life before social media essay

School Life Balance , Tips for Online Students

How Was Life Before The Internet – What Did People Do?

Updated: July 11, 2022

Published: June 1, 2021

How-Was-Life-Before-The-Internet---What-Did-People-Do

It’s hard to imagine a time in the world where smartphones and social media weren’t an integral part of your life. Let’s go back to what seems like an eternity ago, to see how life before the internet was different.

10 Ways Life Was Different Before The Internet

Amazon was just a river/rain forest.

If the word Amazon was mentioned in a sentence, it was only in reference to the river in South America. No one could think about the possibility of online stores .

Planning ahead

Last-minute plans were not possible once you left your house. You’d be very careful to set up exact meeting times and locations with your friends.

Recorded music off the radio / mix tapes

If there was a song that you loved, you would have to record it off the radio. Looking for a compilation of songs? You’d have to make that yourself too.

You needed to leave your house to socialize

There was no online shopping or Zoom — if you wanted to buy something or see a friend, you needed to get off the couch and out of your house to socialize.

You had to look up information in encyclopedias

Before the days of Google and Wikipedia, if you wanted information on a particular topic, you would have to look it up in an encyclopedia, listing everything in alphabetical order.

Tinder in real life was a piece of paper

When there was someone you were interested in, in order to ask them out, you needed to either pluck up the courage to ask them out in person, or else pass them a piece of paper with three boxes: check yes, no, or maybe.

Web design was done by spiders

Many jobs did not exist before the internet. Those that were web designers were most likely a spider.

Wasting time in the office was more obvious

It was a lot more obvious if you wanted to look at something other than the work in front of you on the computer . Staring out the window or looking at inspiring pictures on the office walls were far more obvious than they are today.

Posts were made on real walls

If you had an event or information you wanted to share with other people, then you needed to physically print it on a piece of paper and post it on a real wall for others to see.

Mobile games were much simpler

When mobile phones first came out with the ability to play games on them, they were much simpler than they are today. Nokia’s famous snake game became a “game changer” in the world of gaming.

Looking something up took a lot of time and work

As Google and Youtube were not available, if you wanted to learn something you needed to read it in a book. Before the internet, you had to spend hours within a library searching through books to find the information you needed.

Games with more than one player needed a table

Multiplayer games needed to be played on a table, and with the other players in the same room as you! You didn’t have the freedom to play with people from around the world.

Trolls were mythological creatures, not angry opinionated people

Trolls were seen in fantasy films or children’s stories. Today they are people who feel the need to share opinions that would never have been acceptable in public before the internet.

Long-distance communication meant letters, not email

You would get excited when the mailman would come by, hoping that someone sent you a letter.

Selfies required sophisticated technology

If you wanted to take a picture of yourself you needed more sophisticated technology; you needed to get the Gameboy Camera.

Search for movie times in the newspaper

If you wanted to know what time your movie was playing at, you had one place to search for the answer — the newspaper.

Life Before Cell Phones

Being unreachable.

You could leave your house and focus on whatever task or activity you set out to do. No one could reach you or disturb you.

Looking someone up in a phone book was the original Google search

There was a huge book that had everyone’s phone number in it. You needed to look them up to find their number. If you wanted the number for a business, the yellow pages were the original Google.

Having fun outdoors

When not in school or doing chores, kids would be outside playing with each other for hours on end. Parents would send them out themselves and hope that when they were hungry for dinner or lunch they would come home to eat.

Watching TV

You had to watch television shows when they were scheduled to air. This also meant you would have to wait a full week until the next episode aired.

Playing board games with your family

Family time was spent playing board games, many having established designated “game nights” each week. There were lots of different games you could play together. It was a great opportunity to have fun and bond with each other.

Used real cameras

People couldn’t use their phones to take pictures, you needed to use an actual camera.

Used maps or asked someone to get directions

When you went on a trip, you needed to be prepared and bring a physical map with you, or risk being left to constantly ask directions along the way. There was no Google Maps to reference.

Shared unfiltered pictures of yourself

People shared the pictures they took without any editing, emojis, or special filters.

Used payphones

What happened when you were out and needed to call someone? Payphones. On every corner there were public phones, and it cost 25 cents to use.

Memorized people’s phone numbers

Before smartphones, if you wanted to call someone you had to actually know their phone number.

Life Before Social Media

There was a lot less fomo.

Today you are bombarded with everyone else’s pictures of their ever-so-fabulous lives, bringing up the feeling of FOMO, or fear of missing out. But back in the day you weren’t subjected to that unless someone showed you printed pictures of their trip or life.

Not everything had to be photographed

There wasn’t this deep desire to photograph every experience you had or thing you happen to see.

Didn’t search for approval from others

The reason for posting every aspect of your lives is to get approval from others to confirm that you are living correctly. Before the internet there was no way for you to get that kind of immediate, and consistent approval, so no one was searching it out.

Were not subjected to other’s toxic opinions

Once in a while at a family gathering you would be subject to a relative’s unwanted opinion on your life. But with the age of the internet came constant posts or comments in your newsfeed about someone’s toxic opinions daily.

You didn’t have something to waste so many hours of your life

Quickly checking one Youtube video for reference is never as simple as that. Before you know it, 4 hours have passed and you watched 100 videos and found yourself ordering something new on Amazon. Before you know it, half your day has been wasted checking your phone or computer.

Not exposed to such tragedy from around the globe

Global tragedies have always occurred, but they weren’t in your face every moment of the day. Not only do you hear of global horrors as they happen, but there are the tragic images and videos to go along with them.

No constant comparison between yourself and others

Maybe you would be jealous of someone’s hair, figure, or job, but it wasn’t shoved down your throat to see all day, every day.

Not able to spy on others

The ability to stealthily stalk everyone you went to high school with was not as easy as it is today. You would have to sit outside their house to spy on someone — sounds creepy, right?

Life before the internet definitely had its pros and cons. It was a time with more face-to-face interaction and time spent outside of your house. It can enrich your life to incorporate some aspects of these activities and help find a balance between the two worlds.

Essay on Life Before Social Media

Students are often asked to write an essay on Life Before Social Media in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Life Before Social Media

The olden days.

Before social media, life was different. People talked face-to-face or on the phone. They wrote letters and sent them through the post. They read books and newspapers to get information. They watched television or went to the movies for entertainment.

Communication

In those days, communication was slower. It took time to send a letter or make a phone call. People had to wait for a reply. They couldn’t just send a message and get an instant response like we do now with social media.

News and Information

Before social media, news was shared through newspapers, radio, and television. People had to wait for the news at a specific time. They couldn’t just check their phones for updates. Information was not as easily available as it is now.

Entertainment

For fun, people played games, read books, or watched television. They didn’t have online games or streaming services. They had to wait for their favorite show to come on TV. They couldn’t just watch it anytime they wanted.

Before social media, people’s lives were more private. They didn’t share every detail of their lives with the world. They shared their thoughts and experiences with close friends and family, not with strangers on the internet.

Life before social media was simpler, slower, and more private. People communicated differently, got their news differently, and entertained themselves differently. It was a different world, but not necessarily a worse one.

250 Words Essay on Life Before Social Media

Introduction.

Before social media, life was different. We had fewer ways to share our thoughts and experiences. We communicated mainly through letters, phone calls, and face-to-face chats.

In those days, people would write letters and send them by post to share news or express feelings. They would wait eagerly for a reply. Phone calls were also popular, especially for long-distance communication. But, they were expensive, so people used them sparingly.

Before social media, newspapers, radio, and television were the main sources of news. People had to wait for the morning paper or the evening news to get updates. Libraries were the main places to find information for school projects or general knowledge.

For fun, people would play outdoor games, read books, or watch movies on TV. Kids would play games like hide and seek, and adults would spend time gardening or reading.

Privacy was different before social media. Fewer people knew about your personal life unless you chose to share it with them. There were fewer worries about online safety or data theft.

Life before social media had its own charm. It was simple and less hectic. Even though social media has made our lives easier in many ways, it’s nice to remember the simplicity of those times.

500 Words Essay on Life Before Social Media

Before the rise of social media, life was very different. We did not have Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Instead, people used other ways to communicate and share their lives. This essay will explore how life was before the arrival of social media.

In the past, people did not have the luxury of instant messaging or video calls. Communication was often through phone calls or letters. Writing letters was a common way of keeping in touch with friends and family who lived far away. It took days, sometimes weeks, for letters to reach their destination. Phone calls were also more common, especially among close friends and family members.

Before social media, people relied on newspapers, radio, and television for news. These were the main sources of information. People had to wait for the morning newspaper or the evening news to know what was happening around the world. There was no way to get instant news updates like we do today with social media.

Entertainment was also different. People spent their free time reading books, playing outdoor games, or watching television. Children often played together in parks or in their neighborhoods. Family and friends would gather to watch a movie on television or play board games. There were no online games or streaming services.

Socializing

Before social media, socializing was more personal and face-to-face. People would meet at cafes, parks, or at each other’s houses to chat and spend time together. Parties and gatherings were the main ways of meeting new people. There was no concept of online friends or followers.

Privacy was less of an issue before social media. People’s lives were not as public as they are now. Personal information and photos were not shared online. The concept of online privacy and data theft was unheard of.

Life before social media was simpler but not necessarily worse. It was a time when people valued personal interactions and waited patiently for news and letters. Entertainment was more about being active and spending time with others. While social media has made communication easier and faster, it is important to remember the value of personal connections and privacy. Life before social media reminds us of these values.

In conclusion, social media has changed our lives in many ways. But the life before it was not bad, just different. It is always good to look back and appreciate how far we have come. It helps us understand the impact of social media on our lives and society.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Essay on Life Before Pandemic
Essay on Life As An Immigrant
Essay on Life As Adventure

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

How Life Was Before the Digital Age: A Glimpse into the Past

How did people live before the digital age? How did they spend their time, how did they connect with each other, and how was the pace of their lives?

In the not-so-distant past, the world looked vastly different. Before the advent of smartphones, social media, and the internet, people lived in a reality that seemed almost alien to the hyper-connected present.

Let’s take a nostalgic journey back in time and explore the simple yet fulfilling lives led by individuals before the digital age took over.

A Glimpse into the Past, to the Time Before Screens and Internet

In retrospect, life before smartphones, social media, and the internet was characterized by simplicity, genuine connections, and a slower pace.

While the digital age has brought incredible advancements and convenience, there’s a certain charm in looking back at a time when interactions were less virtual and more tangible.

It’s a reminder that, even in our fast-paced present, there’s value in appreciating the unhurried moments that define our shared history.

1. Face-to-Face Connections

Before the era of instant messaging and video calls, human connections were forged through face-to-face interactions.

Communities were tightly-knit, and socializing often meant meeting friends at local gatherings, community events or simply enjoying a cup of coffee together.

2. Letter Writing and Snail Mail

Communication, while slower, was a more deliberate and thoughtful process. People expressed their feelings and shared life updates through handwritten letters.

Waiting for a letter to arrive created a sense of anticipation and excitement, adding a unique charm to relationships.

3. Entertainment Without Screens

Long before binge-watching became a trend, entertainment was a communal experience. Families and friends gathered around the radio to listen to news broadcasts, dramas, and music.

Board games, card games, and outdoor activities were the main sources of amusement.

4. Resourcefulness in Research

Knowledge acquisition required a trip to the library, encyclopedias, or consulting with experts.

The research involved flipping through physical pages and jotting down notes, making the process slower but perhaps more immersive and memorable.

5. Memory Lane: Photo Albums and Scrapbooks

Capturing memories was an intentional process involving film cameras. Developing film rolls and creating photo albums were cherished activities.

Each picture held a unique story, and reminiscing involved physically flipping through pages rather than scrolling on a screen.

6. Navigation Skills

Before GPS navigation, people relied on paper maps and road signs to find their way. This of course, sharpened the mind and one’s navigation skills.

Getting lost was a part of the journey, sometimes leading to unexpected discoveries and adventures.

7. Privacy and Unplugging

Privacy was more tangible, and the concept of “unplugging” was non-existent since there were no digital devices constantly demanding attention.

People enjoyed moments without the pressure of instant notifications or the fear of missing out.

8. Handwritten Records and Note-Taking

Before the digital note-taking era, individuals jotted down their thoughts, to-do lists, and important information on paper.

The tangible nature of handwritten notes added a personal touch to the daily organization.

One of the Best Books About Affirmations

9. Work-Life Balance

The boundary between work and personal life was clearer before the constant connectivity of smartphones. Once you left the office, there were no work emails or messages following you home.

This clear distinction allowed for better work-life balance, enabling people to fully engage in leisure activities and recharge for the next workday.

People had life, bedsides their jobs. They had time for their families and for hobbies.

10. Personal Responsibility and Self-Reliance

In an age without immediate access to vast information databases, people relied more on their own knowledge and skills.

Whether it was fixing a leaky faucet or troubleshooting a car problem, people often took the initiative to solve issues themselves, fostering a sense of self-reliance. Tis helped people develop new skills.

11. Real-Time News

Staying informed meant waiting for the evening news broadcast on television or reading the morning newspaper.

Breaking news didn’t arrive instantly, and there was a natural delay in processing and disseminating information.

This slower news cycle allowed for more thoughtful reflection and analysis. You were not wired to the news 24/7, which meant less stress and more tranquility .

12. Limited Consumer Choices

The pre-digital era offered fewer choices when it came to products and services. Shopping meant physically visiting stores, and options were limited to what was available locally.

This limitation sparked a sense of contentment and appreciation for what was accessible rather than a constant quest for the next best thing.

13. Encyclopedias and Reference Books

The absence of search engines meant reliance on encyclopedias and reference books for gathering information.

Home encyclopedias were prized possessions, and browsing through them was a form of exploration and learning.

14. Physical Fitness and Outdoor Play

With limited screen time, physical activity was a natural part of daily life.

Children played outdoors, adults engaged in sports, and parks were bustling with activity.

The concept of “screen time limits” wasn’t necessary, as most of the entertainment and socializing happened in the physical realm.

15. Waiting in Line and Patience

Queues were an inevitable part of life, whether it was waiting in line at the bank, post office, or the grocery store.

People carried books, engaged in conversation, or simply observed their surroundings. Patience was a virtue cultivated through these slower-paced moments.

16. Music Discovery

Discovering new music involved radio stations, recommendations from friends, or browsing through record stores.

The act of physically flipping through vinyl records or cassette tapes added a tactile dimension to the music-listening experience.

Life before the digital age was quite different from life today.

In reflecting on the past, it becomes evident that life before the digital age was marked by a series of deliberate actions, tangible experiences, and a different rhythm.

