in the number of users, the site was

finally open to the entire public during 2005. However,

users who were not affiliated to any network within the

site were not able to access the profiles of users who

were within a specific network. To achieve this, such a

user required to have a specific email address that would

link him/her up with a specific network.

For the case of high school networks, users required to

get approval from the administrator before they could

access the profiles of users who were within these

networks. The fact that a user could not completely fully

disclose his/her profile to the public was an essential

feature that made Facebook be a unique site as

compared to other sites. In addition, Facebook was the

only site at that time (Boyd and Ellison 219) that

allowed outside firms to develop an application that

users could use to enhance their profiles. This feature

made Facebook become a renowned social network site.

Thus, the application of the concept of expanding niche

communities enabled Facebook to grow rapidly and

attract huge numbers of users who were previously

members of other social sites. By the year 2006,

Facebook had become the major competitor of

MySpace. By the year 2008, Facebook had become the

most visited social network site online, thus passing

MySpace with the number of users and the number of

visitors it receives (Acquisti 12).

However, not all social network sites seek to achieve

exponential growth in order to gather huge masses.

There are those sites that try to narrow down their

audiences. Thus, such sites only allow individuals with

specific qualities to be part and parcel of their networks.

A site like aSmallWorld, for instance, has specific

requirements that users need to abide by in order to join

its network. aSmallWorld requires its users to be elite

and selective. Thus, not all the individuals who apply for

an account with the site become users in the long run.

There are also other sites that seek to attract users who

are involved in a specific activity. CouchSurfing is a

prime example of such a site. On the other hand, a site

like BlackPlanet is identity-driven. On the other hand, a

site like MyChurch tries to attract users with a specific

affiliation; religion. Finally, since social network sites

have become part and parcel of our lives, there are host

services that help users to come up with their own social

network sites. Ning is one among the several host

services that help its users to create social sites that

match their needs, interests, tastes and preferences

(Acquisti 14).

Currently, social network sites have increased in

numbers and size, especially on the internet. However,

there is no current data that can be used to give out

reliable information with regards to the number of social

network sites that are currently in operation or the

number of users of these platforms. However, according

to Boyd and Ellison (2007), social network sites have

already become a global phenomenon (217). Their

operation and impacts can be felt in all the corners of the

world. This phenomenon has thus made giant

corporations to join in hand to ensure that social

networks grow and thrive. To achieve these,

corporations have been involved in the process of

buying, promoting and advertising on these social sites.

Due to the influence that social network sites have now,

business entities have also tried to be affiliated with

them in one way or the other to ensure that they gain

popularity and public support, especially in regions that

such entities are not entirely popular (Benzie 4).

However, as social networks are growing, there are

those organizations that feel that these sites are not

beneficial to the members of their communities. Several

incidents have been reported of organizations blocking

their employees from accessing social sites. The US

army for instance blocked its employees from accessing

MySpace. The Canadian government on the other hand

banned the use of Facebook among its employees while

on duty. At the present moment, there are bills that have

been presented in the US Senate that will prohibit

employees of educational institutions and their students

from accessing social networks while they are within the

institutions library, offices or any other facility (Benzie

5).

Most importantly, it should be noted that the growth of

social network sites has brought about a huge shift in the

manner in which online communities are now based.

According to Gajalla (2007) websites were initially

created to meet the interest of a specific community

(194). This community would form the bulk of users

who would access such websites. However, with the

emergence of social network sites, this concept has

changed. Social networks operate based on satisfying

the needs and interests of individual users and not the

community at large. Usenet is an example of an early

community website.

The users of this site used to discuss a given topic that,

in most cases was a contemporary issue. Thus, users

would give their own thoughts and opinions towards the

topic. However, current social network sites are

structured in such a way as to meet the personal needs

of its users. That is why in most social network sites,

users have the option of updating their statuses. This, in

most cases, will be used to show the current state of the

user expressed in words. Thus, Boyd and Ellison (2007)

asserted that social network sites are egocentric in their

operation (218). They do not strive to achieve an overall

goal that will lead towards the growth and development

of a community but instead, they tend to satisfy the

personal needs of their users. Thus, as social networks

grow, the world will end up being made up of networks

and not groups. Therefore, this brings about a new

avenue of research that needs to be critically analyzed.

Problem Statement

The world has experienced a lot of creations and

innovations as a result of the works of man. Since the

creation of fire by the caveman, the development of the

wheel, agrarian revolution and the industrial revolution

are but some of the greatest eras in which the life of man

and his environment experienced dramatic changes. At

the present moment, the world is experiencing a

technological revolution. Each and every day, the world

is experiencing a lot of development in the field of

information, communication and technology. As a

result, the manner in which we think, operate and

interact with each other and our environment has

changed. One of the greatest innovations that man has

come up with as a result of technological advancement

is the development of social media and networks. These

new phenomenon has taken over almost each and every

perspective of our lives. It has taken over the manner in

which we interact with each other and with ourselves,

with businesses, societies, professionals, institutions

and so on. However, like any other environment. It is

due to this fact that it was essential to conduct this study.

