In the 21st century, social media has become one of the most popular ways of communication all around the world. People from any corner of the world can quickly speak and share moments with their friends and family members using the most popular social media platforms. Initially, there were only 2 to 3 social media platforms available for the people. But as days go on, the number has started increasing continuously. Standing at today’s position, there are more than 30 popular social media platforms available in the world of the internet. The popularity has spread so widely that people have created a new career opportunity known as a social media influencer. This article will discuss the top 5 most popular social media platforms in 2020-2021.
Based on the popularity to the users, here are the top 5 most popular social media platforms:
Table of Contents
YouTube – one of the most popular social media apps
Since last year, YouTube has gained popularity and has become the most popular social media platform globally. Everyone is aware of the year 2020. The entire world went under complete lockdown due to the Coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak. And that was the key for YouTube to become so popular. People couldn’t go outside for months due to the pandemic situation and lockdown. Hence, all of them started watching more YouTube videos during pass time. On the other side, so many people also started making videos. They learned the basic YouTube ad specs, dimensions, and aspect ratios required for making the best quality content. Creators then paired these technical skills with unique video ideas and strategic cross promotions and started to grow their channels and make a living from home. And that’s how this social media platform has gained its popularity to reach the top spot.
YouTube is an entirely different world filled with an endless number of videos where you can like, dislike, share, and comment on to express their views. However, you should be aware of when youtube can get a little harsh if you try and pick fights with every comment you feel is negative.
For over a decade, Facebook has changed the definition of social media. Nowadays, almost every person in this world has his or her own Facebook account. Facebook is where the game changed for the internet, forever. While the internet earlier was used, majorly by the First World citizens, it was basically for official purposes and didn’t have much to do with their personal lives. But ever since Facebook came, everything sped up. Advertising, Marketing, Trolling, everything started on this one platform. And even today, when people claim that Facebook is losing its popularity, it gets roughly 7000 people registered every 15 minutes. It is even popular in China, where the government bans it.
The most prominent social networking brand is now heading towards building an operating system for smartphones to compete with Google’s Android & iOS. However, there is a controversy regarding this matter, but Facebook is sticking to it for the long run.
Instagram – one of the most popular social media apps
Another most popular social media platform and a famous brand of Facebook is Instagram. In the last 5 to 6 years, Instagram has rapidly gained popularity in the world of social networking. The beginning of this trendy platform was not much close to how its present has turned out to be. Instagram started as a place to express yourself through photos and videos, and frankly, when it began a decade back, our phones weren’t able to record or capture moments.
Even if you did, access to the internet was also pretty limited, resulting in turning Instagram into a community of people who wanted to share their exciting captures with everyone they know. Hashtags made you connect to people from around the world, and while you can still do all that and more, today, Instagram has become more of a mass medium. While not everyone is on Instagram and has much lesser people than Facebook, Instagram hosts an insane amount of videos and photos regularly.
The most important fact of this social media platform is that you will find out all the original profiles of famous persons here on Twitter. The small bluebird (the logo) has made a massive change in the social networking world. The tweeting and retweeting trends have spread the entire community just like a virus in the last ten years. It should officially be renamed as “The Source of News” for teenagers and youngsters. It hosts a crazy large number of people and the most celebrities who would rather be on Twitter than divert to Facebook or Instagram.
The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, already tried to buy Twitter a couple of times. But unfortunately, Twitter didn’t sell out to its biggest competitor because it knew the potential its 180-characters world limit had. As celebrities started to join in, Twitter became a media favorite and a media of its own.
Tiktok
The shot video app has inspired the youth massively in the last two years. You will find a Tiktoker in every third family throughout the world. It is one of the only platforms that people are either entirely in love with or can’t stand the sight of. A video-sharing platform to express one’s talent in any way possible gave in the option of lip-syncing, which had already been tried in the market before, but no one expanded as Tik Tok did.
Originating from Bejing, Tik Tok garnered many youngsters who were really about to be hooked to the app. It recently even got banned because the Indian Courts felt like the app was too addictive. And youngsters, especially students, are getting distracted from their studies.
So these are the top 5 most popular social media platforms till now. But there are some other social networking sites or apps that are almost equally popular to these.
You will find millions of users on Snapchat. It is much like Tik Tok, and it finds its perfect audience in the people in their twenties. A social media where you see things that are not just posted on that specific platform, but on the whole internet. You will find it on Pinterest. Apart from them, LinkedIn, Reddit, Myspace, Telegram, Tumblr, and many more. You will also find many dating apps available in the app store. You can also consider them as social media.