While the conveniences of the digital era are undeniable, there’s a certain nostalgia associated with the simplicity and genuine connections that defined an era characterized by a lack of screens and constant connectivity.

Image source – DepositPhotos

About the Author

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Privacy Overview

What Was Life Like Before Social Media Happened & Can We Survive Without It?

Life before social media is an era falling fast into a long forgotten realm

I was born in 1991 and have had the privilege of playing on the streets and being able to stream (or download, if need be) my favorite shows and movies. I know who Audrey Hepburn was, I adore Molly Ringwald and I relate to Anna Kendrick’s tweets on an unnatural level. A true-blooded millennial, I can distinguish my life before and after social media.

RELATED: A Millennial Who’s Never Been on Social Media Tries Instagram

If you can’t or don’t remember (because things were harder to document then), let me paint you a nostalgic little picture of what life was like before social media.

There were more activities because you needed ways to kill time. There was more conversation because there was nothing else to do at the table. There was less care about whether or not you looked like an idiot because no one could take a video and share it to the world. Being solitary was simple; there was not as much pressure to stay relevant and share every aspect of our lives. No one questioned you with disbelief when you told them stories because “pics or it didn’t happen” didn’t exist yet.

I actually had no interest in creating a Facebook account; I, in all honesty, was a little late to the game. But one day my highschool batchmate asked me if I was going to her debut and I said she hadn’t invited me. She rolled her eyes and told me I was, in fact, invited and that I should attach myself to social media to stay updated.

And hey, no one likes being left out of a good party, right?

https://giphy.com/gifs/heyarnold-nicksplat-3o6nUPBoQnXnLj7XYQ

RELATED: Social Media Etiquette: The No-no’s Of Posting Online

Of course, the story is different for the generations that came before mine. I’ve had countless conversations with people that remember Martial Law and having to depend on coins and the availability of a working pay phone to call home. I was on the listening end as others shared stories of losing touch with friends that moved away or changed schools.

It’s different now, obviously. How easy is it to keep tabs on a person you shared a classroom with for just one semester in college? How easy is it to stay up-to-date with the life of a cousin you met once? You know—almost immediately—when someone gets engaged, celebrates an anniversary or cooks a damn meal. It’s insane when you think about it, but that’s the reality of today.

The question is: Could we still survive without social media?

https://giphy.com/gifs/12J1QXPeD10z9m

The quick answer is yes. The honest answer is yes. The fucking answer is yes. But do we want to is not so easily answered.

There are alternatives to social media that we can adopt. Text the people you actually want to keep tabs on, for example. Maybe even video call them instead of checking their stories if you miss their face. Get your news from actual sources; all you have to do is type the publication on Google anyway. Download games to pass the time in traffic. Download books to read or music to listen to or shows to catch up on.

RELATED: How Social Media Is Damaging Your Mental Health

I’m going to say it: We do not need social media like I don’t technically need a cigarette after every meal. The catch is that not needing it doesn’t mean we’re going to give it up any time soon—not unless we want to. You can’t force someone to give up their vices no matter how bad it is for them and that’s what social media is.

You think smokers need reminding of the repercussions of inhaling nicotine? We know it; we know smoking can give you cancer like you know social media can seriously damage your mental health. You’ve heard the statistics and understand how trying to remain perfect and constantly seeing perfection is not doing you any good.

All in all, social media is the thing that we don’t need yet can’t get enough of. It’s what we reach out for in times of boredom, self-deprecation and “I deserve a 5-minute break” moments. So, when you think about it, I guess we’re all just a little mad (and maybe even a little masochistic) here.

Art Alexandra Lara

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Home / Blog

The Evolution of Social Media: How Did It Begin, and Where Could It Go Next?

May 28, 2020

Table of Contents

A Brief History of Social Media ○ The Launch of Social Sites

Social Media: End Users and Businesses

How marketing pros utilize social media.

What’s Next For Social Media

The evolution of social media has been fueled by the human impulse to communicate and by advances in digital technology. It is a story about establishing and nurturing personal connections at scale.

According to Merriam-Webster , social media is defined as “forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos).” The 2019 Pew Research Center report on social media use in the United States showed that 72% of American adults use some form of social media. In 2005, the year after Facebook went live, that number was 5%.

What follows is an examination of the origins of social media, its relatively rapid growth as a sociological and commercial force, and the change it has brought to the marketing world.

A Brief History of Social Media

In less than a generation, social media has evolved from direct electronic information exchange, to virtual gathering place, to retail platform, to vital 21st-century marketing tool.

How did it begin? How has social media affected the lives of billions of people? How have businesses adapted to the digital consumer lifestyle? How do marketing professionals use social media? It’s all part of the story of social media’s ongoing evolution.

Pre-internet Roots

In a sense, social media began on May 24, 1844, with a series of electronic dots and dashes tapped out by hand on a telegraph machine.

The first electronic message from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., proved Samuel Morse understood the historic ramifications of his scientific achievement: “What hath God wrought?” he wrote.

A recent article in The Washington Post , “ Before Twitter and Facebook, There Was Morse Code: Remembering Social Media’s True Inventor ,” details the history and relevance of Morse code, complete with early versions of today’s “OMG” and “LOL.”

While the roots of digital communication run deep, most contemporary accounts of the modern origins of today’s internet and social media point to the emergence in 1969 of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network — the ARPANET.

This early digital network, created by the United States Department of Defense, allowed scientists at four interconnected universities to share software, hardware, and other data.

In 1987, the direct precursor to today’s internet came into being when the National Science Foundation launched a more robust, nationwide digital network known as the NSFNET . A decade later, in 1997, the first true social media platform was launched.

The Launch of Social Sites

In the 1980s and ’90s, according to “ The History of Social Networking ” on the technology news site Digital Trends, the internet’s growth enabled the introduction of online communication services such as CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy. They introduced users to digital communication through email, bulletin board messaging, and real-time online chatting.

This gave rise to the earliest social media networks, beginning with the short-lived Six Degrees profile uploading service in 1997.

This service was followed in 2001 by Friendster. These rudimentary platforms attracted millions of users and enabled email address registration and basic online networking.

Weblogs, or blogs, another early form of digital social communication, began to gain popularity with the 1999 launch of the LiveJournal publishing site. This coincided with the launch of the Blogger publishing platform by the tech company Pyra Labs, which was purchased by Google in 2003 .

In 2002, LinkedIn was founded as a networking site for career-minded professionals. By 2020, it had grown to more than 675 million users worldwide. It remains the social media site of choice for job seekers as well as human resources managers searching for qualified candidates.

Two other major forays into social media collapsed after a burst of initial success. In 2003, Myspace launched. By 2006, it was the most visited website on the planet, spurred by users’ ability to share new music directly on their profile pages.

By 2008, it was eclipsed by Facebook. In 2011, Myspace was purchased by musician Justin Timberlake for $35 million, but it has since become a social media afterthought .

Google’s attempt to elbow its way into the social media landscape, Google+ , launched in 2012. A rocky existence came to an end in 2018, after the private information of nearly 500,000 Google+ users was compromised by a data security breach.

Modern Social Media Outlets

Today’s social media landscape is populated by a suite of services that jockey for the attention of more than 5 billion mobile device users worldwide . Here is an overview of the most prominent social media networks of 2020:

Launched in 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, it has nearly 1.7 billion users — including 69% of U.S. adults, according to Pew Research .

HubSpot: Facebook Marketing

Launched in 2005 by Massachusetts 20-somethings Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian as a news-sharing platform, its 300 million users have transformed Reddit into a combination news aggregation/social commentary site. Its popularity is based on the ability to “up-vote” and “down-vote” user posts.

Social Media Examiner: How to Market on Reddit: A Guide for Businesses

Founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and others as a microblogging site, by 2020, 22% of U.S. adults were Twitter users, according to Pew Research .

Hootsuite: Twitter Marketing: The Complete Guide for Business

Founded in 2010 by Stanford graduate Kevin Systrom as a photo-sharing site and purchased by Facebook in 2012, Instagram has more than 1 billion users worldwide.

HubSpot: Instagram Marketing: The Ultimate Guide

Founded in 2010 by iPhone app developer Ben Silbermann as a visual “pin board,” Pinterest became a publicly traded company in 2019 and has more than 335 million active monthly users.

Sprout Social: Your 5-Step Pinterest Marketing Guide

Founded in 2011 by a trio of Stanford students — Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown, and Bobby Murphy — this video-sharing service introduced the concept of “stories,” or serialized short videos, and “filters,” run for informative digital effects, often based on location.

Hootsuite: Snapchat for Business

Founded in 2016 by Chinese tech company ByteDance, this short-form video-sharing site was merged with the U.S.-based mobile app Musical.ly in 2018 and became popular with American teens and young adults. As of early 2020, it had more than 800 million users worldwide.

Business Insider: TikTok Marketing Trends & Predictions for 2020

What began as a desktop or laptop experience shifted to mobile phones and tablets as cellular service expanded; the capabilities of cellular phones expanded, turning them into “smartphones”; and high-speed wireless internet became more readily available in homes, businesses, and public spaces.

With the advent of social media apps that could run on smartphones, end users could take their communities with them wherever they went.

Businesses took advantage of this new consumer mobility by serving their customers new, simpler methods of interacting — and new ways of buying goods and services.

The End-User Experience

At first, social media existed to help end users connect digitally with friends, colleagues, family members, and like-minded individuals they might never have met in person. Desktop access to bulletin board services such as CompuServe and Prodigy made it easier to grow free online communities without ever leaving the house.

The invention of the smartphone liberated social media from the desktop and laptop computer. Apple’s first iPhone, launched by Steve Jobs in 2007, helped shift the focus of online community building to mobile. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media services thrived in the mobile app environment.

Technological improvements — specifically, powerful in-phone cameras — shifted the focus of mobile apps to video and images. In addition to written messages, end users could now broadcast in real time.

Instagram, in particular, became the app of choice for social media users interested in travel, entertainment, fashion, and other visually oriented topics.

The Business Experience

As social media companies grew their user bases into the hundreds of millions, the business applications of Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms began to take shape. Social media companies had access to some of the richest trackable user data ever conceived.

A recent article on IAS Insider, “ The Evolution of Social Media Advertising ,” sums it up: “Users don’t just log in and browse, they tell the platforms their name, and where they live, what they like and who they know, painting the most vivid picture currently possible for marketers looking to target specific consumers.”

Facebook began to place ads on its platform as early as 2006. Twitter enabled ads in 2010. LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and TikTok all have attempted to monetize their services through various forms of sponsored advertising.

In addition to placing ads on social media platforms, companies discovered the potential utility of cultivating an active, engaged social media presence. Whereas social media advertising must be paid for, the act of creating and sharing informative or entertaining content on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms is an attempt by brands to grow an audience organically, in other words, without paying for it directly.

According to HubSpot’s “ Social Media Marketing: The Ultimate Guide ,” companies use organic social media marketing to:

Increase brand awareness
Generate leads and increase conversions
Develop and nurture relationships with customers
Learn from competitors

The combination of advertising, or paid social media marketing, and organic social media outreach evolved into the digital marketing specialty known as social media marketing.

Sprout Social: How to Build Your Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2020
Forbes: How Social Media Can Move Your Business Forward
Social Media Examiner: The Guide for Social Media Marketing for Businesses

As the ability to reach consumers expanded thanks to social media, marketing professionals quickly adapted. Social media’s evolution provided measurement tools that gave marketing professionals unprecedented access to valuable, actionable data about consumers’ demographics, buying habits, and more.

With marketers no longer limited to traditional forms of media — TV, radio, print, mail, billboards, magazines, etc. — the social media marketing industry was born.

increases in digital advertising in the US

Taking Advantage of Social Media’s Popularity

The most efficient way to take advantage of social media’s popularity is to leverage existing audiences. To that end, digital marketers engage social media “influencers” to share messaging and product offers with their followers.

According to an article on Sprout Social’s website, “ What Is Influencer Marketing: How to Develop Your Strategy ,” influencer marketing is defined as “a type of social media marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from influencers — individuals who have a dedicated social following and are viewed as experts within their niche.”

These social media influencers spend time building trust with their audiences. With more than 3.2 billion social media users worldwide, finding influencers whose audiences fall into the company’s niche of consumers helps cut through the noise by targeting specific potential buyers.

While influencers provide companies a layer of built-in consumer trust, social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn provide in-depth analytics that allow digital marketers to target specific demographic groups with ads. This can be useful for building brand awareness among potential long-term customers, as well as for generating leads for specific products or services.

Influencer Marketing Hub: What is an Influencer?
Social Media Today: 4 Influencer Marketing Trends That Will Dominate in 2020
Influencer Marketing Hub: The State of Influencer Marketing 2020: Benchmark Report

The Importance of Engagement and Integration

Social media engagement consists of the various ways users respond to a post. This can include comments, follows, shares (retweets on Twitter), and clicks on a shared link. All of these actions are measurable thanks to analytics provided by the social media platforms (Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, LinkedIn Page Analytics, etc.).

Each of these engagements presents an opportunity for marketers to influence a customer or group of customers. For example, a company that monitors its Twitter feed in real time — either through an automated service or in person — is positioned to respond quickly to a customer’s request or comment.

In addition, data that reveals users’ habits over time can be integrated into a long-term social media strategy. For example, Facebook Insights shows when users are most active on the platform. This information can be used to determine when is the best time to post new content, giving it a better chance to be seen.

Another way marketers use social media is to monitor cultural trends and, if applicable, incorporate brand-specific concepts that build on those trends to entice customers to engage with the company’s content.

Personifying the Company

Another Sprout Social article, “ 5 Actionable Strategies for Social Media Branding ,” provides guidelines for how social media can be used to develop a company’s public “voice.” The bottom line when it comes to social media branding is authenticity. Today’s savvy digital consumers expect a robust and “real” personality from brands. Sprout Social’s tactical advice includes:

Develop and use consistent visual branding across all social media platforms
Use a tone that reflects the brand’s public persona
Cater to marketing personas based on social media metrics

Companies that fail to develop a consistent, engaging social media presence are not taking full advantage of the marketing tools available in today’s competitive marketplace.

The Future of Social Media

What happens next in social media almost certainly will be shaped by the evolving business model, as well as by advances in storytelling technology. How will mega platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and others make money? How will end users adapt? How will businesses spread their messages and use social media to build audiences? The answers to these questions will determine the next stage of social media’s evolution.