The aim of this study is to determine the role of social

media, now and in future. This is a critical topic of

research that its study shall reveal a lot about the manner

in which social media gas impacted our lives.

Research Questions

The topic of this particular study concerns itself with

contemporary issues. However, for the study to be

effective and efficient, it is essential to narrow down the

scope of the study. Due to this fact, four research

questions were focused on in this study. These were:

I. How has social media changed the lives of

people?

II. What impacts do social media networks have on

businesses?

III. Is social media a fad or is it a sustainable force

that will change how we interact with one another

and with businesses?

IV. How is social media evolving and what is its

future?

Hypothesis

The following were the hypothesis of this study:

 Ho1: Social media has a huge impact on the lives

of people.

 HA1: Social media does not have a huge impact

on the lives of people.

 Ho2: Social media has a huge impact on business

entities.

 HA2: Social media does not have a huge impact

on business entities.

Limitations to the Study

1. The time span for carrying the study is short and

therefore the study may not capture the topic in

detail.

2. There could be little relevant secondary data to

supplement the primary data.

Methods

This study took a mixture of qualitative and quantitative

approaches. As a result, the study utilized several

methods and approached to gather the relevant data that

was required to give out the required information with

regards to the research questions at hand. The following

were the research questions that the study aimed at

answering:

I. How has social media changed the lives of

people?

II. What impacts do social media networks have on

businesses?

III. Is social media a fad or is it a sustainable force

that will change how we interact with one another

and with businesses?

IV. How is social media evolving and what is its

future?

To answer the research questions, firstly, open-ended

interviews were conducted. These interviews were

conducted on individuals between the ages of 12-65 in

order to establish the impact of social media on

individuals of different age groups. At the same time,

interviews were conducted on the managers and

representatives of businesses. This was done to

determine the impacts that social network sites have on

businesses. These interviews were essential as they

answered the first and second research questions. In

addition to this, they provided a lot of information that

was used to base arguments with regards to the third and

fourth research questions.

The other method was used was situation analysis. This

method incorporated a mixture of three sub-methods

were used to determine the different constraints of social

network sites. PESTEL analysis was the first method

that was employed in the study. This method was used

to determine the political, economic, social,

technological, environmental and legal factors that

affect social media. SWOT analysis is also another

method that was employed in the study. This method

was used to determine the strengths, weaknesses

opportunities and costs of social media. Additionally,

Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis was used. This method was

used to determine the market entry strategies of social

network sites on the internet.

Population and Sample

The participants of this study will be individuals

between the ages of 12 and 65 years. This age group is

composed of individuals who are having a high

tendency of using social network sites for one need or

the other. This sample group will thus ensure that the

attitudes and perceptions of the individuals contained in

this age bracket are captured. As a result, the data that

will be collected for the study and the inferences that

will be made can easily be generalized to reflect the

trends of the entire population.

The interviews were conducted in places where there

was a high concentration of people. This included places

such as common rooms, gymnasiums and student

centres within universities, shopping malls, bus stations

and subways. Random sampling technique was applied

while selecting the individuals to be interviewed. This

ensured that the interviews that were conducted were not

biased. At the same time, business entities that were

interviewed were also selected on a random basis. These

businesses were mainly small and medium enterprises

(SMEs).

Research Design

To fully focus on the research questions, a mix of

qualitative and quantitative research methods was used.

These methods ensured that all the aspects of the study

were covered. This in turn increased the validity of the

results. The data from the respondents that were

collected from interviews was achieved by the use of

questionnaires. In addition, the observation was also an

essential tool in the research. The set of data that was

collected using these methods were analyzed with a

computer software package known as SPSS version 16.

Document Review

Document review is categorized as a qualitative

research method. Document Review was a source of

secondary information for the exercise. This data was

obtained from books, magazines, peer-reviewed

journals, online articles and other relevant sources.

Through Document Review, some of the methods that

had been used in the previous studies were borrowed

and applied to the current study. Also, the

recommendations of the previous studies were

considered in the current work. Information from

Document Review was therefore used as a guiding tool

in conducting this study.

Interviews

Interviews are specifically useful in getting to know the

experience of the interviewee on a particular subject of

discussion. Interviews may seem much easier for the

participant especially if only the opinions or impressions

about a certain subject are being sorted. In the current

study, in-depth interviews were adopted. This method

was used to gather the relevant information that was

required to determine the role that social medial play

now and in future. The respondents, who were either

members of the public or representatives of business

entities, were interviewed based on the impacts that

social network sites had on them. In this study, the

interviews were conducted in a systematic manner. This

method had been applied in other studies and as a result

of its success, it was incorporated in the current study.

