Social media.  The mind immediately thinks of Facebook, Instagram and so on.  But what was the original social media, or medium?  You’re listening to it. Radio has always been the connector between the community and the listener with the radio personality guiding the conversation.   Radio was the first social network 100 years ago, sharing information, telling stories and building communities over the airwaves.    Social media today refers to applications that enable users to create and share content or participate in social networking.   Social media (medium?) with the most users?  Facebook, with over 3 billion monthly active users.  TikTok is second and Instagram is third.  Then comes LinkedIn, followed by Snapchat, followed by Reddit, then Pinterest and then X.   It appears TikTok has seen the biggest user growth in the past four years but a study says that growth is going to slow down to where Instagram will be the fastest growing social media platform by the end of this decade.  Instagram’s growth will be just slightly greater than Facebook, 17.8% versus 17.1%.  Snapchat’s growth by 2029 is predicted to be 15%.  LinkedIn and TikTok 12%.  X, Pinterest and Reddit 10, 9, and 8% respectively. Facebook is still the Big Gun and it looks like it will remain so.  I have a Facebook account that I use sporadically.  I have Instagram and X accounts but don’t ask the last time I was on them.  I mostly use the original social media that you’re listening to. 

That’s Coffeetalk.  I’m Vic Dubois.