The development of information technologies have made our life much simpler.
Every day the popularity of the virtual environment, and social networks as a result, is growing rapidly in society, changing our reality.
In the modern world, there is almost no one who is not addicted to the social applications and do not waste a lot of time being online. With their help people can find new friends, expand horizons, learn interesting news, entertain themselves and just be in trend.
Social networks are arranged in a such way that they allow people to express their own individuality and find people who share the same interests.
But do you remember, was there anything like this before? Could you observe such popularity of social networking sites in the past? Of course, no. No one could like your photos, nobody could be added to your friends.
So, what social networks are indeed? And when did the first social network appear? Let’s figure it out.
A social network is a special resource or platform that provides a relationship between people or organizations on the Internet.
Prerequisites for the uprising of social networks are guest books (web-applications consisting of a list of messages which each visitor can leave), forums (messages are grouped thematically, each visitor can leave a message on the given topic in response to the previous one) and blogs (each participant maintains a journal which is similar to a personal diary, his messages are sorted in chronological order, and other visitors can leave comments on messages, while the user can create lists of “friends” or restrict access to his journal).
Gradually, on the basis of these forms of communication, social networks began to form, the distinctive feature of which is the existence of clearly established connections between the participants.
All the social networks have a number of common features: the registration (user account), when registering a user specifies some information about himself so that he could be identified; log in to the system by opening a session (a user gives name and confirms his identity by entering a password), setting up the environment (for example specifying additional data about yourself, your interests).
Now it’s high time to identify some existing types of social networking technologies these days.
1.Social networking
This type of social media is perfect for those who are fond of communication and want to have connection with friends. It can be a powerful tool for job searches.
- Facebook is the world’s first and most popular network today, founded in 2004. Since then, facebook has reached undeniable popularity.
Well, thanks to this application, you will always be aware of where your friends are and what they do. You can see their photos, videos, and share news with them. Also you have the opportunity to subscribe to interesting pages and groups, to join communities which correspond to your interests etc.
- Twitter: using Twitter, you can quickly share your thoughts, ideas and intentions with subscribers. You can write your thoughts, but also read other people’s thoughts, follow their lifestyle. Moreover, through Twitter it is very convenient to get the latest news.
- Instagram: very fashionable and popular social network now. Instagram is suitable for telling about what is happening around with the help of an image or video. You can subscribe to updates of your friends and relatives, or you can find and subscribe to accounts of strangers from all over the world. Photo before publication can be processed using a filter. During the day you can notify your users about what is happening with the help of “stories” – photos or video messages that will be available to them at any time.
2.Professional networking
This type of network is similar to social network but the professional networking allows you to meet and collaborate with other business professionals.
- LinkedIn: the most popular professional network that lets you create your personal profile and reveals your skills and experience. Here you can communicate with colleagues and people who share your interests on professional topics. Your LinkedIn profile is your resume, and who knows , perhaps once a recruiter will be interested in your profile , he or she might give you your dream work.
- AngelList: in most cases it is considered as a platform for startups. This is a platform where startups are looking for investments. Now it is a full-fledged tool, designed for a new generation of entrepreneurs and investors. This platform is necessary for you to meet people, so that they understand who you are and what you do and could trust you and your company more. These people are not just investors, but the same entrepreneurs like you, people who want to work in the industry, programmers, lawyers, marketers.
3.Media sharing networking
It is a social network where you replace all the text messages to multimedia. It doesn’t matter who you are, this is a type of technology without which you can’t imagine life.
- Youtube is a media sharing network where you can find all the necessary information – from video about trivial things, to news, music videos and even movies.
If you are interested in making stories with a nice plot, you can try yourself as a blogger. Who knows, perhaps you will like it and become the best known Youtube blogger ever?
- Flickr is a service designed to store and further use digital photos and videos by the user. One of the most popular sites among bloggers for posting photos.
It’s a free storage in 1000 GB (almost terabyte!) for pictures without losing their quality, convenient tools for uploading and cataloging pictures. Even if you are not a photographer, but fond of beauty, you will find many nice pictures and interesting people, who you should subscribe to and follow their photo-life.
4.Dating networking
Dating networking sites were created for communication, sharing personal information and matching couples. But social networks do not obligatory have to be for dating. A lot of people use it to keep in touch with friends, and colleagues. However, an important difference between social networks and online dating services is the fact that online dating sites usually require a fee, where social networks are free.
- Tinder is a popular social network for Android and IOS platforms which is intended for romantic relations. In general, the app is more popular for searching for long term relationship but a part of users use it for short term ones without any obligations. If a user likes another user and they mark each other as successful matches, they can start a chat and make a date.
- Match.com is one of the first sites that introduced online dating on the international level. Launched in 1995 with the goal to help lonely people get acquainted, communicate, and sometimes meet in real life, and even find a partner in life. The site is widely known and recognized internationally and is one of the leaders in online dating industry.
5.Blogging
Such type of social networks helps to build audiences and deliver content to readers.
- Medium is a blog platform for quality articles. It’s a community of journalists, bloggers and readers. Medium occupies the following niche – the creation and publication of meaningful texts. Each person or a brand has the opportunity to register on the service and start writing something there.
The platform allows you to publish individual records, write notes for specific publications or maintain a full-fledged own blog.
On the main Medium page you will find the latest and most popular texts of people you decided to subscribe to. Among other things, you can comment on the notes, expressing your opinion and taking part in the discussions.
What are the platforms to develop social apps on?
The most successful and demanding these days are the following platforms for mobile devices: Android, IOS, Windows Phone.
The application for IOS and ANDROID platforms can be created for marketing, branding, increasing sales and internal needs of the company.
To sum it up, social networks have a great impact on modern society and lifestyle. Social networking sites improve communication between people, as people can find new friends, romantic relationship. partnership and business connections, develop sociality and a sense of community.