Observations

In this study, it was essential to conduct observations in

order to validate the data that was collected from

interviews and Document Review. To achieve this, a

new account was opened up on Facebook, Twitter and

LinkedIn. The observation was conducted with regards

to the activities of individuals on friends lists and the

mode that business entities used these as platforms for

interacting with their customers through fun pages and

advertisements. Thus, observations formed an essential

part of a data collection method in the study.

Observations were used to determine whether the

interviewees and the general target group responded in

a manner that is similar to the results that were collected

from the interviews. After this analysis was done, the

difference in behaviour was then identified and

discussed. Observations were thus used to bring out a

different perspective of the study hence making the

inferences and arguments towards the research

questions to be much stronger.

Situation Analysis

Several situation analysis models were used in this study

in order to fully understand the operations and impacts

of social network sites on individuals and business

entities. To ensure that all the aspects of social network

sites were covered effectively and efficiently, SWOT

analysis, PESTEL analysis and Porters 5 forces were

used. These models were also essential to the study since

they played a critical role in answering the research

questions of the study.

Data Analysis

Raw data from the field is of no use since it does not

make sense. It is mainly composed of numbers and

codes that need to be analyzed to make sense. Analysis

of data involves three major steps:

 Data preparation involves the organization of the

data that has been collected for easy analysis.

 Descriptive statistics that entails the description

and interpretation of the data that has been

collected. This can be done using charts and bar

graphs to explain the trends that were observed.

 Inferential statistics that was done to test whether

the data that has been collected is consistent with

the hypothesis of the study. This is where either

the null hypothesis or alternative hypothesis is

proved to be true.

Method: SPSS 16.0

For accurate analysis of the statistical data a computer

programme called SPSS 16.0 was used for descriptive

data analysis. The data were explored using descriptive

statistics and histogram plots to determine the shape of

the distribution for each sample variable. The name

given to each variable for the data analysis was given in

a table.

Data analysis was carried out using parametric tests

where the data followed a normal distribution and where

the sample number was equal to or greater statistical

power. Where the data did not follow a normal

distribution or where the data was split into groups of

less than the sample size (n), a non-parametric test was

used. For example, a Pearson correlation test was carried

out on the data to explore any linear relationships

between the variables (the relationship between results

from interviews and results from observation).

Ethical Considerations

For the data to represent a true and fair view, the study

had a few considerations on ethics. The data collection

exercise was conducted within the heart of a society. It

is here that it was possible to find interviewees both

from the community and business representatives. The

questions for the interviews were structured in a manner

that avoided any conflicts with the traditions and

religion. It mainly focused on collecting the data that

was required for the study. Prior to the commencement

of an interview, the respondents’ consents were sought.

The purpose of the study was explained and the

confidentiality of their information was guaranteed.

Results

The results that were found in the study were very

interesting. The data that was acquired from the

interviews were interpreted using the Likert scale.

However, there were responses that could not be

measured on the Likert scale. These were however used

to back up the information that was gathered from

Document Review. The results that were gathered

clearly showed the attitudes and perceptions of the

interviewees (people and business representatives)

towards social network sites, a critical factor in

determining the impacts of social network sites. Each

question in the interview was used to measure a unique

variable that was being tested in the study.

81 % of the people who were interviewed confirmed that

they had used the internet within the past six months. Of

this number, 74% stated that they used the internet on an

almost daily basis. The main use of the internet that was

gathered from the interviews included access to social

network sites, seeking employment, blogging, shopping

and dating. Of these constraints, the interviewees had

the option of selecting more than one choice and a

maximum of five. It emerged that 69% of the

interviewees used the internet to access social network

sites. Of all the respondents who were interviewed, an

overwhelming 77% had accounts in online social

network sites. The most common sites were Facebook,

Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

When asked why they are users of social network sites,

a variety of responses were gathered. However, they all

were in the same context. Most of these users preferred

social network sites over other forms of interaction and

communication since it was a faster form of

communication, almost free (since they only need to

incur internet costs that in some cases is available for

free) and it was available at the comfort of their homes,

work, school and even on their phones. However, most

of the users chose social media over communication and

interaction options due to its ease of use. The interface

of these sites made it easy for users to sign up, find

friends, create and update their profiles, communicate

with people within the network and share pictures and

videos. These features, according to most of them, were

only available in social network sites and not in any

other place. These responses thus led to the acceptance

of the first hypothesis that stated that; Social media has

a huge impact on the lives of individuals.

