The Facebook? The Meta?
Whatever you call it,
social media is here to stay
By Marcy Shortuse
Stock Images
While owning a second home to go to
when the winter winds start to kick up
in the northern and western states is
a beautiful thing, one of the biggest drawbacks
to leaving home is missing your family. The
everyday moments that mean so much and
make up such a big part of the fabric of our
lives can be lost if you’re not there to take part.
In February of 2004, though, a new phrase –
“social media” – began to be known worldwide
and it changed the way we communicate in a
very drastic way.
The Facebook, as it was fi rst known, was
created by fi ve roommates at Harvard - Mark
Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew
McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.
The initial idea was created by Zuckerberg,
who was trying to fi gure out a way to fi nd out
more about a girl he was interested in dating
… just another major breakthrough in mankind
spurred on by the pursuit of love.
Prior to Facebook there was Myspace, which
followed a similar platform to Facebook but
was more primitive, less user friendly and used
primarily by people 12 to 30 years old. It never
took off in quite the same way Facebook did
for those reasons, and eventually became
obsolete, but even before Myspace there was
a platform called Six Degrees. Created in 1997,
it was a revolutionary way to allow people to
connect with friends and meet people with
similar interests. It also incorporated music into
the mix and made it easy to fi nd friends with
similar musical tastes by featuring a “favorite
music” category on each user’s homepage.
In the last 10 years an interesting trend
started: Facebook slowly started to evolve into
82 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE • January/February • 2022
a forum for older people, and younger people
started to gravitate toward other forms of social
media like Instagram and Snapchat. More and
more people over the age of 65 went from
grudgingly starting a Facebook account to see
those shots of their family’s events to seeing
how easy it is to navigate the program. There is
even a demographic for those in their late 80s
and 90s who use Facebook.
In November of 2021 Zuckerberg announced
he was launching a new format for Facebook
called Meta, with the explanation that it’s a
Greek word that symbolizes “There’s always
more to build.” He will be incorporating
Facebook and all other apps that have been
purchased through the platform, including
Instagram, WhatsApp, digital wallet Novi, videocalling
device Portal and a virtual reality system
called Oculus.
As of the writing of this article, we aren’t sure
if this change will include renovations to any of
the sites, so we will just assume at this point that
things will be “business as usual” for a while.
Even if you’ve been on Facebook for years,
there are still probably a lot of tricks you don’t
know yet.
One of the fi rst decisions you need to make
is whether you want your posts to be public,
friends only and friends of friends or visible
to just a select few. While you may not have a
second thought about posting a random meme
(pronounced “meem,” a photo with words
that are funny or philosophical) to the general
public, you might want to keep pictures of your
family members within the circle of those you
know. Sometimes if you post several things
as public, Facebook will default your setting