Social Media Basics

Last semester I took a course on web development for information professionals. During that course, I learned a ton about how the internet works and way more HTML than I expected. However, I find myself still learning new things in this first week. It's surprising how much there is to learn about the internet, something we all use on a daily basis. For example, I wasn't entirely familiar with the differences between Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Sure, I'd heard the terms before and they were briefly touched on in that previous class, but now I feel like I have a much stronger understanding of what they actually mean.

Our current existence in Web 2.X makes a lot of sense as a concept. I'm 23 and I've basically grown up online like many other people my age. The internet has changed a lot since the mid-2000s, shifting from a place where information could simply be accessed to something way more focused on individual content production. When I was a kid, most people simply used the internet to play games or read about topics that interested them. Social media was in its infancy, primarily focused on connecting people who had lost touch offline or allowing for a relatively small personal space that really only existed for pre-existing friends to view. However, now almost every social media user feels a push to create content and gain attention online that previously would have been near impossible. People are almost expected to become bloggers, youtubers, or other active participants in social media from a very young age. This has created all sorts of problems, but also allowed artists of all kinds to amass significant followings and fund their careers. It would be impossible without the change from Web 1.0, which turned the internet into something much more focused on user-generated content and interactivity.

The majority of entertainment that I consume these days is a direct product of this Web 2.X format. I watch a lot of (perhaps too many) Youtube videos and read social media posts by many different users. I've been involved in online fandom for years, reading fanfiction and looking at fanart published on open sharing sites like Archive of Our Own and Tumblr (rip). I still read conventionally published books and watch mainstream movies, but far less frequently than purely online content. I even write my own fanfiction sometimes and post on Twitter regularly. I can see why this format really took off; it allows anyone to gain fame and provides an opportunity for creatives to share their work without many limits.

While I've gained a much greater understanding of Web 2.X, I'm still not sure what Web 3.0 means. Collaboration between people and machines? What would that look like? Is it referring to things like the Youtube algorithm, which takes user watch history and produces new results? I've always been wary of things like that because I fundamentally don't trust robots and don't like that they know what I've watched. That information is private and not for mechanical eyes. I will be the first against the wall in the robot uprising and I accept my fate.