Premium Social Media Services

What does the future hold for social media? According to a recent article in Entrepreneur , “ 11 Ways Social Media Will Evolve in the Future ,” consumers will gravitate toward services that allow them to:

Personalize content at a granular level
Reduce the amount of vitriol and conflict commonly found on public social media feeds
Increase focus on protecting privacy
Take greater advantage of the utility of mobile devices
Focus more on community building

This could mean a movement toward paid subscription services on social media, according to Entrepreneur . The challenge for marketing professionals will be to meet the shifting demands of social media users while maintaining an authentic brand voice.

Social Media Video

Another growing point of emphasis for social media in the future, according to Entrepreneur , will be video content. Video marketing already has a substantial presence in the U.S., where it is a $135 billion industry in 2020 , according to Social Media Today.

According to HubSpot’s “ The Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics for 2020 ,” video became the No. 1 form of media used in content marketing in 2019, surpassing blogs and e-books for the first time. Video’s prominence as a marketing tool is expected to continue to grow, based on the latest information in Wyzowl’s “ The State of Video Marketing in 2020 [New Data] .”

This survey found that 88% of marketers received positive returns on investment through video. Perhaps most significantly, 59% of marketers who said they had not previously used video intended to do so in 2020 and beyond.

What’s Next for Social Media?

The future of social media is limited only by the imagination of its stakeholders. The brief history of the industry has proven that the rapid change — advances in technology, more-strident financial demands, shifting cultural dynamics — will transform the current social media landscape.

Will Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other major platforms go the way of Google+ and MySpace? Will the entrepreneurial heirs of Twitter creator Biz Stone and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg build on the success of their predecessors? Can social media maintain its relevance as technology evolves?

Human beings are social creatures. Commerce is driven by human interaction. These two facts will continue to shape the evolution of social media into the next decade and beyond.

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The dictatorship of free choice: identities among algorithms, openmind books, scientific anniversaries, why do we tan, featured author, latest book, how the internet has changed everyday life, what happened.

The Internet has turned our existence upside down. It has revolutionized communications, to the extent that it is now our preferred medium of everyday communication. In almost everything we do, we use the Internet. Ordering a pizza, buying a television, sharing a moment with a friend, sending a picture over instant messaging. Before the Internet, if you wanted to keep up with the news, you had to walk down to the newsstand when it opened in the morning and buy a local edition reporting what had happened the previous day. But today a click or two is enough to read your local paper and any news source from anywhere in the world, updated up to the minute.

The Internet itself has been transformed. In its early days—which from a historical perspective are still relatively recent—it was a static network designed to shuttle a small freight of bytes or a short message between two terminals; it was a repository of information where content was published and maintained only by expert coders. Today, however, immense quantities of information are uploaded and downloaded over this electronic leviathan, and the content is very much our own, for now we are all commentators, publishers, and creators.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Internet widened in scope to encompass the IT capabilities of universities and research centers, and, later on, public entities, institutions, and private enterprises from around the world. The Internet underwent immense growth; it was no longer a state-controlled project, but the largest computer network in the world, comprising over 50,000 sub-networks, 4 million systems, and 70 million users.

The emergence of web 2.0 in the first decade of the twenty-first century was itself a revolution in the short history of the Internet, fostering the rise of social media and other interactive, crowd-based communication tools.

The Internet was no longer concerned with information exchange alone: it was a sophisticated multidisciplinary tool enabling individuals to create content, communicate with one another, and even escape reality. Today, we can send data from one end of the world to the other in a matter of seconds, make online presentations, live in parallel “game worlds,” and use pictures, video, sound, and text to share our real lives, our genuine identity. Personal stories go public; local issues become global.

The rise of the Internet has sparked a debate about how online communication affects social relationships. The Internet frees us from geographic fetters and brings us together in topic-based communities that are not tied down to any specific place. Ours is a networked, globalized society connected by new technologies. The Internet is the tool we use to interact with one another, and accordingly poses new challenges to privacy and security.

Information technologies have wrought fundamental change throughout society, driving it forward from the industrial age to the networked era. In our world, global information networks are vital infrastructure—but in what ways has this changed human relations? The Internet has changed business, education, government, healthcare, and even the ways in which we interact with our loved ones—it has become one of the key drivers of social evolution.

The changes in social communication are of particular significance. Although analogue tools still have their place in some sectors, new technologies are continuing to gain ground every day, transforming our communication practices and possibilities—particularly among younger people. The Internet has removed all communication barriers. Online, the conventional constraints of space and time disappear and there is a dizzyingly wide range of communicative possibilities. The impact of social media applications has triggered discussion of the “new communication democracy.”

The development of the Internet today is being shaped predominantly by instant, mobile communications. The mobile Internet is a fresh revolution. Comprehensive Internet connectivity via smartphones and tablets is leading to an increasingly mobile reality: we are not tied to any single specific device, and everything is in the cloud.

People no longer spend hours gazing at a computer screen after work or class; instead, they use their mobile devices to stay online everywhere, all the time.

Anyone failing to keep abreast of this radical change is losing out on an opportunity.

Communication Opportunities Created by the Internet

The Internet has become embedded in every aspect of our day-to-day lives, changing the way we interact with others. This insight struck me when I started out in the world of social media. I created my first social network in 2005, when I was finishing college in the United States—it had a political theme. I could already see that social media were on the verge of changing our way of communicating, helping us to share information by opening up a new channel that cuts across conventional ones.

That first attempt did not work out, but I learned from the experience.I get the feeling that in many countries failure is punished too harshly—but the fact is, the only surefire way of avoiding failure is to do nothing at all. I firmly believe that mistakes help you improve; getting it wrong teaches you how to get it right. Creativity, hard work, and a positive attitude will let you achieve any goal.

In 2006, after I moved to Spain, I created Tuenti. Tuenti (which, contrary to widespread belief, has nothing to do with the number 20; it is short for “tu entidad,” the Spanish for “your entity”) is a social communication platform for genuine friends. From the outset, the idea was to keep it simple, relevant, and private. That’s the key to its success.

I think the real value of social media is that you can stay in touch from moment to moment with the people who really matter to you. Social media let you share experiences and information; they get people and ideas in touch instantly, without frontiers. Camaraderie, friendship, and solidarity—social phenomena that have been around for as long as humanity itself—have been freed from the conventional restrictions of space and time and can now thrive in a rich variety of ways.

Out of all the plethora of communication opportunities that the Internet has opened up, I would highlight the emergence of social media and the way they have intricately melded into our daily lives. Social media have changed our personal space, altering the way we interact with our loved ones, our friends, and our sexual partners; they have forced us to rethink even basic daily processes like studying and shopping; they have affected the economy by nurturing the business startup culture and electronic commerce; they have even given us new ways to form broad-based political movements.

The Internet and Education

The Internet has clearly impacted all levels of education by providing unbounded possibilities for learning. I believe the future of education is a networked future. People can use the Internet to create and share knowledge and develop new ways of teaching and learning that captivate and stimulate students’ imagination at any time, anywhere, using any device. By connecting and empowering students and educators, we can speed up economic growth and enhance the well-being of society throughout the world. We should work together, over a network, to build the global learning society.

The network of networks is an inexhaustible source of information. What’s more, the Internet has enabled users to move away from their former passive role as mere recipients of messages conveyed by conventional media to an active role, choosing what information to receive, how, and when. The information recipient even decides whether or not they want to stay informed.

We have moved on from scattergun mass communication to a pattern where the user proactively selects the information they need.

Students can work interactively with one another, unrestricted by physical or time constraints. Today, you can use the Internet to access libraries, encyclopedias, art galleries, news archives, and other information sources from anywhere in the world: I believe this is a key advantage in the education field. The web is a formidable resource for enhancing the process of building knowledge.

I also believe the Internet is a wonderful tool for learning and practicing other languages—this continues to be a critical issue in many countries, including Spain, and, in a globalized world, calls for special efforts to improve.

The Internet, in addition to its communicative purposes, has become a vital tool for exchanging knowledge and education; it is not just an information source, or a locus where results can be published, it is also a channel for cooperating with other people and groups who are working on related research topics.

The Internet and Privacy and Security

Another key issue surrounding Internet use is privacy. Internet users are becoming more sensitive to the insight that privacy is a must-have in our lives.

Privacy has risen near the top of the agenda in step with an increasing awareness of the implications of using social media. Much of the time, people started to use social media with no real idea of the dangers, and have wised up only through trial and error—sheer accident, snafus, and mistakes. Lately, inappropriate use of social media seems to hit the headlines every day. Celebrities posting inappropriate comments to their profiles, private pictures and tapes leaked to the Internet at large, companies displaying arrogance toward users, and even criminal activities involving private-data trafficking or social media exploitation.

All this shows that—contrary to what many people seem to have assumed—online security and privacy are critical, and, I believe, will become even more important going forward. And, although every user needs privacy, the issue is particularly sensitive for minors—despite attempts to raise their awareness, children still behave recklessly online.

I have always been highly concerned about privacy. On Tuenti, the default privacy setting on every user account is the highest available level of data protection. Only people the user has accepted as a “friend” can access their personal details, see their telephone number, or download their pictures. This means that, by default, user information is not accessible to third parties. In addition, users are supported by procedures for reporting abuse. Any user can report a profile or photograph that is abusive, inappropriate, or violates the terms of use: action is taken immediately. Security and privacy queries are resolved within 24 hours.

We need to be aware that different Internet platforms provide widely different privacy experiences. Some of them are entirely open and public; no steps whatsoever are taken to protect personal information, and all profiles are indexable by Internet search engines.

On the other hand, I think the debate about whether social media use should be subject to an age requirement is somewhat pointless, given that most globally active platforms operate without age restrictions. The European regulatory framework is quite different from the United States and Asian codes. Companies based in Europe are bound by rigorous policies on privacy and underage use of social media. This can become a competitive drawback when the ground rules do not apply equally to all players—our American and Japanese competitors, for instance, are not required to place any kind of age constraint on access.

Outside the scope of what the industry or regulators can do, it is vital that users themselves look after the privacy of their data. I believe the information is the user’s property, so the user is the only party entitled to control the collection, use, and disclosure of any information about him or herself. Some social networks seem to have forgotten this fact—they sell data, make it impossible to delete an account, or make it complex and difficult to manage one’s privacy settings. Everything should be a lot simpler and more transparent.

Social networks should continue to devote intense efforts to developing self-regulation mechanisms and guidelines for this new environment of online coexistence to ensure that user information is safe: the Internet should be a space for freedom, but also for trust. The main way of ensuring that social media are used appropriately is awareness. But awareness and user education will be of little use unless it becomes an absolute requirement that the privacy of the individual is treated as a universal value.

The Internet and Culture

As in the sphere of education, the development of information and communication technologies and the wide-ranging effects of globalization are changing what we are, and the meaning of cultural identity. Ours is a complex world in which cultural flows across borders are always on the rise. The concepts of space, time, and distance are losing their conventional meanings. Cultural globalization is here, and a global movement of cultural processes and initiatives is underway.

Again, in the cultural arena, vast fields of opportunity open up thanks to online tools. The possibilities are multiplied for disseminating a proposal, an item of knowledge, or a work of art. Against those doomsayers who warn that the Internet is harming culture, I am radically optimistic. The Internet is bringing culture closer to more people, making it more easily and quickly accessible; it is also nurturing the rise of new forms of expression for art and the spread of knowledge. Some would say, in fact, that the Internet is not just a technology, but a cultural artifact in its own right.

In addition to its impact on culture itself, the Internet is enormously beneficial for innovation, which brings progress in all fields of endeavor—the creation of new goods, services, and ideas, the advance of knowledge and society, and increasing well-being.

The Internet and Personal Relationships

The Internet has also changed the way we interact with our family, friends, and life partners. Now everyone is connected to everyone else in a simpler, more accessible, and more immediate way; we can conduct part of our personal relationships using our laptops, smart phones, and tablets.

The benefits of always-online immediate availability are highly significant. I would find a long-distance relationship with my life partner or my family unthinkable without the communication tools that the network of networks provides me with. I’m living in Madrid, but I can stay close to my brother in California. For me, that is the key plus of the Internet: keeping in touch with the people who really matter to me.

As we have seen, the Internet revolution is not just technological; it also operates at a personal level, and throughout the structure of society. The Internet makes it possible for an unlimited number of people to communicate with one another freely and easily, in an unrestricted way.

Just a century ago, this was unimaginable. An increasing number of couples come together, stay together, or break up with the aid—or even as a consequence—of social communication tools. There are even apps and social networks out there that are purposely designed to help people get together for sex.

Of course, when compared to face-to-face communication, online communication is severely limited in the sense impressions it can convey (an estimated 60 to 70 percent of human communication takes place nonverbally), which can lead to misunderstandings and embarrassing situations—no doubt quite a few relationships have floundered as a result. I think the key is to be genuine, honest, and real at all times, using all the social media tools and their many advantages. Let’s just remember that a liar and a cheat online is a liar and a cheat offline too.

The Internet and Social and Political Activism

Even before the emergence of social media, pioneering experiments took place in the political sphere—like Essembly , a project I was involved in. We started to create a politically themed platform to encourage debate and provide a home for social and political causes; but the social networks that have later nurtured activism in a new way were not as yet in existence.

Research has shown that young people who voice their political opinions on the Internet are more inclined to take part in public affairs. The better informed a citizen is, the more likely they will step into the polling booth, and the better they will express their political liberties. The Internet has proved to be a decisive communication tool in the latest election campaigns. It is thanks to the Internet that causes in the social, welfare, ideological, and political arenas have been spoken up for and have won the support of other citizens sharing those values—in many cases, with a real impact on government decision making.

The Internet and Consumer Trends

New technologies increase the speed of information transfer, and this opens up the possibility of “bespoke” shopping. The Internet offers an immense wealth of possibilities for buying content, news, and leisure products, and all sorts of advantages arise from e-commerce, which has become a major distribution channel for goods and services. You can book airline tickets, get a T-shirt from Australia, or buy food at an online grocery store. New applications support secure business transactions and create new commercial opportunities.

In this setting, it is the consumer who gains the upper hand, and the conventional rules and methods of distribution and marketing break down. Consumers’ access to information multiplies, and their reviews of their experience with various products and services take center stage. Access to product comparisons and rankings, user reviews and comments, and recommendations from bloggers with large followings have shaped a new scenario for consumer behavior, retail trade, and the economy in general.

The Internet and the Economy

The Internet is one of the key factors driving today’s economy. No one can afford to be left behind. Even in a tough macroeconomic framework, the Internet can foster growth, coupled with enhanced productivity and competitiveness.

