I'll raise you one Twitter to your Facebook...

If you guessed I'm talking about social media, you're right. How has social media not impacted our culture? It is used for so many things now days, advertising, friendship, business, feedback. You name it social media is probably be utilized for that reason.

If we were to follow the social media timeline it may look something like this:

Probably the main ones we have heard of are Friendster which was bought out by MySpace. Many of us have heard of SecondLife but it's lifespan is quickly dying. While Facebook was created in 2003 it didn't become huge until about 2006. Flickr is a very narrow audience who either takes or enjoys photos. We cannot forget about YouTube now, where anyone can be a star. And finally, Twitter was launched with a 140 character limit in 2006. Not listed on this map we must not forget about Google+ and wonder where it's success lies.

After the birth and death of several of these social media sites there are a few still standing. MySpace used to be the place to be, now it is mainly a place for bands. Surprisingly, I never even knew what SecondLife was until I came to Ball State University and by then, what was the purpose of it? As I stated above, Flickr was all based on photos and a photo audience. In 2004 it was not as easy to snap a picture and upload it to the web. Not as many things were photo compatible. Flickr still remains and is prominent in some areas of the country more than the other.

With YouTube, you can be the star. Literally, you can do something that your friends laugh at and become a worldwide viral video. Or maybe dance down the isle at your wedding? Yup, that's on YouTube too. If you can think it, it's probably there. Twitter is brilliant. It can be used for so many different things. It has been used for revolution, news broadcasting, interacting with friends, sports, non-profit work, advertising, the list really is infinite.

Moving on to Facebook. Many of us have seen The Social Network and we know about the Winklevoss's, not only should we not base our perception of how Facebook was started from that movie but we should not base our thoughts of the Winklevoss's from it. There are several inaccuracies in that film about the situation. More importantly Facebook has been growing ever since its launch in 2003 and it truly was hard to get to 1 million friends without loosing a few. With recent changes and the introduction of Google+ it will be interesting to the where the future of the two is going.

After discovering the history of social media, how do you look at the evidence and not believe it impacts our world. Daily, there is impact from social media and because of it we are different than the generations before us. Not only because of our proficiency with technology but as a generation, we communicate better. Without social media, where do you think we would be?