NORFOLK, Va. — Today, social media is so much more than it once was.
It controls the way we interact, shop, laugh, and flaunt.
More than a decade of scrolling and clicking has brought us to a place of constant connection along with some unhealthy side effects.
We’ve reached a point where new apps like BeReal are hoping to shift the status quo away from artificial filters and unrealistic representation with an experience focused more on authenticity.
But social media wasn’t always such a cultural force.
Video from a 2005 Stanford University lecture shows Mark Zuckerberg talking about his new online directory for students at Harvard University. The Facebook, as it was called at the time, would go from a Harvard-only directory to a worldwide phenomenon that would redefine the way we live.
Archive video from 2007 shows many employers were forced to ban the platforms at work because of how big of a distraction they were.
But that wouldn’t last long.
Once we started getting the apps on our phones, social media became a necessity in the workplace for industries like real estate, marketing and news.
But it was the new generation of users, born after the creation itself, that exposed how flawed social media is.
It’s gone from an exciting way to connect to an unhealthy obsession, and that has many people looking for ways to re-center and find balance.