The Internet provides opportunities for strengthening the economy: How should we tackle them? While Europe—and Spain specifically—are making efforts to make the best possible use of the Internet, there are areas in which their approach needs to improve. Europe faces a major challenge, and risks serious failure if it lets the United States run ahead on its own. The European Commission, in its “Startup Manifesto,” suggests that the Old World be more entrepreneur-friendly—the proposal is backed by companies like Spotify and Tuenti. Europe lacks some of the necessary know-how. We need to improve in financial services and in data privacy, moving past the obsolete regulatory framework we now have and making a bid to achieve a well-connected continent with a single market for 4G mobile connections. We need to make it easier to hire talent outside each given country.

The use of e-commerce should be encouraged among small and medium-sized enterprises so that growth opportunities can be exploited more intensely. Following the global trend of the Internet, companies should internalize their online business. And much more emphasis should be placed on new technologies training in the academic and business spheres.

Modern life is global, and Spain is competing against every other country in the world. I do not believe in defeatism or victim culture. Optimism should not translate into callousness, but I sincerely believe that if you think creatively, if you find a different angle, if you innovate with a positive attitude and without fear of failure, then you can change things for the better. Spain needs to seize the moment to reinvent itself, grasping the opportunities offered up by the online world. We need to act, take decisions, avoid “paralysis through analysis.” I sometimes feel we are too inclined to navel-gazing: Spain shuts itself off, fascinated with its own contradictions and local issues, and loses its sense of perspective. Spain should open up to the outside, use the crisis as an opportunity to do things differently, in a new way—creating value, underlining its strengths, aspiring to be something more.

In the United States, for instance, diving headfirst into a personal Internet-related startup is regarded as perfectly normal. I’m glad to see that this entrepreneurial spirit is beginning to take hold here as well. I believe in working hard, showing perseverance, keeping your goals in view, surrounding yourself with talent, and taking risks. No risk, no success. We live in an increasingly globalized world: of course you can have a Spain-based Internet startup, there are no frontiers.

We need to take risks and keep one step ahead of the future. It is precisely the most disruptive innovations that require radical changes in approach and product, which might not even find a market yet ready for them—these are the areas providing real opportunities to continue being relevant, to move forward and “earn” the future, creating value and maintaining leadership. It is the disruptive changes that enable a business, product, or service to revolutionize the market—and, particularly in the technology sector, such changes are a necessity.

The Future of Social Communications, Innovation, Mobile Technologies, and Total Connectivity in Our Lives

The future of social communications will be shaped by an always-online culture. Always online is already here and will set the trend going forward. Total connectivity, the Internet you can take with you wherever you go, is growing unstoppably. There is no turning back for global digitalization.

Innovation is the driving force of growth and progress, so we need to shake up entrenched processes, products, services, and industries, so that all of us together—including established businesses, reacting to their emerging competitors—can move forward together.

Innovation is shaping and will continue to shape the future of social communications. It is already a reality that Internet connections are increasingly mobile. A survey we conducted in early 2013 in partnership with Ipsos found that 94 percent of Tuenti users aged 16 to 35 owned cell phones, 84 percent of users connected to the Internet using their phones, and 47 percent had mobile data subscriptions for connecting to the Internet. A total of 74 percent of users reported connecting to the Internet from their phone on a daily basis, while 84 percent did so at least weekly. Only 13 percent did not use their phones to connect to the Internet, and that percentage is decreasing every day.

Mobile Internet use alters the pattern of device usage; the hitherto familiar ways of accessing the Internet are changing too. The smartphone activities taking up the most time (over three hours a day) include instant messaging (38%), social media use (35%), listening to music (24%), and web browsing (20%). The activities taking up the least time (under five minutes a day) are: SMS texting (51%), watching movies (43%), reading and writing e-mail (38%), and talking on the phone (32%). Things are still changing.

Smartphones are gaining ground in everyday life. Many of the purposes formerly served by other items now involve using our smartphones. Some 75 percent of young people reported having replaced their MP3 player with their phone, 74 percent use their phone as an alarm clock, 70 percent use it as their camera, and 67 percent use it as their watch.

We have been observing these shifts for a while, which is why we decided to reinvent ourselves by placing smartphones at the heart of our strategy. I want to use this example as a showcase of what is happening in the world of social communication and the Internet in general: mobile connectivity is bringing about a new revolution. Tuenti is no longer just a social network, and social media as a whole are becoming more than just websites. The new Tuenti provides native mobile apps for Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Phone, as well as the Firefox OS app and the mobile version of the website, m.tuenti.com. Tuenti is now a cross-platform service that lets users connect with their friends and contacts from wherever they may be, using their device of choice. A user with a laptop can IM in real time with a user with a smartphone, and switch from one device to another without losing the thread of the conversation. The conversations are in the cloud, so data and contacts are preserved independently of the devices being used. This means the experience has to be made uniform across platforms, which sometimes involves paring down functionalities, given the processing and screen size limitations of mobile devices. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and so on are all evolving to become increasingly cross-platform experiences. But Tuenti is the first social network that has also developed its own Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)—the company is an Internet service provider over the mobile network. Tuenti is an MVNO with a social media angle, and this may be the future path of telecommunications.

Social media are evolving to become something more, and innovation must be their hallmark if they are to continue being relevant. Tuenti now embraces both social communications and telecom services provision, offering value added by letting you use the mobile app free of charge and without using up your data traffic allowance, even if you have no credit on your prepaid card—this is wholly revolutionary in the telecom sector. The convergence of social media with more traditional sectors is already bringing about a new context for innovation, a new arena for the development and growth of the Internet.

Just about everything in the world of the Internet still lies ahead of us, and mobile communications as we know them must be reinvented by making them more digital. The future will be shaped by innovation converging with the impact of mobility. This applies not just to social media but to the Internet in general, particularly in the social communications field. I feel that many people do not understand what we are doing and have no idea of the potential development of companies like ours at the global level. Right now, there may be somebody out there, in some corner of the world, developing the tool that will turn the Internet upside down all over again. The tool that will alter our day-to-day life once more. Creating more opportunities, providing new benefits to individuals, bringing more individual and collective well-being. Just ten years ago, social media did not exist; in the next ten years, something else radically new will emerge. There are many areas in which products, processes, and services can be improved or created afresh. The future is brimming with opportunities, and the future of the Internet has only just begun.

Related publications

The Impact of the Internet on Society: A Global Perspective
Implications of the Revolution in Work and Family
Vision 2020+: A Future to Be Built

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Life With or Without Social Media

Introduction, interpersonal communication, quality of experiences, behavioral addiction.

The popularity of various social media has grown rapidly over a few decades. Nowadays, almost every single person has a Facebook or an Instagram account that he or she regularly accesses for various purposes, be that entertainment, stress relief, or socialization. Nevertheless, while social media provide multiple opportunities for communication and promotion of brands, they have multiple drawbacks, including the risk of psychological addiction, and cannot replace real-life relationships. The present paper will discuss the major differences between life with social media and life without them, focusing on the matters of interpersonal communication value, quality of experiences, and behavioral addiction.

One of the main benefits of having a social media page is the ability to have online conversations with people from all over the world. Not only one can quickly and for free connect with new individuals for either personal or professional purposes through Facebook, Twitter, and so forth but also may maintain relationships with friends and acquaintances who live far away. However, online conversations are usually textual and one-dimensional. They neither provide chances for direct exchange of emotions between collocutors nor opportunities for reading various paralinguistic cues, which allow comprehending the meaning of others’ words much better. It can be argued that an individual who does not have social media will seek real-life communication situations much more than those with social media. The latter, in their turn, can often feel satisfied with online conversations without even noticing what they may be missing.

Another significant feature of social media is the possibility to share a personal narrative by posting texts about life experiences, photographs, and pieces of art. It means that such platforms as Facebook and Instagram allow users to express themselves and, in this way, to feel valued and content. However, self-expression through social media may have a negative side. Many individuals post pictures and stories merely to draw attention. Some people visit beautiful places or engage in exciting activities primarily to record them and then share them online to get more likes. It is valid to state that a person living without social media does not face the risks of superficial experiences. Not influenced by online community trends, he or she has a chance to live through unique and rewarding life events fully.

Many social media platforms utilize such reward mechanisms as likes to stimulate users’ activity. Due to those mechanisms, people can become psychologically dependent on social media and striving to do everything to receive more attention. Additionally, some individuals become addicted to social media because they distract from negative emotions and thoughts. While those preferring to spend time offline can have various behavioral dependencies and addictions as well, they are not prone to social media overuse that can substantially interfere with one’s mental state and daily life.

As the comparison of life with social media and life without them demonstrated, the former offers a plethora of opportunities for long-distance connections and self-expression. However, it is associated with the risks of reduced quality of experiences, as well as social media overuse and dependence. At the same time, life without social media is free of potential negative effects of those platforms on a person’s psychological state. However, it is hard to say that one type of life is better than the other. Every individual must find the right balance between the online and the offline worlds.

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Life before and after Facebook

T here was a time when sending a misbehaving youngster off to their bedroom was viewed as a punishment. It was supposed to make them feel isolated and excluded; an admonishment to sit alone and reflect on their wrongdoing. For today’s average adolescent staying by themselves in their room is never a matter of being isolated and hardly feels like a punishment. Physical surroundings are meaningless because every teenager is now always in constant touch with their peers, and the world beyond, through ubiquitous devices.

In fact, judging by my own household, for many teenagers their default position is to stay alone in their room staring at screens; playing games, messaging late into the night, sharing YouTube clips and multiple other diversions. They might emerge for meals and necessary sustenance, but they would generally prefer to be locked away using technology to interact with others near and far.

But how fast all this has changed. My three children are spread over eight years. The older daughter is in her late 20s and her teenage years now feel like a simpler time. Navigating these issues with her brother, who is 19, was much more complicated. Between them they have spanned the advent of social media and online communication. The eldest was only given her own phone at 14, which in 2002 was pretty average. And the phone itself was a basic Nokia pay-as–you-go. Facebook was still only a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye and when it was invented in 2004 it was limited to Harvard University students.

Like other parents, we gave her the phone rationalising that she was going by herself to school and elsewhere so it would be useful if she needed to be in touch. She used to eke out her £10 per month top-up allowance texting away to friends.

She soon realised that communication was a two-way thing. We could now also contact her, asking where she was and reminding her to return on time – so all too often when she was out late and we tried reaching her the phone trailed on to voicemail. “Sorry had no signal or the battery ran out” were the frequent explanations, when she had clearly chosen that it was inconvenient to her plans to be in touch.

By the time my youngest, Ben, left primary school having a phone at age 11 for the start of solo school journeys was standard. Most children without a mobile by this stage would be insisting to their parents that they were missing out. Meanwhile, the gadgets themselves, never mind all the multiple online possibilities, have been transformed.

I struggled with him to get my head round the ever-changing social media sites – the pervasive pornography, the advent of Snapchat , Instagram , WhatsApp and the prospect of continual online interaction – sometimes even, weirdly, as a substitute for real life. I remember when I first saw him on Facebook exchanging messages with his friend who lived just down our road – “Why don’t you talk to each other rather than communicating through the computer?” – he shrugged and rolled his eyes.

By then it was too late to question what he was even doing on Facebook, which was supposedly restricted to older teens? Like his friends, he had “adjusted” his birth year when he joined, to circumvent the age limit for opening a Facebook account – which was never challenged.

Even so, he still did not have his own laptop in the early teenage years – and often left windows open on the family desktop. If I was using it later I might have sight of what he had been looking at and his conversations. Sometimes I was unhappy about sites he had visited and my husband and I would challenge him. But, of course, once he had a laptop in his room that no longer happened because how would we ever know?

Yet it’s not just the teenage bedroom that has morphed, the whole concept of the home is different in this era of online and social media. Remember the time when you arrived back from school? The only prospect of connection to your peers, unless you had arranged to meet up with someone, was speaking to them on the single family phone handset. In many homes, and certainly in my case, it sat in a draughty hallway, where everyone could overhear the conversation. Worse still, parents would interrupt to complain about the mounting bill or to insist that they needed access to the phone for their own call. And once the lingering chat with a friend or two was over, there was no further external contact until the next morning’s journey to school.

The family home was almost a retreat. It might have been boring for a teenager, fed up with her family and desperate to be in touch with her friends, but it was also a kind of sanctuary. The intensity of continually interacting – the adolescent obsession of measuring who is up and who is down – had to take an overnight break. Now the multiple conversations never stop. Late into the night teens are posting pictures, making comments, sharing links; the pressures of being cool and part of the action are a 24/7 activity.

Fear of missing out (Fomo) has always been a teenage obsession. Most have little sense of proportion, so the thought of not attending a party or a gathering with everyone else can make them frantic. But now Fomo never stops. There is not only the party but all the social media noise that follows – posting photos, sizing up what did or did not happen.

Children are reluctant to admit it, but after a bad day at school it might be a relief to have a place where the online world cannot reach you. The problem is whether the home can any longer offer that peace and quiet. It is as if the walls are no longer solid but permeable. Somehow the outside world now penetrates inside the average family home because of this continual contact with peers and others.

The days of a single family landline had another advantage. Parents still had some notion of who their children were interacting with. They might answer the call or even take a message. Today, unless there is no signal, few teens would resort to speaking on a fixed landline – there is no need. But my two older daughters are just about from the end of that quaint era. I recall when my second daughter was 11 or 12, the same boy, Leo, would call every day at 5.20pm and the conversation always lasted for ages.

I still tried to enforce a rule about no phone chatting until homework and music practice were all done (except of course when they insisted that they must consult a friend about the homework). Sometimes when Leo rang I would say she was busy and ask if she could return the call or if he could ring back later – often wondering, “Don’t you have any homework yourself to finish?”

Nowadays that would be a joke – no child would dream of calling up on a landline, to be intercepted by irritating parents – all communication is direct. Leo is now a successful whiz-kid in Silicon Valley, even profiled last month in the Guardian , so maybe disrupted homework never did him any harm.

But what about switching off? Once I became aware of the continuing late-night activity I insisted that my son leave his mobile outside the bedroom at night. I had tried asking him to switch it off after hours – but the temptation was too great. Sometimes I would find he had even crept out to retrieve the phone from the landing in the wee hours. Once there was wifi throughout the house, we resorted to unplugging the router late at night. Of course, the downside was that no one else could go online. Anyway that strategy was ruined when 3G and 4G arrived.

Now those tussles have faded and I hope that my children have developed sufficient self-control to know when to switch off and tune out of the online frenzy. Alas, how many adults cannot disconnect, pore over their devices at every moment and, most annoyingly, leave them out on the table during mealtimes, like a nearby lifeline?

As with other matters, if they want their children to behave sensibly online, parents had better set the right example.