The results of the interviews that were conducted on

business entities were also interesting. A total of 30

different business entities were interviewed. These were

mainly located in high population concentration areas

including malls and the central business district. Of all

the business entities interviewed, 80% had adopted at

least one form of e-commerce strategy in their

operations. 73.3% of these businesses utilized social

networks by having fun pages, for advertisements and

as a means of interacting with their customers. A further

63% of the entities that were interviewed agreed on the

fact that social networks have increased their sales and

level of interaction with their customers. From the

results that were obtained on the interviews that were

conducted on business entities, the second hypothesis of

the study was thus accepted. This hypothesis stated that;

Social media has a huge impact on business entities.

However, to ensure the validity of the data that was

collected from both interviews, it was essential to

compare this with the data that was collected from

observation. To gain data from observation, the

activities that were conducted social networks were

observed. It was observed that the number of people

using social network sites was high. In a span of one

week, the Facebook account had acquired over 200

friends. In this friend list, there were people as well as

business entities. More than half of the friends on this

list were online 24 hours a day. Approximately 30% of

the rest logged in on a daily basis. These figures were

achieved with the use of the user online indicator and

user activities such as responding to messages, status

update and other forms of communication or interaction.

There was also a high correlation between the responses

that were received from the interviews that were

conducted on individuals and the interviews that were

conducted on business entities.

Individuals

Businesses

Individuals

Pearson Correlation

0.618

Sig. (2-tailed)

0.626

Businesses

Pearson Correlation

0.618

Sig. (2-tailed)

0.626

Table 2. The results for the correlation test.

A Pearson correlation of 0.618 implies a strong positive

relationship with insignificance at 5%. This thus

supports the acceptance of both the first and second

hypotheses.

Discussion

From the results that were arrived at from the study, it is

evident that social media has a huge impact in the world

currently and its effects are expected for many years to

come. This conclusion was arrived at after analyzing the

information from the literature review and the data that

was collected from the various methods that were used

in the course of the study. Most of the respondents that

were interviewed had accounts in at least one of the

many social networks sites that are present on the

internet.

In addition, most of the representatives of business

entities were interviewed stated that their businesses

adopted the concept of e-commerce and reaching their

customers via social networks was one of their main

strategies. In addition, from the information that was

gathered from the literature review, it was found out that

social network sites have financial backing from giant

global companies. This will ensure their sustainability

both in the short run and in the long run. Furthermore,

from the literature review, it was identified that most of

the giant social network sites like Facebook, Twitter,

LinkedIn and YouTube have reached their break-even

points and they are actually profitable at the moment.

Other smaller sites have also turned out to be profitable

or at least they can sustain themselves in the short run

and in the long run.

The results that were gathered from the interviews that

were conducted on normal users revealed that quite a

high proportion of the study sample had accounts on one

or more social sites that are present on the internet. The

most common site that most users had accounts on was

Facebook. It was followed by Twitter,

LinkedIn, MySpace and YouTube. Most of these users

felt that social network sites provided an easier platform

that they could meet, interact share and communicate

with friends and to some degree, strangers. In addition,

social sites were also influential to them since they

assisted them in gathering information, knowing about

the latest events, a forum to discuss related issues with

individuals with similar interest and most of all, an

avenue through which they could project themselves to

their friends and to the rest of the world (via the editing

their profiles to match their needs, desires, tastes and

preferences).

Another factor that was identified in the study was the

ease at which users had while surfing on social network

sites. From this, it was evident that social media has

changed the lives of people in the modern world. Most

of the respondents that were interviewed stated that they

preferred social network sites as a medium through

which they can search for people and information as

compared to other traditional methods. When compared

to the television, most of the respondents stated that the

television was not interactive since what viewers do is

only to watch. In addition, it was difficult for viewers to

manipulate the content that was aired on television.

The radio on the other hand had similar criticisms. Here,

respondents stated that listeners could only hear what

was being aired over the network. Print media on the

other hand lacked motion picture. The fact that some of

the print media, for example, books, journals and

magazines contain a lot of text made people disregard

them. However, social media has come up with a

different concept. While using social media, users are

able to see, hear, see, read, communicate, edit to fit their

tastes and preferences and very soon, social media is

going to be available in 3 dimensions, a move that will

be supported by Web 3.0 (Acquisti 16). Users are able

to enjoy all of these features at the comfort of their

home, cellular phones, places of work and so on. It is

due to this fact that many people have joined social

network sites and have become active users in the long

run. Social media has thus taken over our lives and plays

a critical role in the manner in which we interact,

behave, communicate and acquire information (Acquisti

17).

Social media has also changed the manner in which

businesses operate. Social media has affected the

internal and external factors of most business entities in

the world, especially in developed nations. As a result

of the technological advancement that the world is

currently experiencing, many businesses entities,

regardless of their sizes, have adopted the concept of e-

commerce. Here, businesses utilize various components

in the field of information communication and

technology in their normal operation. From this study, it

is evident that social network sites have been utilized by

many business entities as a means through which they

can advertise and interact with their customers. In the

world that we are living in, competition is present in

almost every industry. Thus, to stand at a competitive

edge of rival firms, many business entities are currently

using social media as a means of understanding,

reaching and satisfying the needs of their customers. In

the process, such entities shall be able to retain their

customers and attract new ones. This will make them be

sustainable in the short run and in the long run.

