World Social Media Day and its significance

New Delhi: Social media has revolutionised the world over time in the sense that it has connected people from across the globe. It is very hard to find someone with no social media presence today. Due to its immense popularity, the whole world celebrates 'World Social Media Day' on June 30 every year since 2010. The day was initiated by ‘Mashable’ - an international digital media platform to recognise the impact that social media has on communication around the world.

Social media has power beyond our reach, anything can go viral within a few seconds. People across the world take it to social media to express their emotions or feelings about anything and everything.

We all know how amusing it is to share memes, reels with our friends. There is nothing wrong if we say that social media is the smart pigeon of the 21st century. We have all heard stories from our parents and grandparents about radios and other traditional forms of media. In the past, people have used radio for their entertainment, then came television and now we have smartphones which have a range of social media platforms. Our entertainment is literally in our pocket.

The first social media platform was founded by Andrew Weinreich named Sixdegrees. It was launched in 1997. The website allowed users to list their family members and their friends and had various interesting features like bulletin boards, schools affiliations, and profiles. India also has its own social media platforms like Mitron, Koo, Sharechat etc.

Social Media has also become a great source of earning, there are several ‘content creators’ who have made their whole careers with their social media presence. It helps people with building relationships and connecting with customers to promote and advertise brands.

Social Media Day is celebrated across the world to highlight the  importance of social media platforms and how they have impacted our day to day lives. Social media platforms help people to understand and communicate in an enhanced way. One can connect with a person sitting thousands of miles away on a messaging service app.

CitySpidey talked to Jayant Kandoi, a six-time cancer survivor and now a social media influencer, who has 11k followers, he said, “Social media is a great platform to explain, understand and connect. If your subject and content is good, no one can stop you from reaching people. You just have to know how to choose right and wrong.”

CitySpidey also talked with Sandy Seir, a trans model and a social media influencer, “Social media helps our community to spread awareness. I’ve gotten a lot from social media and nowadays, it is a very powerful tool to spread awareness and share your feelings or emotions.”