Social Networks: How our habits have changed since their arrival

Social Networks have completely revolutionized the society of our days, distorting the way people interact with each other. With Social Networks, our way of appearing, presenting ourselves and knowing others has also changed.

This has led today's society to spend a lot of time online, while also changing the way brands reach their customers.

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Let's see together what Social Networks are and the changes they have brought to today's society.

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WHAT ARE SOCIAL NETWORKS

Social Networks are online services, usable simply thanks to an internet connection, which offers the possibility to share photos, videos and audios with other people online.

For the uninitiated it will surely sound strange: how can we share thoughts, opinions and ideas without even being in front of who's concerned? Social Networks are web platforms in which people (called users) meet to share their ideas, passions and hobbies with everyone else. Everyone has a common need: TO COMMUNICATE.

Towards the end of the Nineties, there was a strong need to communicate immediately and directly; the telephone and the mass media (television, newspapers and radio) partially compensated for this need, but people needed something that would allow them to get in touch not only with known people, but also with people less known or even never met. What differentiates Mass Media from Social Networks is the fact that the former does not allow any type of interaction between them, the public is a passive spectator, while in Social Networks, the user is the real main character of Communication.

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Social Networks were born in the late nineties and became popular during the following century, allowing you to:  

· Create an appropriate user profile;

· Organize a list of people/friends to stay in touch with;

· They allow you to create a personal flow of updates and also access that of others.

It is necessary to specify that the possibility of accessing the flow of updates created by users depends both on the Social Network, and on the privacy options that a user deliberately or not decides to use.

In addition, it is important to point out that there are different types of Social Networks, such as: Social Media, Weblogs, Content Community, Virtual Social Words and Virtual Games World; each with different features than the others.

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND SOCIAL COMPARISON

 As anticipated, Social Networks provide users with the opportunity to be the real main character of communication themselves. The videos and images therefore allow to promote social comparison with the users of the platform, who will show their appreciation with: 

·       Likes;

·       Comments;

·       Shares.

What drives users to publish a personal photo on Social Networks, is the desire to compare with other people combined with the positive perception of their image.

The signs of appreciation from friends, will provide a state of psychophysical well-being that will lead to post new content.

This creates a loop that will lead to the continuous use of Social Network, and this is precisely the success of the latter.

Until recently, it was thought that the lack of verbal cues in online communication made it less informative. Today we can see that images and emojis provide a very similar function to the verbal cues present in verbal communication, filling the gap.

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SOCIAL NETWORKS REDUCE DISTANCES 

Social Networks have also brought benefits in psychosocial terms, as their use is motivated by the needs they can satisfy.

There are situations in which Social Networks help to compensate, think for example: 

·   to long-distance relationships;

·   to people who move for long periods for work purposes;

·   to people bedridden for health reasons.

These people can keep their contacts unaltered and be able to update those who are far away on what they are doing thanks to Social Networks. The ability to view what a person is doing thanks to a photo, video or even a video call, allows you to reduce the perception of distance.

All these situations allow us to shorten the social distance with distant people and allow us to increase our psychophysical well-being. Think about the situation we all experienced in 2020, physical contacts have been drastically eliminated with the advent of the Covid-19 Pandemic and we have been forced to stay at home for a long period of time. Social Networks have played a vital role in feeling less alone and reducing the negative effects of isolation.

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND CORPORATE COMMUNICATION

Social Networks have changed our everyday habits but not only, even at work. If brands and companies before needed to work internally to achieve external results, today it is necessary to work externally to achieve the desired results.

Social Networks are a great way to promote your business and grow your clientele. Every Social Network is different and you will need to adapt to each platform: you can choose whether to land on all by diversifying the content for each Social, or focus on a couple of them. Here are some examples of platforms that will help you grow your image and increase your customer base:

· Instagram (photos and videos);

· Facebook (photos, videos and text);

· TikTok (videos);

· Youtube (videos);

· Waveful (photos, videos and audios).

In addition, the changes in corporate communication have led to the birth of new professions, essential for success on Social Networks, such as Social Media Manager, Web Content Manager and Community Manager.

Communication is a fundamental aspect of our life that has been able to evolve over time, up to the creation of web portals in which people/users are the protagonists of the communication itself.

In short, if you have read so far in the article means that you are really interested in starting your Social journey, but, how to start? We can not tell you which Social Network best suits you, but we can certainly recommend Waveful, regardless of your interests or passions: on Waveful you will find communities (called Tsunamis) that are right for you, together with people with interests and passions common to yours.

If, on the other hand, you need some advices on how to start, and on which Social Network to land for your first Social experience, you can send us an email to contact@waveful.app, we will be able to direct you in the correct way on the platform that best suits you!