However, social network sites themselves can be

viewed as business entities. Due to their nature of

business coupled with the high traffic that they have,

social network sites have become prospective

investments that many businessmen, corporations and

global companies have invested in. Now, giant social

network sites such as Facebook and Twitter are highly

profitable. At the same time, the rate at which these

companies grow is remarkable. Thus, due to their

success, individuals and corporations have invested

billions of dollars in this industry. For instance, News

Corporation purchased MySpace in the year 2005 at a

fee of $580 million (BBC 4).

The internet was developed by the US military during

the 1950s and 60s to assist in their own internal

communications. By 1995, the internet had grown and it

hosted approximately 18,000 users. During this time,

several web sites were emerging. Due to the great

opportunities that the industry had, individuals invested

in any prospective site that showed signs of being

successful. However, during their early days, social

network sites and other sites on the internet did not have

a reliable revenue model. Investors believed that the

sites that they invested in received desired hits and

eyeballs, they would manage to recover their capital and

earn profits after some time. However, it was not quite

clear when web sites would reach this level. Thus,

investors made their decisions based on the number of

hits a site might get, consumer-based navigations, IT

and so on.

Soon, the IPO of internet companies came. Because

most internet companies lacked a solid model, most

companies went into losses. Some even shut down just

after the bubble burst. Amazon, Yahoo and MSN were

among the few companies that managed to survive

(Barnes 6). After the bubble burst, the internet

experienced many changes. This gave new companies

an opportunity to enter the social network market while

the established ones experienced a chance to grow. A

new form of revenue was also realised; advertising. At

the present moment, the more hits a site gets, the higher

chances it stands from benefiting from advertising. At

the present moment, companies such as Facebook,

Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube make millions of

dollars annually from advertising alone. Application

fees also increase the amount of revenue a social

network site might make. Many developers upload their

applications on social network sites. Some of these

applications can be purchased by users. Thus, it is wise

of a company or a developer to advertise its products in

popular sites in order to get a higher response from their

target market.

To enter the market, there are several factors that social

network sites have to consider. In this study, Porter’s 5

forces were used to determine the competitiveness of

this industry and the factors that make it attractive to

investors. To determine this, five different aspects of the

industry were analyzed. These aspects are summarized

in Fig. 4 below (Kaplan 61).

Fig. 4.

The first aspect of the industry that was identified was

the ease at which new websites can enter the market.

From the analysis that was conducted, not a lot of

barriers to entry were present in this market. Users

needed only to set up a website. The financial impact

that is experienced while setting up a social network site

is also low thus reducing the risk of investing in this

venture. However, the major problem that social

network sites face their marketing. However, once the

website has gained a positive reputation, its chances of

being successful are always high. It is due to this fact

that at the present moment, there are thousands of social

network sites present on the internet. However, the

presence of many social network sites has raised the

level of competition within the industry.

Competition is another factor that was considered in this

model. The presence of high competition has made

social network sites to come up with strategies and

features that will differentiate them from other sites

(Kaplan 62). This will in turn ensure that such sites have

a competitive edge over their rivals. Facebook, for

instance, came up with a strategy that enabled its users

not to fully disclose their information to the public. In

addition, it was the first site to allow outside developers

to incorporate their applications that users used to

enhance their profiles. This made the site to be attractive

among other users hence became famous and by 2008,

it was the most visited social network site (Stelzner 22).

Other sites try to overcome competition by targeting a

unique group. Sites such as Dogster and Catster attract

individuals with a specific interest or passion. All these

actions are in a bid of trying to overcome the concept of

competition. However, the fact that these sites offer

relatively similar services makes the competition among

them to become even higher. This, coupled with the high

rate of investments make sites to come up with features

and strategies that will ensure their long term

sustainability since they cannot afford to leave the

industry.

The buyers power was also considered in this analysis.

In this industry, the buyers are not always the users

(although there are sites such as LinkedIn that charge

their users in order to experience high-quality services)

but the individuals who use the social network site portal

to advertise themselves and developers who want to

popularize and market their applications. At the present

moment, many business entities regardless of their size

have adopted the concept of e-commerce. One of the

strategies that they have employed under e-commerce is

advertising their services and products via social

network sites. In addition, business entities use social

network sites to interact with their customers in a bid to

understand their needs, tastes and preferences. Thus, the

number of buyers in this market is high. However, these

buyers always want to advertise on sites that have a high

level of traffic. It is due to this fact that sites such as

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn, due to the

high number of users and traffic that they attract, have

many business entities advertising on them. This in turn

makes smaller sites to come up with strategies of

improving their operation in order to become better than

the giants of the industry.