Get Out of My Life … by Tony Wolf and Suzanne Franks is published by Profile Books, £8.99. To order a copy for £6.99, including free UK p&P, go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846

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Remember Life Before Social Media? Maybe It's Time For A Reminder

Julie Wittes Schlack

Lexi Sturdy, election war room lead, sits at her desk during a demonstration in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (Jeff Chiu/AP)

When Twitter was young and tweets a mere 140 characters long, I used to mock the platform for consisting largely of posts that merely used tiny URLs to direct readers to in-depth articles on real new sites.

Now I long to return to those days.

Last week I was in New York City at a conference on “social media listening” — the technology that serves the business of trying to glean insights, serve customers, build buzz and track your competitors online — when a shelter-in-place alert appeared on my phone. Within seconds, I learned from Twitter that the second of what would be 13 pipe bombs was found in the CNN mailroom a mile away. And literally seconds after that, I saw the first of the what would become legion conspiracy theory Tweets, charging leftists (or Democrats) with creating this faux bomb scare to derail Republican momentum.

Now, a few days later, in just the time that it took me to write the previous two sentences, @RoseHanna413 — who may well be a bot — tweeted that “Pittsburgh Shooter: Robert D Bowers was NOT ARRESTED on 10/27, HE DOES NOT EXIST in public record.”

The tweet links to a video in which a real woman’s voice documents all of the ways in which Robert Bowers is a fabrication. Clue Number one? On one website his age is shown as 37, which, our narrator confidently asserts, “…is a Kabbalah number they like to use a lot when they’re coding stuff.”

Since I started writing this column, this video has received over 1,300 views.

Hateful political posts like these, or like the “false flag” accusations that whipped up Trump’s base and then were conveniently deleted when Cesar Sayoc was arrested, are a form of guerilla cultural warfare. The modus operandi is simple: Post an outrageous fabrication, get some friends and some bots to retweet it, then delete it when the inconvenient truth becomes a bit too evident. The truth assassins — whether they be anonymous and paranoid conspiracy theorists like @RoseHanna413 or members of the U.S. Congress like Kevin McCarthy, who retweets anti-Semitic intrigues more slickly disguised as political rhetoric — shoot their targets, plant their IEDs, toss their grenades, then join and run off with the panicked crowd.

Contrast this process with the conversations going on about how to vote on Massachusetts Ballot Question 1, which would mandate specific nurse-to-patient ratios in hospitals. Many people — myself included — are ambivalent, so as Election Day approaches, we’re having face-to-face conversations with people we know and respect and reading articles and editorials. We are, in short, actively trying to educate ourselves through research, discussion and debate; to engage with the democratic process as it was envisioned.

At times like this, I wish social media would just shut the hell up.

According to scientists at MIT , falsehoods on Twitter were 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than accurate news. The kind of dangerous misinformation being propagated on these platforms isn’t merely the product of a few demented or malicious people. According to researchers at the University of Washington, it’s the creation of an entire “alternative” media eco-system , well-funded and well-organized. It is not one that mirrors the spectrum from right to left that we typically think of when analyzing political discourse, but rather, according to lead researcher Kate Starbird, demonstrate “an antiglobalist (vs. globalist) orientation where U.S. Alt-Right sites look similar to U.S. Alt-Left sites.”

Through lengthy, painstaking research, Starbird’s team created a graph depicting this eco-system.

(Kate Starbird, University of Washington)

They found this:

“More than half of the domains in the graph (and more than 80 percent of the alternative media domains) were cited for content explicitly supporting the alternative narratives. However, others (especially mainstream media) were cited for factual accounts of the events, and then used as evidence by conspiracy theorists as they built these theories. And a few were referenced for their denials of these theories.”

In other words, the anti-globalist “alternative” media assert that a spoon is actually a knife. Maybe they saw someone cutting food with a spoon. But the more compelling “evidence”? The fact that “mainstream” media claim that it’s a spoon and deny that it’s a knife.

I am not arguing for the abolition of social media, which can spread important and factual news at lightning speed, and bring serendipitous and at least fleeting joy. I don’t expect Twitter, Gab, Reddit or any other social media platform to be able to identify every lunatic. But we need to stop letting social media companies off the hook for their failure to adequately enforce the codes of conduct to which they pay lip service.

...we need to stop letting social media companies off the hook for their failure to adequately enforce the codes of conduct to which they pay lip service.

Facebook is already taking some good steps in that direction, though its stepchild, Instagram, is becoming the new refuge of hate-mongerers. Twitter, perpetually slow to respond to complaints of harassment and threats, still has a long, long way to go.

So let’s insist that these companies enforce their own rules, even if it costs them the money they’d have to invest in human beings and AI systems continually trained in how to identify and flag false or dangerous content. Let’s demand politicians who will create laws that hold authors liable for posting flagrant falsehoods and hate speech.

And in the meantime, I’d love us as a country to engage in a day-long deprivation exercise, one on which instead of relying on the usual social media channels to shape our thoughts, we are forced to talk to one another and read real, reported, fact-checked news. We might rediscover the joy of inquiry versus consumption, of consideration rather than reaction.

Synagogue Shooting Suspect Had Social Media History
Rich Barlow: Why It's Time To Regulate Social Media
Miles Howard: Deleting Facebook Will Hurt. Do It Anyway

Julie Wittes Schlack Cognoscenti contributor Julie Wittes Schlack writes essays, short stories and book reviews for various publications, including WBUR's Cognoscenti and The ARTery, and is the author of “This All-at-Onceness” and “Burning and Dodging.”

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A love letter to the time before social media, doing it for the gram has become a way of life and it might just be ruining your self-worth..

Remember life before the internet? Well, you probably don't but I assure you it was quite the time to be alive. Our nights out didn't revolve around attaining the perfect selfie. "Followers" weren't some status symbol. If you didn't like the way you looked in a photo, well too bad, it's been developed and your mom already sent it out on the Christmas card.

Back then, before Snapchat and group texts, sometimes you would send someone in class a note and not only would they not respond immediately, but the teacher would likely read the note aloud to the entire class about how cute Joey looks today. And you thought sending the screenshot to the wrong person was dramatic...

It was a different time. Not simpler, not harder. Just different. I myself went through high school during the birth of the social media era. MySpace was all the rage and your top 8 provided a deep insight into your inner circle and which of your friends you were most likely to move in front of a speeding vehicle for.

Looking back now, I wish we'd never done that. I wish we'd never adopted likes as the currency of positivity. I wish we'd been less transparent with the fake versions of ourselves and more honest about who we were behind filters and Dashboard Confessional lyrics.

We were all so amazed at this new way to connect, this new way to express ourselves, that we didn't stop to think about the monster we were creating. For some of us, it's easy to relish in the time before. But what about all of the young people who really do believe that social media is the cornerstone of their identities? How is this massive, exploitative, always-on thing impacting their senses of self-worth and their level of attention to the world around them?

It seems like everything now is motivated by our compulsion to post online. I've gotten so insecure about my own social presence that I frequently ask myself when taking a picture or writing a soliloquy about Trump, "Who is this really for?"

I'm constantly telling myself I need to get better at writing succinct and witty things, but why? For Twitter? It shames me to say yes. I feel that way because someone told me good writers get noticed on Twitter. So now, this thing that was meant for fun and to connect is what will determine the future of my career? That's really just a little too heavy for me.

What scares me most about this social media epidemic sweeping the globe is that if someone as level-headed and aware of the negatives as me feels so exhausted by life online, how do the people who really live there feel? What does the mental health of an influencer really look like? Having to constantly portray one face (a happy, perfect, flawless face at that) can't be the road to true happiness. Conning followers into buying belly fat reducing serums that don't actually do anything must leave one with a pretty empty feeling.

Social media has a lot of good things going for it, but how we use such a momentous tool will determine what it provides for future generations. Basically what I'm getting at here is stop doing everything for the gram and just live your damn life.

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19 lessons i'll never forget from growing up in a small town, there have been many lessons learned..

Small towns certainly have their pros and cons. Many people who grow up in small towns find themselves counting the days until they get to escape their roots and plant new ones in bigger, "better" places. And that's fine. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought those same thoughts before too. We all have, but they say it's important to remember where you came from. When I think about where I come from, I can't help having an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for my roots. Being from a small town has taught me so many important lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

1. The importance of traditions.

Sometimes traditions seem like a silly thing, but the fact of it is that it's part of who you are. You grew up this way and, more than likely, so did your parents. It is something that is part of your family history and that is more important than anything.

2. How to be thankful for family and friends.

No matter how many times they get on your nerves or make you mad, they are the ones who will always be there and you should never take that for granted.

3. How to give back.

When tragedy strikes in a small town, everyone feels obligated to help out because, whether directly or indirectly, it affects you too. It is easy in a bigger city to be able to disconnect from certain problems. But in a small town those problems affect everyone.

4. What the word "community" really means.

Along the same lines as #3, everyone is always ready and willing to lend a helping hand when you need one in a small town and to me that is the true meaning of community. It's working together to build a better atmosphere, being there to raise each other up, build each other up, and pick each other up when someone is in need. A small town community is full of endless support whether it be after a tragedy or at a hometown sports game. Everyone shows up to show their support.

5. That it isn't about the destination, but the journey.

People say this to others all the time, but it takes on a whole new meaning in a small town. It is true that life is about the journey, but when you're from a small town, you know it's about the journey because the journey probably takes longer than you spend at the destination. Everything is so far away that it is totally normal to spend a couple hours in the car on your way to some form of entertainment. And most of the time, you're gonna have as many, if not more, memories and laughs on the journey than at the destination.

6. The consequences of making bad choices.

Word travels fast in a small town, so don't think you're gonna get away with anything. In fact, your parents probably know what you did before you even have a chance to get home and tell them. And forget about being scared of what your teacher, principle, or other authority figure is going to do, you're more afraid of what your parents are gonna do when you get home.

7. To trust people, until you have a reason not to.

Everyone deserves a chance. Most people don't have ill-intentions and you can't live your life guarding against every one else just because a few people in your life have betrayed your trust.

8. To be welcoming and accepting of everyone.

While small towns are not always extremely diverse, they do contain people with a lot of different stories, struggle, and backgrounds. In a small town, it is pretty hard to exclude anyone because of who they are or what they come from because there aren't many people to choose from. A small town teaches you that just because someone isn't the same as you, doesn't mean you can't be great friends.

9. How to be my own, individual person.

In a small town, you learn that it's okay to be who you are and do your own thing. You learn that confidence isn't how beautiful you are or how much money you have, it's who you are on the inside.

10. How to work for what I want.

Nothing comes easy in life. They always say "gardens don't grow overnight" and if you're from a small town you know this both figuratively and literally. You certainly know gardens don't grow overnight because you've worked in a garden or two. But you also know that to get to the place you want to be in life it takes work and effort. It doesn't just happen because you want it to.

11. How to be great at giving directions.

If you're from a small town, you know that you will probably only meet a handful of people in your life who ACTUALLY know where your town is. And forget about the people who accidentally enter into your town because of google maps. You've gotten really good at giving them directions right back to the interstate.

12. How to be humble.

My small town has definitely taught me how to be humble. It isn't always about you, and anyone who grows up in a small town knows that. Everyone gets their moment in the spotlight, and since there's so few of us, we're probably best friends with everyone so we are as excited when they get their moment of fame as we are when we get ours.

13. To be well-rounded.

Going to a small town high school definitely made me well-rounded. There isn't enough kids in the school to fill up all the clubs and sports teams individually so be ready to be a part of them all.

14. How to be great at conflict resolution.

In a small town, good luck holding a grudge. In a bigger city you can just avoid a person you don't like or who you've had problems with. But not in a small town. You better resolve the issue fast because you're bound to see them at least 5 times a week.

15. The beauty of getting outside and exploring.

One of my favorite things about growing up in a rural area was being able to go outside and go exploring and not have to worry about being in danger. There is nothing more exciting then finding a new place somewhere in town or in the woods and just spending time there enjoying the natural beauty around you.

16. To be prepared for anything.

You never know what may happen. If you get a flat tire, you better know how to change it yourself because you never know if you will be able to get ahold of someone else to come fix it. Mechanics might be too busy , or more than likely you won't even have enough cell service to call one.

17. That you don't always have to do it alone.

It's okay to ask for help. One thing I realized when I moved away from my town for college, was how much my town has taught me that I could ask for help is I needed it. I got into a couple situations outside of my town where I couldn't find anyone to help me and found myself thinking, if I was in my town there would be tons of people ready to help me. And even though I couldn't find anyone to help, you better believe I wasn't afraid to ask.

18. How to be creative.

When you're at least an hour away from normal forms of entertainment such as movie theaters and malls, you learn to get real creative in entertaining yourself. Whether it be a night looking at the stars in the bed of a pickup truck or having a movie marathon in a blanket fort at home, you know how to make your own good time.

19. To brush off gossip.

It's all about knowing the person you are and not letting others influence your opinion of yourself. In small towns, there is plenty of gossip. But as long as you know who you really are, it will always blow over.

Grateful Beyond Words: A Letter to My Inspiration

I have never been so thankful to know you..

I can't say "thank you" enough to express how grateful I am for you coming into my life. You have made such a huge impact on my life. I would not be the person I am today without you and I know that you will keep inspiring me to become an even better version of myself.

You have taught me that you don't always have to strong. You are allowed to break down as long as you pick yourself back up and keep moving forward. When life had you at your worst moments, you allowed your friends to be there for you and to help you. You let them in and they helped pick you up. Even in your darkest hour you showed so much strength. I know that you don't believe in yourself as much as you should but you are unbelievably strong and capable of anything you set your mind to.

Your passion to make a difference in the world is unbelievable. You put your heart and soul into your endeavors and surpass any personal goal you could have set. Watching you do what you love and watching you make a difference in the lives of others is an incredible experience. The way your face lights up when you finally realize what you have accomplished is breathtaking and I hope that one day I can have just as much passion you have.

SEE MORE: A Letter To My Best Friend On Her Birthday

The love you have for your family is outstanding. Watching you interact with loved ones just makes me smile . You are so comfortable and you are yourself. I see the way you smile when you are around family and I wish I could see you smile like this everyday. You love with all your heart and this quality is something I wished I possessed.

You inspire me to be the best version of myself. I look up to you. I feel that more people should strive to have the strength and passion that you exemplify in everyday life.You may be stubborn at points but when you really need help you let others in, which shows strength in itself. I have never been more proud to know someone and to call someone my role model. You have taught me so many things and I want to thank you. Thank you for inspiring me in life. Thank you for making me want to be a better person.

Waitlisted for a College Class? Here's What to Do!

Dealing with the inevitable realities of college life..

