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Lisa Garza

Professor Powers

English 1301

09 March 2022

Essay #2

Social media is a platform with websites and applications that allows people to share

content or their lives. Social media has been a huge part of most people's everyday lives. It

started in 1987 which is around 45 years ago, it became a place where people would

communicate with friends and family as well as for entertainment. We now have social media

apps like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and many more. People use this mostly for

communication or to see what their friends are up to. All of these social media apps have a lot of

common feature but what makes them all distinctly different is the different demographics to

each app. Facebook usually attracts older people, Instagram attracts teenagers and young adults

,and Tiktok is more of a universal app made for everyone.

Facebook has been around for 18 years or since 2004. Since facebook was made 18 years

ago it became something for that generation, due to that a lot of older people now use the app

and know how to navigate it. Facebook is an app meant to share photos with your friends and

family. Facebook is very easy to navigate which is why older people tend to like it and not

switch to other apps. People from all age groups have Facebook but usually only the older

demographic are the ones that post frequently. For example, I don't use Facebook but I go on it to

look at what my parents or family posts. I am sure that it is the same for other people as well

because I don't really see my friends or people my age post on Facebook. Moreover, Facebook is

one of the first social media apps after Myspace so with that being said it is a bit older than any
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other social media app right now. Although it is older there are updates that are on the app to

keep it up to date with any other apps.

Instagram on the other hand was invented in 2010 which is about 12 years ago. Since

Instagram was made only a few years ago it became something for my generation. Instagrams

demographic is more of teens and young adults, with that being said there is usually no older

adults that use the app or know how to navigate it. People use Instagram to share their lives or

show aesthetically pleasing photos to the world. Instagram is an app a lot of models and famous

people use to share their everyday lives and people love it. Instagram used to be an app that was

just meant to share photos with your friends but it soon became an easy place for people to

become famous with their exciting lives.

Tiktok is completely different from Facebook and instagram. It was invented in 2016

which was about 6 years ago so it is pretty fresh. Tiktoks demographic is universal. On Tiktok

you see people from all age groups whether that is a 5 year old to a 85 year old. Tiktok is a free

spirited app where people post things that they are doing in their lives, problems they are facing

in their lives or just dancing and singing. Tiktok is a great way to become exposed. It is a very

easy app to go viral on and even become famous. On TikTok there is what is called a “for you

page” and based on what you like that's what you will mostly see on your feed. So, if you like a

lot of videos about cooking , your page will have many videos on cooking, and food in general.

Although Tiktok is a recently made app it is one of the most used apps in the United States today.

In the past year Tiktok has gotten over 2 billion downloads globally.

While Facebook and Instagram are pretty similar in that you post photos, Tiktok is the

complete opposite in that you post short clips up to 2 minutes long. The difference between all

three is mainly the demographic of all of them. Although they are all social media apps they all
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have a unique difference to them. A difference in Facebook is the fact that it allows you to post

images, videos, and texts while instagram only allows you to post an image with a caption. With

that being said there is more freedom on Facebook than their is on Instagram. Since Tik Tok is so

different it is easy to understand how different they are from one another. Tiktok is just videos

while Instagram and Facebook is a mix of both. One similarity across all platforms is that the

people who become famous on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook get verified, so a check mark

appears next to their username that shows their followers and other people on the apps that it is

their official and only account.

In conclusion, Social media has been a huge part of people's everyday lives ,apps like

Facebook, Instagram, and tiktok are the most used apps today. It has been a place for

communication for most people. Although they are all distinctly different in that they are

completely different apps what makes them ultimately different is their demographics. Facebook

is navigated more for adults, Instagram for teens ,and Tiktok is universal for everyone. In this

essay I got into depth of what each app is used for and insight on their demographics. What all

these three communities do for this genre is support that there is a difference behind it just being

different social media apps. Overall the point of this essay is to help the audience understand that

there is a bigger difference behind the surface of each of these apps.

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Work Cited

D'Souza, Deborah. “What Is TikTok?” Investopedia, Investopedia, 15 Nov. 2021,

https://www.investopedia.com/what-is-tiktok-4588933#:~:text=The%20name%20TikTok

%20is%20meant,million%20account%20list%20to%20TikTok.

“The Evolution of Social Media: How Did It Begin and Where Could It Go next?” Maryville

Online, 3 Mar. 2021,

https://online.maryville.edu/blog/evolution-social-media/#:~:text=In%201987%2C%20th

e%20direct%20precursor,social%20media%20platform%20was%20launched.

“Instagram.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Mar. 2022,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram#:~:text=Originally%20launched%20for%20iOS

%20in,billion%20as%20of%20June%202018.

“Most Popular Apps (2022).” Business of Apps, 11 Jan. 2022,

https://www.businessofapps.com/data/most-popular-apps/.