People often wonder how long has social media been around? Today, we may not be able to imagine our lives without social media but tracing back its history, we would know that it has entered our lives rather recently. To precisely answer this question, we can say that social media has been with us for the last 40 years. Usenet was a worldwide distribution network that connected people and it was founded in 1980. However, if we consider telephone as a form of media that connected people and allowed them to be social, then it can be said that social media has been around since 1950.
Social media has always been speaking about two things, information gathering and socializing. You will get your information-sharing network by putting the two things together. There’s no contradiction in the fact that social media platforms are a great source of information, entertainment, and news. Social media in its present form started emerging in 2004, and it is assumed that it will grow more in the coming days.
Additionally, social media platforms behave differently and are unique in terms of interaction with users. They provide not only the medium to communicate, but also offer limitless possibilities to share data including photos, videos, and other user-generated content.
Let’s see how many people are using social media according to the statistics of 2020, and how it is going to impact our future lives.
More than half the world’s population use social media
Social media has penetrated into more than half the population of the world. Since the last decade, it has almost tripled the number of users from 970 million in 2010, to 3.82 billion users in 2020. The reason behind the rapid increase in social media users is the continuous improvement of mobile possibilities for users who gain internet access easily regardless their location. Furthermore, mostly all social media applications have mobile versions for the user to access easily.
Which generation uses social media the most?
It is interesting to look at the statistics about social media users. To break down the active user of social media in terms of generation, 90.4% of Gen Y (Millennials), 77.5% of Gen X, and 48.2 % of Gen Z (Baby Boomers) spend a minimum of three hours of their day on social sites.
It is evident from the fact that millennials form the majority of social media users and baby boomers are the last. However, the pandemic has changed this fact to some extent and now Gen X has also started using various social media platforms. If you wish to market your brand on social media, then such information will come in handy.
Why people use social media?
The primary reason that makes people use social media is to connect with their friends, family, and colleagues. People share all sort of personal and professional problems seeking solutions. However, there’s a certain segment that uses social media to search for the products or services they are looking for. People also ask about reviews from other people who may have used a particular product or service.
Why businesses use social media?
Businesses need to connect with their audience to market their products and services and this is the main reason they turn to social media. Moreover, they also get to create awareness about new products, build trust-based relationships, and keep their audience engaged so that they don’t turn to competition.