Course registration at college can be a big hassle and is almost never talked about. Classes you want to take fill up before you get a chance to register. You might change your mind about a class you want to take and must struggle to find another class to fit in the same time period. You also have to make sure no classes clash by time. Like I said, it's a big hassle.

This semester, I was waitlisted for two classes. Most people in this situation, especially first years, freak out because they don't know what to do. Here is what you should do when this happens.

Don't freak out

This is a rule you should continue to follow no matter what you do in life, but is especially helpful in this situation.

Email the professor

Around this time, professors are getting flooded with requests from students wanting to get into full classes. This doesn't mean you shouldn't burden them with your email; it means they are expecting interested students to email them. Send a short, concise message telling them that you are interested in the class and ask if there would be any chance for you to get in.

Attend the first class

Often, the advice professors will give you when they reply to your email is to attend the first class. The first class isn't the most important class in terms of what will be taught. However, attending the first class means you are serious about taking the course and aren't going to give up on it.

Keep attending class

Every student is in the same position as you are. They registered for more classes than they want to take and are "shopping." For the first couple of weeks, you can drop or add classes as you please, which means that classes that were once full will have spaces. If you keep attending class and keep up with assignments, odds are that you will have priority. Professors give preference to people who need the class for a major and then from higher to lower class year (senior to freshman).

Have a backup plan

For two weeks, or until I find out whether I get into my waitlisted class, I will be attending more than the usual number of classes. This is so that if I don't get into my waitlisted class, I won't have a credit shortage and I won't have to fall back in my backup class. Chances are that enough people will drop the class, especially if it is very difficult like computer science, and you will have a chance. In popular classes like art and psychology, odds are you probably won't get in, so prepare for that.

Remember that everything works out at the end

Life is full of surprises. So what if you didn't get into the class you wanted? Your life obviously has something else in store for you. It's your job to make sure you make the best out of what you have.

Navigating the Talking Stage: 21 Essential Questions to Ask for Connection

It's mandatory to have these conversations..

Whether you met your new love interest online , through mutual friends, or another way entirely, you'll definitely want to know what you're getting into. I mean, really, what's the point in entering a relationship with someone if you don't know whether or not you're compatible on a very basic level?

Consider these 21 questions to ask in the talking stage when getting to know that new guy or girl you just started talking to:

1. What do you do for a living?

What someone does for a living can tell a lot about who they are and what they're interested in! Their career reveals a lot more about them than just where they spend their time to make some money.

2. What's your favorite color?

OK, I get it, this seems like something you would ask a Kindergarten class, but I feel like it's always good to know someone's favorite color . You could always send them that Snapchat featuring you in that cute shirt you have that just so happens to be in their favorite color!

3. Do you have any siblings?

This one is actually super important because it's totally true that people grow up with different roles and responsibilities based on where they fall in the order. You can tell a lot about someone just based on this seemingly simple question.

4. What's your favorite television show?

OK, maybe this isn't a super important question, but you have to know ASAP if you can quote Michael Scott or not. If not, he probably isn't the one. Sorry, girl.

5. When is your birthday?

You can then proceed to do the thing that every girl does without admitting it and see how compatible your zodiacs are.

6. What's your biggest goal in life?

If you're like me, you have big goals that you want to reach someday, and you want a man behind you who also has big goals and understands what it's like to chase after a dream. If his biggest goal is to see how quickly he can binge-watch " Grey's Anatomy " on Netflix , you may want to move on.

7. If you had three wishes granted to you by a genie, what would they be?

This is a go-to for an insight into their personality. Based on how they answer, you can tell if they're goofy, serious, or somewhere in between.

8. What's your favorite childhood memory?

For some, this may be a hard question if it involves a family member or friend who has since passed away . For others, it may revolve around a tradition that no longer happens. The answers to this question are almost endless!

9. If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?

We all have parts of our lives and stories that we wish we could change. It's human nature to make mistakes. This question is a little bit more personal but can really build up the trust level.

10. Are you a cat or a dog person?

I mean, duh! If you're a dog person, and he is a cat person, it's not going to work out.

11. Do you believe in a religion or any sort of spiritual power?

Personally, I am a Christian, and as a result, I want to be with someone who shares those same values. I know some people will argue that this question is too much in the talking stage , but why go beyond the talking stage if your personal values will never line up?

12. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Even homebodies have a must visit place on their bucket list !

13. What is your ideal date night?

Hey, if you're going to go for it... go for it!

14. Who was/is your celebrity crush?

For me, it was hands-down Nick Jonas . This is always a fun question to ask!

15. What's a good way to cheer you up if you're having a bad day?

Let's be real, if you put a label on it, you're not going to see your significant other at their best 24/7.

16. Do you have any tattoos?

This can lead to some really good conversations, especially if they have a tattoo that has a lot of meaning to them!

17. Can you describe yourself in three words?

It's always interesting to see if how the person you're talking to views their personal traits lines ups with the vibes you're getting.

18. What makes you the most nervous in life?

This question can go multiple different directions, and it could also be a launching pad for other conversations.

19. What's the best gift you have ever received?

Admittedly, I have asked this question to friends as well, but it's neat to see what people value.

20. What do you do to relax/have fun?

Work hard, play hard, right?

21. What are your priorities at this phase of your life?

This is always interesting because no matter how compatible your personalities may be, if one of you wants to be serious and the other is looking for something casual, it's just not going to work.

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Challah vs. Easter Bread: A Delicious Dilemma

Is there really such a difference in challah bread or easter bread.

Ever since I could remember, it was a treat to receive Easter Bread made by my grandmother. We would only have it once a year and the wait was excruciating. Now that my grandmother has gotten older, she has stopped baking a lot of her recipes that require a lot of hand usage--her traditional Italian baking means no machines. So for the past few years, I have missed enjoying my Easter Bread.

A few weeks ago, I was given a loaf of bread called Challah (pronounced like holla), and upon my first bite, I realized it tasted just like Easter Bread. It was so delicious that I just had to make some of my own, which I did.

The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

2 tsp active dry or instant yeast 1 cup lukewarm water 4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup white granulated sugar 2 tsp salt 2 large eggs 1 large egg yolk (reserve the white for the egg wash) 1/4 cup neutral-flavored vegetable oil

Instructions

Combine yeast and a pinch of sugar in small bowl with the water and stir until you see a frothy layer across the top.
Whisk together 4 cups of the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
Make a well in the center of the flour and add in eggs, egg yolk, and oil. Whisk these together to form a slurry, pulling in a little flour from the sides of the bowl.
Pour the yeast mixture over the egg slurry and mix until difficult to move.
Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface and knead by hand for about 10 minutes. If the dough seems very sticky, add flour a teaspoon at a time until it feels tacky, but no longer like bubblegum. The dough has finished kneading when it is soft, smooth, and holds a ball-shape.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and place somewhere warm. Let the dough rise 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Separate the dough into four pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a long rope roughly 1-inch thick and 16 inches long.
Gather the ropes and squeeze them together at the very top. Braid the pieces in the pattern of over, under, and over again. Pinch the pieces together again at the bottom.
Line a baking sheet with parchment and lift the loaf on top. Sprinkle the loaf with a little flour and drape it with a clean dishcloth. Place the pan somewhere warm and away from drafts and let it rise until puffed and pillowy, about an hour.
Heat the oven to 350°F. Whisk the reserved egg white with a tablespoon of water and brush it all over the challah. Be sure to get in the cracks and down the sides of the loaf.
Slide the challah on its baking sheet into the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through cooking. The challah is done when it is deeply browned.

I kept wondering how these two breads could be so similar in taste. So I decided to look up a recipe for Easter Bread to make a comparison. The two are almost exactly the same! These recipes are similar because they come from religious backgrounds. The Jewish Challah bread is based on kosher dietary laws. The Christian Easter Bread comes from the Jewish tradition but was modified over time because they did not follow kosher dietary laws.

A recipe for Easter bread is as follows:

2 tsp active dry or instant yeast 2/3 cup milk 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 cup white granulated sugar 2 tbs butter 2 large eggs 2 tbs melted butter 1 tsp salt

In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, salt, and yeast; stir well. Combine milk and butter in a small saucepan; heat until milk is warm and butter is softened but not melted.
Gradually add the milk and butter to the flour mixture; stirring constantly. Add two eggs and 1/2 cup flour; beat well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal size rounds; cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Roll each round into a long roll about 36 inches long and 1 1/2 inches thick. Using the two long pieces of dough, form a loosely braided ring, leaving spaces for the five colored eggs. Seal the ends of the ring together and use your fingers to slide the eggs between the braids of dough.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place loaf on a buttered baking sheet and cover loosely with a damp towel. Place loaf in a warm place and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes. Brush risen loaf with melted butter.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Both of these recipes are really easy to make. While you might need to have a day set aside for this activity, you can do things while the dough is rising or in the oven. After only a few hours, you have a delicious loaf of bread that you made from scratch, so the time and effort is really worth it!

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How Did We Communicate Before Social Media

By: Author Valerie Forgeard

Posted on Published: July 4, 2022 - Last updated: July 1, 2023

Categories Community , Culture , Society , Technology

Social media has changed the way we do business, our social interaction with people, and how we get our news. Before social networks existed, people communicated in different ways.

In the late 20th century, people talked on the phone, wrote letters or sent emails to let others know what was going on with them.

Face-to-Face Communication

Before social media existed, social networking was done face-to-face, which is the most personal form of communication because it involves direct eye contact and physical proximity. It’s the best way to find out directly what others are thinking and feeling. Digital communication is very different.

Nowadays, we social network through video chat instead of talking face-to-face in person. We don’t have time to meet because there are so many other things that need to get done. Writing an email or making a phone call, for example, can be easier than meeting in person.

But a video chat isn’t as personal as a face-to-face meeting because it doesn’t require direct eye contact or physical proximity like face-to-face meetings do. And when we read something online, we don’t always know if it was written by someone who’s angry or happy about what they wrote about your product or service! So digital communication can be very different than face-to-face meetings.

Social media has changed the way you communicate with your family, friends, and colleagues.

You may not call or text them as often anymore because you can see them in photos or videos on Facebook or Instagram.

Business Communication Has Also Changed the Way Companies Communicate With Their Customers

Many businesses use at least one social media platform where they share content (such as blog posts) that helps build an online relationship with their customers.

Calling Someone on the Phone

We don’t have long conversations on the phone anymore. Instead, we prefer to use text messaging, email, and other forms of digital communication. This impacts our social skills and our ability to have meaningful conversations with others.

We used to use phones and have longer conversations. We spent hours on the phone with our friends. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to spend 20 minutes or more on the phone with their best friend talking about their day or what they’ve been up to lately.

Today, when you’re on the phone with someone, you’re usually multitasking. You’re checking email, scrolling through Facebook or Instagram, watching a YouTube video, etc. These distractions take your mind off the conversation and make it less meaningful.

Text Messaging

A text message is a quick and easy way to communicate with someone. It’s also more convenient to send messages than to make phone calls or write emails. Text messaging allows you to get in touch with others quickly and easily, but it can also be a very personal form of communication.

When people first started using mobile phone communication technology, they didn’t have Internet access, and texting was something that kept them busy when they were out or waiting for someone. It was instant social interaction, but without pictures or videos.

Texting is still one of the most popular ways to send messages today, except it’s done through social media use (e.g.: Whatsapp). It’s an efficient way to communicate without having to speak. Texting is a great way to stay in touch with others and can be used for more than just sending simple messages.

When everyone had access to the world wide web, Internet users started communicating more via email. I remember around the year 2000, email was better than texting because you could easily add attachments. This was before the time when there was fast internet and social media.

Since then, the world has changed a lot and so have our habits. Today, we can’t imagine life without our phones and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

In fact, most social media users don’t even know how to use an old-fashioned computer anymore! The only thing they know how to do is send emails from their phone with their thumb.

Email is a great way to communicate with people who don’t live nearby. You can email your grandmother, a friend across town, your cousin in another state, or even the person next door. In the business world, email remains popular and is often used by professionals for work-related matters.

Some people prefer sending and receiving emails to social media because it’s easier to control how much information they reveal through email than through social media like Facebook or Instagram.

Writing Letters

One of the most popular forms of communication before social media was letter writing. Letter writing is a form of communication that’s slower than other forms, such as email and instant messaging.

This form of communication had a more personal touch because you had to sit down and write something by hand, which was more time-consuming than simply hitting “send” or typing an instant message. This can also be seen as a disadvantage, as some people don’t want to wait any longer for a response and prefer to deliver their messages through faster methods like texting or sending an email attachment.

Letter writing can also be seen as more formal than other types of digital communication because it’s a long tradition in society, while newer forms may not have been around long enough to become a norm in society about what good manners are when communicating with others online (or even offline).

Before the Internet existed, the fax was the fastest form of written communication, especially for business communications. Businesses around the world used fax machines for decades, and it was very useful for contracts that we can sign digitally today. Fax machines are still used today because they’re still very effective in some situations. However, many people think that faxing is a thing of the past.

The main advantage of fax machines is that they used to allow you to send a document instantly and have it read by the recipient within seconds.

Speed – The speed at which you can send a document via a fax machine is much faster than sending it via email or other methods. For example, sending an official document by mail would take days. Faxing took only minutes.
Reliability – Fax machines were reliable compared to other methods like mail, as there was no risk of your message getting lost or delayed. This is especially important for sending legal documents such as contracts or agreements, which both parties must digitally sign before proceeding with the transaction at hand.

We’ve Come a Long Way Since the Telegraph

The telegraph was the first step in the communications revolution that led to the Internet.

It’s been a long road from the telegraph to the Internet.

Between the telegraph and social media, there was the physical mail, the telephone, the fax, and so on. Each step was an improvement over the previous one, but each step was also a little further away from actual human interaction.

Today, we’ve social networks that allow us to interact with people all over the world without leaving our homes or offices. This has improved productivity and efficiency in many ways, but it’s also compromised privacy and personal freedom.

Social Media Has Revolutionized the Way We Communicate

Social media is now used for everything from dating to grocery shopping. Social media has revolutionized the way we communicate. In just over a decade, they’ve become an integral part of our daily lives – and not just for staying in touch with friends and family.

Social Media Has Transformed Communication Beyond Simple Messaging

Today, we can share everything from pictures and videos to our personal thoughts and feelings. We can even stay in touch with people who live far away from us. This evolution has allowed businesses to interact with their customers in ways they couldn’t before.

Social Media Has Also Transformed Corporate Communications

The benefits to businesses are immense. Social media helps businesses grow their customer base, provide better customer service, and create a community where customers can interact with each other.

Social media networks have also greatly changed business communication – we no longer have to call customer service or wait for a sales representative to respond. If we need information about a product or service, all we need to do is ask on our social media feed and someone will respond within minutes (or less).

