Introduction
Social media has existed over the past 15 – 20 years with various apps created and some unfortunately shutting down the platform for good. In that time people had the imagination, and still due to this day, on watching iconic clips released and having the opportunity to create their own piece and release it on the respective social media app that they’re on. Over the years it has been fascinating to watch, especially with the number of memes that will forever be in our culture. The topic I will be looking at with the clips and memes on social media is how they are represented in the wider media because at times it can gain celebrity recognition. The items I will be creating are a podcast where I discuss with other memes and videos on social media and possibly TikTok being shut down in the US. I will also create a thumbnail for the video and possibly a poster supporting the podcast.
Having good ideas on what I want to do for my FMP, I want to know about different people's opinions on social media memes and videos and the purpose of social media in general. Doing something different from being in a podcast form, I want to have a discussion best suited for the topic chosen for my FMP as doing a fake article or dramatization of social media reenactments wouldn’t make sense for the purpose of my FMP in my opinion. A poster is best suited for promoting the podcast with photography for originality with thumbnails catching the audience's attention on why they want to watch the video.
Secondary Research Conducted
Most of the research conducted for my FMP is secondary research based. I looked at statistics, popularity and the history of social media apps that have come and go. I also took a look at the most liked post / videos on each platform and gave an opinion on them. What I was most surprised about was the most common social media app used which was WhatsApp which has 930 million monthly users. I thought that it would've been TikTok but also knew that a lot of people use WhatsApp on a regular basis as a way to communicate with friends, family and work colleagues.
Social media has existed for the last 15 to 20 years with a lot of historical moments. Social media apps that we usually use are YouTube, Facebook, X (Twitter) and Reddit were founded between 2004 and 2006 and they’re still active today. Each platform has a specific purpose, like YouTube for sharing videos, Facebook for sharing photos and Reddit for fanfare opinions and questions to ask. Then in the early 2010s, we saw the launches of Instagram, Snapchat and Twitch with better technology being introduced alongside new social media apps that were launched. In April 2014 Musical.ly was founded but was later dissolved to merge with TikTok which was founded in September 2016 and is now one of the world's most recognizable social media apps.
Because of how big these social media apps are with size and users, there has to be owners that are responsible enough to own the apps. Starting off with Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook. Facebook was founded whilst he was attending Harvard University. From Facebook he made billions of dollars and with the amount of money in the mid 2010s he bought the rights for Instagram and WhatsApp and merged the 3 into Meta. Facebook was one of the first social media apps that became recognised worldwide and is still active to this day with the same founder involved in Mark Zuckerberg.
Another owner of another social media platform is Elon Musk. He has 100% ownership of X (Twitter) that he acquired for $44 billion in 2022. He is best known for being the CEO of Tesla and Space X and is one of the richest men on the planet. He bought Twitter for “free speech” and changed the name to X for a fresh start on the platform. The combined net worth of Space X and Tesla is around $1.5 trillion.
Using social media can help start a career in the industry. The downside to it, however, is that only a handful of people can get into the industry. The 2 main platforms people can become famous from their creativity are YouTube and TikTok. It takes a lot of time and work to get to a position like this but even the amount of work you put in won’t always lead to success. Only a selected few are fortunate to get recognition from their efforts on social media but the fame could last for a long time or just a few weeks. Social media can also lead to cyber bullying and rise of mental health struggles from the pressure and abuse on there. This is why you shouldn’t spend too much time every day on social media and try and do other things that are more valuable to your mental state. But in my opinion, I believe that there is better to social media than bad with being yourself and showing off your creative side, alongside sharing memes and other videos that you like.
Alongside looking at the history of the topic I will make my projects on; I investigated more on what I’m going to make for my FMP. The main focus is on the podcast, which will only last for maximum of 10 minutes, where different topics of videos and meme cultures will be explored. For influence I investigated a few podcasts from different genres, with the most recognizable one being The Joe Rogan experience, hosted by Joe Rogan. The first episode was aired in December 2009 and is still going strong to this day. The podcast delves into a lot of different topics, like comedians, actors and athletes and an episode usually lasts for more than 2 hours (my podcasts definitely won't last for this long).
But apart from that there are many different podcasts that people can listen to depending on their interests. These stem from various topics, for example there's podcasts on sports, music, fashion, interviews, acting and pop culture that happened throughout the week or whenever it happened. Each podcast has a different duration with some lasting for 30 minutes or more than 2 hours long. If you have a short attention span, then it's recommended to listen to roughly a 30-minute podcast or listen to longer versions in different sittings. Some podcasts people can recognize well whilst others are not that known, but people can go for whatever they like and listen to them.
Primary Research Conducted
For primary research I thought that it was best for me to make a survey for people to answer questions relating to my FMP topic. Most of the questions require a response of full answers as people can vary with different opinions. I asked 8 questions, 1 of them requires multiple choice answers. Finding out the responses that I got back from the survey, some have common answers whilst having different answers for some questions as well. So far, I received 6 responses, and they all agree that they use YouTube and TikTok the most and most agreed that memes are represented on social media in a good way. The mixed responses that I got came from the memes that they like and the name of the podcast, and name for the FMP, which is called The Social Rewind. It was good to hear back different answers from people as I can hear back from different people's interests instead of hearing the same answers that wouldn’t benefit me that much. But what stood out to me for was the responses of people watching podcast and there aren’t many that do watch / listen to them. That’s what I’m going to really work on so that people can draw attention to it without losing concentration.
Conclusion
I believe that memes and videos on social media are represented in a lighthearted manner. Watching videos is good for educational purposes, to entertain and to distract yourselves from the outside world if you're facing problems yourself. Memes are very relatable to everyday scenarios describing how you feel at the moment even if it's just a funny still image but a lot of meaning to it. Whilst on social media people still need to be careful on staying safe online. This is because some videos discovered might be harmful and graphic for viewers to watch. Also, at times people take in information that isn't true which is harmful and that's what people should be really looking out when consuming information. But most of the time it’s. good place to share your thoughts and be entertained whilst using the apps responsively.
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