Article

Social Media

Overview

Social media refers to online platforms and applications that enable users to create, share and interact with content and each other. While social networking sites emerged in the 2000s, the 2010s were the decade when mobile apps, visual-first formats and algorithmic recommendation became central to everyday social life.

See also: early online communities in the 1990s and the broader 2010s cultural context.

A Note on the 2000s

Social networks and user‑generated platforms established many of the affordances we now expect from social media. See platform summaries: MySpace, YouTube, iTunes and device pages (iPod, iPhone).

Key Platforms (2010s focus)

  • Facebook: Continued to grow into a global communications platform and acquired Instagram (2012) and WhatsApp (2014).
  • Twitter: Remained central to real-time news, political discourse and celebrity communications.
  • Instagram (2010): Photo-first feed and later Stories (2016) shaped visual culture, beauty and fashion trends.
  • Snapchat (2011): Introduced ephemeral messaging and face-filter AR that influenced selfie culture.
  • Vine (2013–2017): Popularised the short looping video; its format prefigured later short-form platforms.
  • TikTok / Douyin (launched 2016/2017 internationally): Short-form vertical video that rose dramatically in popularity from the late 2010s and became a dominant cultural platform in the early 2020s. TikTok popularised viral music tracks, short-form humour and aesthetics, accelerated trend cycles, and shifted how younger audiences discover culture.

Formats and Features that Defined the Decade

  • Stories/ephemeral content: Created urgency and a looser, more candid style of sharing.
  • Short-form vertical video: Reoriented content for mobile consumption and rapid viral spread.
  • Filters, AR and beauty effects: Changed visual standards and enabled playful or cosmetic transformations in real-time.
  • Algorithmic recommendation: Curated feeds and push-discovery changed how trends formed and who gained visibility.

Cultural & Social Effects

  • Influencers & creator economies: Social platforms enabled new careers; influencer marketing became an industry.

    • Example: Sophie Silva — a contemporary creator and actress who grew a multi‑platform audience (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube) and uses Linktree/Amazon storefronts for commerce and discovery.

  • Creator economy & monetisation: From 2020 onward platforms added more direct monetisation tools — subscriptions, tipping, short-form ad revenue and creator funds — blurring the line between hobby and profession and increasing parasocial intensity. This shift generated debates about labour rights, platform responsibility and the financialisation of attention.

  • Meme-driven music breakthroughs: Artists such as Doja Cat have used homemade videos and meme culture (for example the viral "Mooo!" video and TikTok trends) to accelerate mainstream chart success, demonstrating how platform virality can translate into record‑sales and streaming dominance.

  • Activism & viral campaigning: Hashtag activism (e.g., #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter) illustrated social media's role in agenda-setting and awareness.

  • Politics & disinformation: Platforms became battlegrounds for political messaging, misinformation, and content moderation debates.

  • Content moderation & regulation: The 2020s brought intensified scrutiny from governments (data-privacy laws, algorithmic transparency demands, the EU's Digital Services Act) and new moderation challenges including rapid misinformation spread, deepfakes and AI-generated content. Platforms faced regional restrictions and legal pressures to explain recommendation systems.

  • Appearance culture: Image-centric apps contributed to appearance pressure and produced new beauty standards, but also hosted body‑positive communities and niche support networks.

Psychological Effects and Writing Tips

  • Social media affects mental health through comparison, feedback loops and notification-driven attention. Use platform-specific details (comments, likes, algorithmic suggestions) to show character experience.
  • Show the ambivalence: platforms can enable community and harm simultaneously.

See Also