@brandonluc01
In Deanna Zandt’s article “Sharing for the Rest of Us” she briefly discusses the timeline of the development of social media websites such as facebook and myspace. She discusses the important qualities that these developing social sites have that revolutionized the way information is shared among internet users.
In the 90’s using the internet was a complicated task that was utilized mainly for advertisements (Share for the Rest of Us Zandt). As the internet developed and became easier to access and use, with the development of other technologies, social sites such as forums had come to light. Blog/forum sites were very popular during the WTO seattle protests of 1999 because activists could share information about the protest status (Share for the Rest of Us Zandt). Later in the early 2000’s websites like myspace and friendster were released and greatly simplified internet users ability to share videos, photos, and documents withholding information about virtually anything.
Blogging websites and social websites have many qualities that bring people together. They can give direct lines of communication between users that are miles apart and they can present information which can be seen by thousands of others and they can choose to share their own opinion about the information. A movement currently happening on social media sites is the sharing of the profile avatars containing a red box with an equal sign, symbolizing equality among between heterosexuals and homosexuals. More and more facebook users see this shared avatar everyday and are joining the movement by making the red box their avatar as well in the hopes of sharing information about the gay rights movement.