Plus, social media allows people to provide feedback on products and services – meaning companies can learn what their customers like, what they don’t like, or what they want more of.

Social media marketing also allows businesses to promote themselves to active users on every social media site.

Social Media Has Given Everyone the Opportunity to Be Somebody

Social media has given everyone the opportunity to be somebody. Before social media, you could only rely on word of mouth or the news, now anyone can spread their personal messages anywhere on social media, to anyone.

The power of social media is that it gives everyone a voice, but it also gives brands the opportunity to be heard by their customers.

The way we communicate is changing because of social media. It’s no longer just what we say, but how we say it. The way we talk about things varies from person to person, and that’s what makes us unique.

I think social media has changed the way people communicate because they’re more open about their feelings and thoughts there than they’re in real life. For example, if someone is upset about something, they don’t want others to express that in real life, but they post it on Facebook or Twitter so everyone knows how they feel.

The Dark Side of Social Media

In recent decades, social media have become an important part of our lives. They’re an integral part of our daily lives and we can use them to connect with friends and family, view pictures, watch videos, and learn about new things.

However, there are some downsides to social media that you should be aware of before getting too involved.

Here are some of them:

Addictive . Social media platforms are highly addictive. It’s very easy to get hooked on your favorite sites and spend hours a day looking at photos and reading messages from friends and family. This can leave you with less time for other things like reading books or meeting real people in person.
False sense of validation . When you post something on Facebook or Twitter, you want people to “like” it or comment on it to give you the impression that people think well of you or like what you wrote or posted online. That’s not always true, though, because most people don’t like everything everyone else is doing online. This can lead to frustration when no one seems to care about what you’ve posted online, even though everyone else seems happy with their own lives!
Unhealthy distractions from real life . It’s easy to waste time on social media instead of spending time with loved ones in person. And some people feel isolated when they don’t have many friends on Facebook or other platforms who live nearby, or when they don’t have much interaction with their friends online.

Protecting privacy – many people share personal information without realizing how quickly that information can spread online and be misused by others.

This Is Only One Side of Reality

Sometimes it’s a very idealized version of reality. You may see photos of people who seem happy all the time, but in reality, they may not be happy at all!

Social media can make you envious because everyone seems to have something better than you (if they’ve anything at all). And if someone posts something that makes you feel bad, you might feel worse than if they hadn’t shared it in the first place!

How Did We Do Research Before the Internet

Do You Remember Before the Internet

How the Telephone Changed the World

Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Social Media — Social Media Impact On Society

Social Media Impact on Society

Categories: Social Media

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Published: Mar 13, 2024

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NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism

David Folkenflik

NPR suspended senior editor Uri Berliner for five days without pay after he wrote an essay accusing the network of losing the public's trust and appeared on a podcast to explain his argument. Uri Berliner hide caption

NPR suspended senior editor Uri Berliner for five days without pay after he wrote an essay accusing the network of losing the public's trust and appeared on a podcast to explain his argument.

NPR has formally punished Uri Berliner, the senior editor who publicly argued a week ago that the network had "lost America's trust" by approaching news stories with a rigidly progressive mindset.

Berliner's five-day suspension without pay, which began last Friday, has not been previously reported.

Yet the public radio network is grappling in other ways with the fallout from Berliner's essay for the online news site The Free Press . It angered many of his colleagues, led NPR leaders to announce monthly internal reviews of the network's coverage, and gave fresh ammunition to conservative and partisan Republican critics of NPR, including former President Donald Trump.

Conservative activist Christopher Rufo is among those now targeting NPR's new chief executive, Katherine Maher, for messages she posted to social media years before joining the network. Among others, those posts include a 2020 tweet that called Trump racist and another that appeared to minimize rioting during social justice protests that year. Maher took the job at NPR last month — her first at a news organization .

In a statement Monday about the messages she had posted, Maher praised the integrity of NPR's journalists and underscored the independence of their reporting.

"In America everyone is entitled to free speech as a private citizen," she said. "What matters is NPR's work and my commitment as its CEO: public service, editorial independence, and the mission to serve all of the American public. NPR is independent, beholden to no party, and without commercial interests."

The network noted that "the CEO is not involved in editorial decisions."

In an interview with me later on Monday, Berliner said the social media posts demonstrated Maher was all but incapable of being the person best poised to direct the organization.

"We're looking for a leader right now who's going to be unifying and bring more people into the tent and have a broader perspective on, sort of, what America is all about," Berliner said. "And this seems to be the opposite of that."

Conservative critics of NPR are now targeting its new chief executive, Katherine Maher, for messages she posted to social media years before joining the public radio network last month. Stephen Voss/Stephen Voss hide caption

Conservative critics of NPR are now targeting its new chief executive, Katherine Maher, for messages she posted to social media years before joining the public radio network last month.

He said that he tried repeatedly to make his concerns over NPR's coverage known to news leaders and to Maher's predecessor as chief executive before publishing his essay.

Berliner has singled out coverage of several issues dominating the 2020s for criticism, including trans rights, the Israel-Hamas war and COVID. Berliner says he sees the same problems at other news organizations, but argues NPR, as a mission-driven institution, has a greater obligation to fairness.

"I love NPR and feel it's a national trust," Berliner says. "We have great journalists here. If they shed their opinions and did the great journalism they're capable of, this would be a much more interesting and fulfilling organization for our listeners."

A "final warning"

The circumstances surrounding the interview were singular.

Berliner provided me with a copy of the formal rebuke to review. NPR did not confirm or comment upon his suspension for this article.

In presenting Berliner's suspension Thursday afternoon, the organization told the editor he had failed to secure its approval for outside work for other news outlets, as is required of NPR journalists. It called the letter a "final warning," saying Berliner would be fired if he violated NPR's policy again. Berliner is a dues-paying member of NPR's newsroom union but says he is not appealing the punishment.

The Free Press is a site that has become a haven for journalists who believe that mainstream media outlets have become too liberal. In addition to his essay, Berliner appeared in an episode of its podcast Honestly with Bari Weiss.

A few hours after the essay appeared online, NPR chief business editor Pallavi Gogoi reminded Berliner of the requirement that he secure approval before appearing in outside press, according to a copy of the note provided by Berliner.

In its formal rebuke, NPR did not cite Berliner's appearance on Chris Cuomo's NewsNation program last Tuesday night, for which NPR gave him the green light. (NPR's chief communications officer told Berliner to focus on his own experience and not share proprietary information.) The NPR letter also did not cite his remarks to The New York Times , which ran its article mid-afternoon Thursday, shortly before the reprimand was sent. Berliner says he did not seek approval before talking with the Times .

NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public's trust

Berliner says he did not get permission from NPR to speak with me for this story but that he was not worried about the consequences: "Talking to an NPR journalist and being fired for that would be extraordinary, I think."

Berliner is a member of NPR's business desk, as am I, and he has helped to edit many of my stories. He had no involvement in the preparation of this article and did not see it before it was posted publicly.

In rebuking Berliner, NPR said he had also publicly released proprietary information about audience demographics, which it considers confidential. He said those figures "were essentially marketing material. If they had been really good, they probably would have distributed them and sent them out to the world."

Feelings of anger and betrayal inside the newsroom

His essay and subsequent public remarks stirred deep anger and dismay within NPR. Colleagues contend Berliner cherry-picked examples to fit his arguments and challenge the accuracy of his accounts. They also note he did not seek comment from the journalists involved in the work he cited.

Morning Edition host Michel Martin told me some colleagues at the network share Berliner's concerns that coverage is frequently presented through an ideological or idealistic prism that can alienate listeners.

"The way to address that is through training and mentorship," says Martin, herself a veteran of nearly two decades at the network who has also reported for The Wall Street Journal and ABC News. "It's not by blowing the place up, by trashing your colleagues, in full view of people who don't really care about it anyway."

Several NPR journalists told me they are no longer willing to work with Berliner as they no longer have confidence that he will keep private their internal musings about stories as they work through coverage.

"Newsrooms run on trust," NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben tweeted last week, without mentioning Berliner by name. "If you violate everyone's trust by going to another outlet and sh--ing on your colleagues (while doing a bad job journalistically, for that matter), I don't know how you do your job now."

Berliner rejected that critique, saying nothing in his essay or subsequent remarks betrayed private observations or arguments about coverage.

Other newsrooms are also grappling with questions over news judgment and confidentiality. On Monday, New York Times Executive Editor Joseph Kahn announced to his staff that the newspaper's inquiry into who leaked internal dissent over a planned episode of its podcast The Daily to another news outlet proved inconclusive. The episode was to focus on a December report on the use of sexual assault as part of the Hamas attack on Israel in October. Audio staffers aired doubts over how well the reporting stood up to scrutiny.

"We work together with trust and collegiality everyday on everything we produce, and I have every expectation that this incident will prove to be a singular exception to an important rule," Kahn wrote to Times staffers.

At NPR, some of Berliner's colleagues have weighed in online against his claim that the network has focused on diversifying its workforce without a concomitant commitment to diversity of viewpoint. Recently retired Chief Executive John Lansing has referred to this pursuit of diversity within NPR's workforce as its " North Star ," a moral imperative and chief business strategy.

In his essay, Berliner tagged the strategy as a failure, citing the drop in NPR's broadcast audiences and its struggle to attract more Black and Latino listeners in particular.

"During most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding," Berliner writes. "In recent years, however, that has changed."

Berliner writes, "For NPR, which purports to consider all things, it's devastating both for its journalism and its business model."

NPR investigative reporter Chiara Eisner wrote in a comment for this story: "Minorities do not all think the same and do not report the same. Good reporters and editors should know that by now. It's embarrassing to me as a reporter at NPR that a senior editor here missed that point in 2024."

Some colleagues drafted a letter to Maher and NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, seeking greater clarity on NPR's standards for its coverage and the behavior of its journalists — clearly pointed at Berliner.

A plan for "healthy discussion"

On Friday, CEO Maher stood up for the network's mission and the journalism, taking issue with Berliner's critique, though never mentioning him by name. Among her chief issues, she said Berliner's essay offered "a criticism of our people on the basis of who we are."

Berliner took great exception to that, saying she had denigrated him. He said that he supported diversifying NPR's workforce to look more like the U.S. population at large. She did not address that in a subsequent private exchange he shared with me for this story. (An NPR spokesperson declined further comment.)

Late Monday afternoon, Chapin announced to the newsroom that Executive Editor Eva Rodriguez would lead monthly meetings to review coverage.

"Among the questions we'll ask of ourselves each month: Did we capture the diversity of this country — racial, ethnic, religious, economic, political geographic, etc — in all of its complexity and in a way that helped listeners and readers recognize themselves and their communities?" Chapin wrote in the memo. "Did we offer coverage that helped them understand — even if just a bit better — those neighbors with whom they share little in common?"

Berliner said he welcomed the announcement but would withhold judgment until those meetings played out.

In a text for this story, Chapin said such sessions had been discussed since Lansing unified the news and programming divisions under her acting leadership last year.

"Now seemed [the] time to deliver if we were going to do it," Chapin said. "Healthy discussion is something we need more of."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

Katherine Maher
uri berliner

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Viral claims about Donald Trump's hush money trial, fact checked

By Laura Doan , Rhona Tarrant

Updated on: April 17, 2024 / 9:35 AM EDT / CBS News

As former President Donald Trump's historic criminal trial gets underway in New York this week, the CBS News Confirmed team has been tracking potentially misleading narratives that have gained some traction on social media. Here are three of the viral claims that have emerged during the trial so far and what to know about them.

Claim 1: Judge Juan Merchan won't let Trump go to his son's graduation

On Monday, Trump posted to his nearly 7 million followers on Truth Social that Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the trial, likely will not allow him to go to his 18-year-old son Barron's graduation in May.

"Who will explain for me, to my wonderful son, Barron, who is a GREAT Student at a fantastic School, that his Dad will likely not be allowed to attend his Graduation Ceremony, something that we have been talking about for years," Trump wrote in a post that had garnered over 18,000 likes by Tuesday.

The claim was echoed by others online, including his son Eric Trump, who posted on X that "Judge Merchan is truly heartless in not letting a father attend his son's graduation."

Merchan has not yet made any decision about whether Trump can attend his son's graduation. But on Monday, he signaled that he's open to it, although it is also possible that if the trial is behind schedule, he will not allow it. In an excerpt from the court transcript obtained by CBS News' Graham Kates, Merchan said this:

Regarding counsel's request that the Court adjourn on Friday, May 17th for Mr. Trump to attend his son's high school graduation and Friday June 3rd to allow a member of the defense team to attend their son's graduation, I cannot rule on those two requests at this time. It really depends on how we are doing on time and where we are in the trial. If everything is going according to schedule without unnecessary delays, then I am sure we will be able to adjourn for one or both of those days, but if we are running behind schedule, we will not be able to.

Claim 2: Stormy Daniels denies having an affair with Trump

In a tweet from April 10 flagged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Monday as a potential violation of Trump's gag order, Trump wrote on Truth Social: "Look what was just found! Will the fake news report it?" The post included a picture of a 2018 letter written by adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, which included the statement, "I am denying this affair because it never happened."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican operative Roger Stone, and others shared the same picture in posts on X that attracted over 60,000 "likes."

Although it was presented by Trump as being new, this letter from Daniels has been public knowledge since January 2018 — and she has since recanted it. A few months after she signed her name to it, in March 2018, Daniels went on " 60 Minutes " to say she had been pressured into signing and releasing the letter by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and others. Daniels said that she did have an affair with Trump.

Here's what she said on "60 Minutes" to correspondent Anderson Cooper:

Anderson Cooper: So you signed and released — a statement that said, 'I am not denying this affair because I was paid in hush money. I'm denying it because it never happened.' That's a lie? Stormy Daniels: Yes. Anderson Cooper: If it was untruthful, why did you sign it? Stormy Daniels: Because they made it sound like I had no choice.

She went on to tell Cooper that she felt there might be legal repercussions for not signing the letter.

"The exact sentence used was, 'They can make your life hell in many different ways,'" she said. She believed "they" in that case was Michael Cohen.

Claim 3: Trump's gag order is unconstitutional

Trump posted on Truth Social Monday, "This Crooked Judge has GAGGED me. Unconstitutional! The other side can talk about me, but I am not allowed to talk about them!" The claim was later echoed by others on social media.

Merchan's  April 1 gag order prohibits Trump from speaking about witnesses, court staff, the family members of court staff, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's family, or Merchan's family. The judge said the order was necessary because some of Trump's rhetoric might keep jurors, lawyers and court employees from performing their duties in the court.