Suppliers power is also another important aspect that

was considered under this model. However, in the social

media industry, this constrain is difficult to analyze

since the industry is relatively new. However, currently,

social network firms are focusing on individuals who

play an essential role in their stabilization. This includes

digital operators, public relation professionals and

marketers (Boyd and Ellison 220). For social network

sites to be successful, they need to incorporate

experienced individuals in this field to work for them in

a bid to stand at a competitive edge over other sites

present in the market (Nora 78).

The substitution effect is the last factor that was

considered in this model. In this industry, the level of

substitution, especially for established social network

sites is relatively low. This is due to the fact that many

buyers want to achieve maximum returns from the

investments that they have made in these industries and

thus they do not want to risk investing on small social

sites for a cheaper price. However, the future of the

social media industry is likely to change. The graph

below shall be used to explain the reasons as to this

(Kaplan 66).

Fig. 5.

At the present moment, social network sites are

operating on the first two brackets of the graph. Here,

the higher the price, the better the quality services that

buyers are expecting to experience. A giant company

like Facebook only has few substitutes such as Hi 5 and

Orkut and this is outside the United States. However,

with time, the awareness of buyers will increase after

they realise that an increase in cost will not necessarily

result in an increase in the quality of service. This will

in turn increase the level of substitution within the

industry and will give smaller industry and rivals alike a

chance to grow and develop. This is the direction that

the social media industry is currently taking.

Thus, from the analysis of these factors, it is evident that

the social media industry is quite attractive due to the

high profitability that firms are experiencing, the high

level of competition and the great opportunities that they

have. This has thus resulted in social network sites to

come up with strategic plans in order to enjoy the

benefits that accrue from the industry. To analyze this,

this study conducted a SWOT analysis. This was an

essential analysis as it clearly brought out the strengths,

weaknesses, opportunities and costs that are present in

the social media industry. The strengths and weaknesses

were used to analyze the internal operating environment

of social network sites while the opportunities and

threats were used to analyze their external operating

environment.

Internal Environment

External Environment

Strengths

Opportunities

Weaknesses

Threats

Table 3.

Many factors act as the strengths of social networks

sites. First, social network sites offer online users an

experience that has never been experienced before. It is

due to this fact that many users prefer social network

sites over other forms of media such as radio, television,

journals, magazines and so on (Kaplan 71). This is

because social sites offer their users direct contact with

other users. This is one of the major strengths of social

network sites over other forms of media. Users are able

to meet and communicate with each other directly. At

the same time, business entities also have the chance of

interacting with their customers. Although this is on a

virtual basis, it brings about an experience that is almost

similar to face-to-face communication.

Another strength of social network sites is that users are

able to measure the impact that their online experience

has on others. In Twitter, for example, users are able to

check on the number of followers that they have. This is

essential especially on business entities that want to use

social media to reach out to a specific target market.

Social networks sites also make business entities to have

a human factor. This creates a strong relationship

between the brand and its customers. Thus, by

advertising and joining popular social network sites,

businesses are able to attract large masses using minimal

efforts. This in turn reduces the overhead cost of

advertising and marketing. All these factors thus act as

the strength of social network sites.

With regards to the SWOT analysis that was conducted

in this study coupled with the literature that was

gathered, the following weaknesses were identified.

First, it is always difficult for individuals and brands that

are users of social network sites to ascertain the effort

that they have put versus the results that they have

attained. This is especially so for business entities as it

is difficult for them to ascertain the level of success that

they have gained from social media on their other

outreach programs (Neti 11).

Another weakness that social network has is that it

required personal effort for users to achieve their goals

and objectives via the social network platform. This

weakness mainly affects brands more than people do.

For brands to be successful in social media, they need to

have people who fully understand them (the brands). In

most cases, it is difficult to get such people and if they

are found, it will be costly to maintain them (Stelzner

24). Another weakness of social media is that it is based

on an environment that is constantly changing.

Therefore, users and the hosts themselves need to ensure

that their operations are up to date; an action that

requires a lot of time, money and effort to achieve.

Lastly, making up for mistakes, especially in the case of

brands in social media is difficult. This is because of the

high rate of exposure that users have thus more prompt

actions are required to rectify such mistakes on social

network sites as compared to other forms of media.

Opportunities and threats that social network sites face

come from their external environment. A PESTEL

analysis was conducted to examine the external

environment of social network sites. This model focused

on the impact of political, economic, social,

technological, environmental and legal factors on social

media. Social media has received a great deal of political

applause all through its development. Despite the minor

criticisms that the venture has received, many

politicians have used the media to reach out to even

more supporters online. This has thus changed the

manner in which people interact with their politicians.