"This pattern of attacking family members of presiding jurists and attorneys assigned to [Trump's] cases serves no legitmate purpose," Merchan wrote of Trump in the gag order. "It merely injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings, that not only they, but their family members as well, are 'fair game' for Defendant's vitriol."

Trump is still allowed to criticize Merchan and Bragg. And the former president may talk about the case publicly and call the trial political if he wishes.

Many legal experts argue Merchan's gag order is lawful and doesn't interfere with Trump's First Amendment rights. Duncan Levin, who worked in the district attorney's office before Bragg, told Politifact that gag orders "with very limited exceptions have long been found not to violate the First Amendment… [Trump] is free to discuss the criminal justice system but not to make ad hominem attacks on particular people associated with the case."

However, Trump's lawyers have challenged the order and said it is unconstitutional because it curbs his free speech rights. Trump's request to lift the order will now go to a five-judge panel for consideration.

Donald Trump

Laura Doan is a reporter and associate producer for "Prime Time with John Dickerson." She covers the climate crisis, science and technology, and U.S. politics.

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Fact-Checking Trump’s Defenses in His Court Cases

The former president has trotted out a host of false and misleading claims to defend his conduct, attack judges and prosecutors and portray himself as a victim of political persecution.

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Former President Donald J. Trump, wearing a dark blue suit with a red tie and white shirt, stands speaking behind a metal barricade.

By Linda Qiu

Reporting from Washington

April 17, 2024

As former President Donald J. Trump battles a series of criminal and civil actions while he runs to reclaim the White House, he has put his legal woes at center stage, making them a rallying cry for his re-election.

It is a tactic that is likely to be on full display this week as his trial in Manhattan over his role in a hush money payment in the 2016 race gets underway. Just as he has done with his other legal troubles, Mr. Trump has dismissed the charges in that case as part of an “election interference” scheme orchestrated by President Biden.

He has described the cases against him with colorful hyperbole, defended his conduct with faulty comparisons and lobbed false attacks and baseless accusations at opponents and adjudicators alike.

Asked for evidence of Mr. Trump’s claims, the campaign did not directly address the matter but continued to insist, with no evidence, that Mr. Trump was the target of a “witch hunt” led by the Democratic Party.

Here’s a fact-check of some of his most repeated claims.

How Mr. Trump has sought to undercut the cases against him:

Baseless accusations of a biden-orchestrated conspiracy, hyperbolic claims of persecution, faulty and irrelevant comparisons, inaccurate attacks on judges.

What Mr. Trump Said

“Biden said it. He said — you know what their whole plan is? It was just released the other day. It didn’t — it was leaked by one of the many people that probably thought it was wrong. Their whole plan is to go after Trump in every way possible, especially criminally and legally.” — at a rally in Georgia in March

This lacks evidence. Of the four criminal cases against Mr. Trump, two were brought by state or local prosecutors, meaning that the Justice Department itself has no control over them. His two other criminal cases are overseen by a special counsel, whom Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

It is unclear what leak Mr. Trump was referring to, and The New York Times was unable to find an instance of such a plan to target Mr. Trump “criminally and legally.” False posts circulating on social media have used deceptively edited clips to suggest that Mr. Biden or his aides have admitted to weaponizing the legal system.

Still, there is no evidence that Mr. Biden is personally directing the cases against his political opponent. Mr. Biden has publicly emphasized the independence of the Justice Department. Moreover, The Times and other news outlets have reported that Mr. Biden’s campaign strategy is to say nothing about Mr. Trump’s legal woes .

“Jack Smith just admitted what the American People already know, namely, that his case is being directed and supervised by the Biden Administration. So, although he denies it, Garland is carrying out the orders from his boss to prosecute me, and to interfere in the 2024 Election.” — in a Truth Social post in March

This is misleading. Mr. Trump was referring to — and wildly distorting — a court filing from prosecutors in the classified documents case.

The document was responding to a motion by Mr. Trump’s lawyer to dismiss the case, claiming that Attorney General Merrick B. Garland had no authority to appoint Jack Smith, the special counsel in the case. Prosecutors argued that the Supreme Court had affirmed such an authority 50 years ago in the Watergate case, and that many special counsels had been appointed since then, including by the Justice Department under Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump was apparently referring to a description in the filing of the special counsel’s role, although he used it out of context: “The special counsel was retained from outside of the department to ‘ensure a full and thorough investigation’ of certain sensitive matters. While he remains subject to attorney general direction and supervision, he also retains ‘a substantial degree of independent decision making.’”

“Look, the Manhattan D.A. has a man named Colangelo in there. He was Merrick Garland’s top person. They put him into the Manhattan D.A.’s office. Fani Willis and her lover spent a lot of time in Washington talking about my case. They came out during the hearings talking about my case. The A.G. of New York, Letitia James, deals with Washington all the time.” — in an interview with Fox News in March

This is exaggerated. Asked for proof of his claim that Mr. Biden was personally directing the local cases against him, Mr. Trump pointed to purported ties between prosecutors and “Washington,” but provided no evidence that Mr. Biden had been involved in any of the hiring decisions, conversations or meetings that Mr. Trump cited.

The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, hired Matthew Colangelo as a senior counsel in December 2022 . Mr. Colangelo previously worked at the New York attorney general’s office and at the Justice Department as acting associate attorney general — the third highest-ranking, not “top,” official — before that position was filled permanently. There is no proof that the appointment of Mr. Colangelo was directed by Mr. Biden or the Justice Department. The two men previously worked together at the New York attorney general’s office under Ms. James’s predecessor, and Mr. Colangelo’s appointment came as Mr. Bragg ramped up his investigation into Mr. Trump’s role in hush money payments made in the 2016 election.

The Times earlier reported that Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., and her office had been consulting with the bipartisan House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack as part of her election interference case. An outside lawyer hired by Ms. Willis — Nathan J. Wade, her former romantic partner who resigned from the case in March — to lead the prosecution met twice with the White House Counsel’s Office in 2022. It is not clear what the purpose of those meetings was, but a former White House counsel told The Times that the office can become involved when prosecutors seek the testimony of former officials.

Mr. Trump often points out that Letitia James, the New York attorney general who brought a civil fraud case accusing him of inflating the value of his properties, has visited the White House three times. According to visitor logs , her first visit was in April 2022 at the South Lawn, where a crowd had gathered to celebrate the confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. She again visited in July 2023 to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris and other state attorneys general about efforts to stop fentanyl trafficking . And she visited in August 2023 to attend an event Ms. Harris hosted recognizing Black women serving in public office. The White House has said Mr. Biden did not speak to individual guests at the first event and did not attend the latter two.

“Why didn’t they bring these Fake Biden inspired cases against me 3 years ago? Because Crooked Joe Biden wanted them to be brought right in the middle of my 2024 Presidential Election Campaign, strictly Third World Country ‘stuff!’” — in a post on Truth Social in March

False. Of the multiple cases Mr. Trump has been embroiled in, at least three began before Mr. Biden took office while another three center on Mr. Trump’s post-election and post-presidency conduct. There is no evidence that Mr. Biden has sought to drag out the cases. Investigations and prosecutions generally take time , and Mr. Trump himself has repeatedly sought to delay proceedings.

The inquiry over hush money payments began while Mr. Trump was still in office in 2018. Ms. James began her investigation into the Trump Organization over its financial dealings in March 2019. The writer E. Jean Carroll filed her first lawsuit against Mr. Trump in November 2019, accusing him of defamation.

Ms. Willis opened her investigation into Mr. Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn the election in Georgia in February 2021. A top Justice Department official said in January 2022 that it had opened an investigation into a plan by Mr. Trump and his allies to reverse the results of the 2020 election; the investigation was widened in March 2022 . Mr. Smith was appointed the special prosecutor in the documents case in November 2022.

“It is a form of Navalny. It is a form of communism or fascism.” — in a town hall on Fox News in February

False. Asked about the ruling in his civil fraud case, Mr. Trump compared himself to Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who had died days earlier in prison . The two cases are not at all similar.

Mr. Navalny had been behind bars since early 2021, sometimes in solitary confinement, and serving multiple prison sentences. He had also been poisoned in 2020, and survived earlier physical attacks. At the time of his death, he was being held in a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle. In contrast, Mr. Trump was ordered to pay a fine, which was reduced and which he has appealed.

“A bond of the size set by the Democrat Club-controlled Judge, in Corrupt, Racist Letitia James’ unlawful Witch Hunt, is unConstitutional, un-American, unprecedented, and practically impossible for ANY Company, including one as successful as mine. The Bonding Companies have never heard of such a bond, of this size, before, nor do they have the ability to post such a bond, even if they wanted to. The statute used to attack me has never been used for such a purpose before.” — in posts on Truth Social in March

False. A New York State Supreme Court judge ruled in February that Mr. Trump must pay $355 million, in addition to interest — or about $454 million — in his civil fraud case. Mr. Trump initially had trouble securing a bond and argued, wrongly, that both the bond amount and Ms. James’s use of the New York state law were unprecedented.

As PolitiFact has reported, some companies have posted bonds as large as $1 billion. The state statute Mr. Trump cited was enacted in 1956, and has been used by New York attorneys general in lawsuits and actions against the oil giant Exxon Mobil, the tobacco company Juul, and two other entities belonging to Mr. Trump: his family charity, the Trump Foundation, and his for-profit Trump University.

“I got indicted more than Al Capone.” — in a rally in Ohio in March

False. Mr. Trump has been indicted four times. Mr. Capone, the famous gangster, was indicted at least six times, according to A. Brad Schwartz, a historian who has written a biography of him .

“Well, nobody else has been over the years, because, you know, Hillary took a lot and Bill took a lot. Bill took them out in his socks, they call it the socks case, which he won with a very tough judge, which he won. Bush took them. Everybody. Reagan took them out. Everybody took them out. It only became a big subject when I took things out.” — in the Fox News town hall

False. The examples Mr. Trump cites as comparable to the federal criminal case in which he is accused of mishandling classified documents, obstructing justice and making false statements to officials in fact have little in common with it.

Prosecutors say Mr. Trump took hundreds of classified documents from the White House at the end of his term, ignored a subpoena to return them to the National Archives and Records Administration, stored them in locations accessible to resort employees and shared military secrets with visitors to his properties.

Hillary Clinton set up a private email server during her time as secretary of state. While it did store emails that contained classified information, several official inquiries have concluded that Mrs. Clinton did not systematically or deliberately mishandle classified material.

Former President Bill Clinton’s case is even less relevant. A conservative legal group sued the National Archives for access to audiotapes of interviews between Mr. Clinton and the author and historian Taylor Branch . Mr. Branch has said that Mr. Clinton stored the recordings in his sock drawer. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2012 , reasoning that the National Archives did not have the tapes in its possession and had no obligation or authority to seize them.

And there is no evidence that any presidents before Mr. Trump took classified documents with them upon leaving office, despite Mr. Trump’s repeated insistence that there was a precedent. The National Archives has said that it “assumed physical and legal custody of the presidential records from the administrations of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, when those presidents left office.”

“Reports that indicate or imply that those presidential records were in the possession of the former presidents or their representatives, after they left office, or that the records were housed in substandard conditions, are false and misleading,” the agency has said.

“The special counsel’s report tries to let Biden off by claiming that he is too mentally incompetent to convict at a trial.” — in a rally in South Carolina in February

This is misleading. Mr. Trump was referring to the report released by Robert K. Hur , the special counsel who investigated Mr. Biden’s handling of classified material. Mr. Hur described Mr. Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” who had “diminished faculties and faulty memory.” He did not declare Mr. Biden mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Mr. Hur wrote that while he believed Mr. Biden knew he was not allowed to keep classified notebooks, there was not sufficient evidence “to prove his willfulness beyond a reasonable doubt.” He added that Mr. Biden’s “diminished faculties in advancing age and his sympathetic demeanor” would make it difficult to persuade a jury to convict him.

“Judge Juan Merchan is totally compromised, and should be removed from this TRUMP Non-Case immediately. His Daughter, Loren, is a Rabid Trump Hater, who has admitted to having conversations with her father about me, and yet he gagged me.” — in a Truth Social post in March

This is exaggerated. Loren Merchan, the daughter of the judge presiding over the hush money case, served as the president of a digital campaign strategy agency that has done work for many prominent Democrats, including Mr. Biden’s 2020 campaign.

The “conversations” Mr. Trump mentioned refer to an anecdote from a podcast interview Ms. Merchan did in 2019 about campaign strategy. In the episode, Ms. Merchan recounted that her father had said in recent conversations: “I hate that politicians use Twitter. It’s so unprofessional.” She said she had argued that there are improper uses of social media, like posts by Mr. Trump sharing “anything that he thinks,” but that social media allows candidates to bypass traditional media.

Experts in judicial ethics have said Ms. Merchan’s work is not sufficient grounds for recusal. When Mr. Trump’s legal team sought his recusal based on his daughter, Justice Merchan sought counsel from the New York State Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics, which said it did not see any conflict of interest .

“This judge, he levels a fine for $355 million on a loan that’s a fraction of that size because he’s a corrupt Democrat clubhouse judge. He wouldn’t allow a jury. There was no jury.” — at a rally in Georgia in March

False. Mr. Trump’s civil fraud trial did not go to a jury, but not because Justice Arthur F. Engoron, the judge presiding over the case, refused one. There was no jury because it was brought by Ms. James under a New York state law that provides the attorney general with broad authority to investigate corporate fraud and requires adjudication at what is known as a bench trial, which is conducted by a judge alone.

Justice Engoron addressed the unusual setting at the beginning of the trial in October : “You have probably noticed or already read that this case has no jury. Neither side asked for one and, in any event, the remedies sought are all equitable in nature, mandating that the trial be a bench trial, one that a judge alone decides. I promise to do my best, despite my lame attempts at humor.”

“Engoron’s fraudulent valuation of Mar-a-Lago for $18,000,000, when it is worth 50 to 100 times that amount, is another piece of the Election Interference HOAX.” — in a post on Truth Social in March

This is misleading. Justice Engoron did not himself value Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s Florida club and residence, at $18 million.

“From 2011-2021, the Palm Beach County assessor appraised the market value of Mar-a-Lago at between $18 million and $27.6 million,” Justice Engoron wrote in his September ruling against Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump, for his part, valued the property at $426 million to $612 million, an overvaluation that Justice Engoron said was at least 2,300 percent of the assessor’s appraisal.

(Mar-a-Lago has a current market value of $37 million, according to the Palm Beach County appraiser. )

Linda Qiu is a reporter who specializes in fact-checking statements made by politicians and public figures. She has been reporting and fact-checking public figures for nearly a decade. More about Linda Qiu

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