Moreover, social network sites have also provided a

forum through which people can share their ideas and

discuss current political issues. Thus, politically, social

media has brought about many changes that will have

made the world to experience growth in politics (Gajjala

212).

Since their introduction until the present moment, social

media has had a great impact on the global economy.

Before and after the bubble burst, people and

corporations have been investing in social network sites

and other websites present on the internet. The value of

social network sites is estimated to be approximately

$75 billion to $100 billion. At the present moment,

Facebook IPO is estimated at an alarming $5 billion

(Kaplan 73). This is way higher than Googles 2004 IPO

of $1.7 billion. In the last financial year, Facebook

reported having had a revenue of $3.7 billion and a

profit of over $1 billion. Google on the other hand had

revenue of $37.9 billion, 96% of which came from the

advertisement. The table below shows the top 10

internet IPOs (Kaplan 74).

Table 4.

Thus, social network sites also provide an avenue

through which brands can advertise their products.

Facebook alone has over 750 million users from all over

the world. Thus, advertising on such a network makes

brands to stand a high chance of reaching their targets.

Therefore, social network sites themselves are ventures

that have high returns. In addition, they also support

other businesses to grow and develop through e-

commerce. This is essential in the growth and

stabilization of the global economy.

Socially, social network sites enable their users to

interact, communicate and share information and media

files with other users across the network. In addition,

social network sites also enable people with similar

interests to meet and discuss a variety of issues. Social

networks also enable brands to easily interact with their

customers. Different social network sites have different

goals and objectives that they want to achieve. In the

process, they attract different users depending on their

tastes, preferences and goals that they want to achieve.

The most important thing is that users achieve all this at

the comfort of their homes, offices or mobile phones.

Thus, social networks have improved the level of

interaction of users and brands.

Social networks are the results of the advancements that

the world has been experiencing in the field of

information, communication and technology (ICT).

Since their introduction, social network sites have come

up with a number of creations and innovations. These

advancements have been as a result of technological

advancements. Social networks have made it possible

for users to interact and communicate with each other

via a variety of methods. In addition, users are also able

to send, receive and share media files across their

networks. Social networks also provide a platform

through which users can present themselves on the

internet. Social networks sites also come up with new

and interesting features to differentiate themselves in a

bid to stand at a competitive edge over their rivals. In

the near future, it is expected that social networks will

be available in 3 dimensions. Thus, social networks

support the growth and development of technology.

The world has experienced a lot of innovations.

However, most of these innovations have adverse

effects on the environment. The agrarian revolution and

related developments in the field of agriculture have

resulted in environmental pollution, deforestation, soil

erosion and so on. The industrial revolution and related

industries have resulted in air, sound and water

pollution, poor waste management and so on. These

factors result in poor health and living conditions, lack

of basic necessities and so on. Social media on the other

hand is based on a virtual context. Thus, it does not have

any form of pollution or impact on the health or living

standards of individuals. Thus, social media is an

environmentally friendly development.

Although legal, many battles are being fought to protect

social network sites and other internet-based

organizations. Early 2012, the US Senate had two bills

presented on its floor. These were the Protect IP Address

Act and Stop Online Piracy Act. These two bills, if

passed, will reduce the ease at which people use social

network sites and other forms of internet media. These

bills aim at eliminating piracy and making sites to be

accountable for the actions of their users. This will thus

mean that sites should separate themselves from those

sites that offer files sharing service, a move that will go

against the main theme behind the internet; networking.

This will in turn reduce the confidence that users and

hosts had on the internet.

From the discussions that have been presented in this

paper so far, it is evident that social media is not a fad

but an innovation that has managed to become an

essential part of the lives of people at the present

moment. In addition, from the analysis of factors, it is

evident that social media will be a sustainable force in

the future. There are innovations that have been revealed

to the public but have failed to reach the goals and

objectives of their developers. For instance, there have

been a lot of developments in the field of intelligent

machines. Several companies have developed machines

with intelligence capabilities. Examples of these

machines include vacuum cleaners and dishwashers that

have the capability of communicating with their owners

via various channels including the word of mouth. As

per their designs, these machines are supposed to work

effectively as per the orders of their owners. This would

otherwise eliminate the need of having house helps

around all the time.

However, such advancements failed to pick up in the

market. Another advancement was the ability of

vehicles communicating with their owners. Ford

developed such a vehicle that had the capability of

communicating with its owner using GPS technology.

In addition, this advancement did not pick up in the

market. Social networks on the other hand were

introduced to enable people to interact with each other

and through direct communication, sharing of

information, pictures, videos and other forms of media

files. Social networks have also enabled individuals to

make friends and interact with other users within the

network. Users also have the freedom to be members of

more than one social network site. Therefore, this

increases the thrill and experience that they gain from

social networking. Currently, it is difficult to state the

number of people who are members of social network

sites. However, Facebook states that it has over 750

million users worldwide (Lazer 19).

This is a considerable proportion of the global

population. In addition, Facebook is the site that

experiences the most traffic on the internet. Therefore,

this suggests that social media has taken over our lives.

At the same the huge traffic that social media

experiences make it to be a conducive avenue for brands

to interact with their customers. This has been one of the

key means through which businesses advertise their

brands and interact with their consumers. Social

network sites have thus made it easier for businesses to

market their brands in order to reach even wider

markets. Many brands have grown as a result of them

being advertised over social networks. In the last

financial year, Google had revenue of $37.9 billion and

of this, 96% was from advertisements. Finally, social

networks have become strategic ventures to invest in.

The social media industry is valued at approximately

$100 billion. The industry is only ten years old and from

the manner in which it operates, the public support that

it has, its technological backings and favourable legal

requirements, this industry will continue to be

sustainable in the short run and in the long run.

Social media has evolved from its humble beginnings as

a platform for making people within small communities

to interact with a multi-billion franchise. The industry

had managed to take over the lives of individuals from

different cultures, backgrounds, age, sex and race.

Unlike other forms of developments, this industry has

not been related to adverse effects on human life or the

environment. The world that we are living in at the

present moment is faced with a lot of problems. This

includes high unemployment rates, economic

instability, insufficient basic necessities such as food,

water, fuel, land, changing weather patterns and so on.

Social media on the other hand has come up with a

different approach. The fact that it brings people

together generates income and operate on a virtual level

makes it to be sustainable in the short run and in the long

run. In addition, many governments advocate for the

venture since it has minimal negative effects on the

environment. One major factor that has made social

media to earn the support of many governments is the

fact that it will lead to the elimination of the use of

papers thus reducing the rates of deforestation and

environmental pollution.

Although social media has a bright future, they do also

have negative aspects. Social media has been linked to

some negative cultural activities. One of the major

negative incidence that social media has been linked in

was the England riots that occurred between August

6th and 10th in 2011. These riots commenced in

Tottenham after Mark Duggan, a resident of the area of

shot dead by police on August 4th 2011. After the

incident, the police failed to notify the family of the

victim about the demise of one of their members. This

led to a public protest in Tottenham on 6th August.

During the protest, police tried to disperse the crowd and

in the process, several people were injured including a

16-year-old girl who was allegedly pushed and punched

by several police officers. These actions made the

protest to turn out into a riot where characterised by

looting and arson.

Police vehicles, magistrate courts and homes were burnt

down. These acts sparked riots in other cities including

parts of London, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool and

Birmingham (Lazer 19). In the course of these riots,

social media was pointed out as the tool that was used to

organize the riots. It was alleged that BlackBerry

Messenger (BBM), Twitter and YouTube were used to

send inciting messages in one way or the other. For

instance, videos that were posted on YouTube made the

users of the network around the affected areas to join the

riot. In addition, BBM was used to organize the time,

place and activities that will be carried on by the rioters.

Users to post their pictures in the course of the riot on

the other hand used Facebook. In the end, six people had

died, several had been injured, economic activities and

transport systems had come to a standstill in the affected

areas and properties valued at £200 million were

destroyed. This incidence thus shows that social media

is a powerful tool that can be used to pass information

whether good or bad and in the process, this information

will get the attention of the users who will respond

accordingly.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Social media, as a tool of networking and

communication begun off from humble beginnings. Its

growth and development were in line with the growth

and development of the internet. Therefore, the success

that the industry I snow experiencing is highly

dependent on the fact that the internet, as an innovation,

became successful and sustainable. Social network sites

have managed to make people connect and network with

other users within and across networks. This has

increased the level at which people in the world interact

with each other and with brands that are using social

network sites as an avenue for interacting, socializing

and advertising themselves. Therefore, social media has

become part and parcel of the modern lives of people

and businesses in the world.

The social media industry is highly valued and this

figure is expected to rise given the huge strengths and

opportunities that it has. In addition, the industry has

support from the people, governments, corporations and

many other institutions in the globe. Therefore, this

guarantees the sustainability of the industry in future.

However, social media, due to the huge impact that it

has on the lives of people, should be approached

carefully. The manner in which it is used should be

regulated in order to better the life of man and his

environment. Due to this fact, it is highly recommended

that the content that is passed across the platform should

be checked in order to ensure that it leads to more good

than harm. This will eliminate if not to reduce

incidences such as the England riots of 2011. Therefore,

social media is a strong force and the future of the world.

If carefully used, it will be the greatest social invention

that has man has ever experienced.

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ENGL 2074 University of Cincinnati Social Media and Its Role Now and in the Future

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