Social Media w/ Diana Morales

This relatively new invention has somehow seeped its way into our lives. Like any double-edged sword, it can help you and potentially harm you. Society is seemingly more and more hooked on these powerful platforms as time passes. Whether we are working, playing, chatting, or just gossiping, we spend endless hours scrolling through these so-called social sites. These digital domains have even managed to mold the language and give new meaning to words in the lexicon.  We’ll suss out social media on this week’s episode of FYI!

Special thanks to my lovely wife Diana for joining me on this week's show! Check out her Twitter and LinkedIn

So Meta
Inspiring stories of resilience: overcoming struggles, finding purpose, transforming lives

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Transcript

0:01

this relatively new invention has somehow seeped its way into our lives like any double-edged sword it can help you and potentially harm you Society is seemingly more and more hooked on these powerful platforms as time passes whether we are working playing chatting or just gossiping we spend endless hours scrolling through these so-called social sites these digital domains have even managed to mold the language and give new meanings to words in the Lexicon we'll suss out social media on this week's episode of f why I welcome to for your info English you got it[Applause][Music][Applause][Music][Applause] foreign[Applause] hello hello hello and welcome to a very special edition of FYI now you know I've had almost every family member on this show I talked my mom into being on the show I talked my dad into being on the show and finally ladies and gentlemen we are making history here I finally talked my wife into being on the show and she's gonna share with us today a lot of her expertise I think you say cono thimiento pericia or something like this expertise well ladies and gentlemen a nice warm FYI welcome for my wife Diana hello hello so welcome I I never thought I would talk you into being me neither here well some people like microphones cameras and like your daughter by the way I wonder where she gets that from and it's not that you're a shy person but you're normally not like hey everybody welcome to the show I consider myself pretty Psy I gotta say but then you're outgoing it is at times I guess I guess I know what you mean the microphone exactly what do I say I don't want to say the wrong thing exactly and really I mean you know what you're talking about and if you make a mistake in English don't worry about it so all right well tell us a little bit about yourself just in case my listeners the fyiers don't know about you okay so this is Diana I'm from Madrid I'm almost 40. Jesus Christ oh boy my husband's name is Alberto Alonso I don't know if you know him he rings a bell and he rings a bell I have a little daughter which is gonna be four in in two months Jesus Christ too shout out shout out to Lara we love you so much yes and as far as I know I've always loved the internet so that's why I'm here I guess you love the internet but you've also worked in it you were you were on the crest of the wave I would even say when before it was the internet and something social media so you were there at the right time working at the right places and doing the right things in fact we didn't even know that we were how do you say on the crest of the wave we didn't even know that right moment which is the coolest thing right you guys were just doing something new Innovative but you didn't know that you were really like starting a new Revolution exactly and tell us a little bit about how you got involved in this I mean I know you're a writer you had an award-winning blog tell us how you got involved in this digital world in the world of not just social media but internet well as I said I've always been in love with the internet thing because because as a creative person you are a creative person to creative creative person I've always loved writing and you know reading and that kind of thing so I was always writing on on papers in my house when I was living with my brothers my sisters my mama my dad I was a teenager almost so one day I remember my my older brother was like why do you don't you put all together in the same place like organized so you're writing because I think people maybe can like reading YouTube yeah yeah yes so I was like I was a little bit shy because I've always been inside but the internet gave me that option like you can share things without sharing your your face at that moment I'm talking about uh 50 yeah what year are we talking when you start when your brother said you need to have a blog or a website or someplace where you need to get it it was like 2000 Faith or something like 2005. so it was many many years ago and at that moment you can share whatever what I felt is you can share whatever you you you want to share without sharing your your identity your personal life or your identity yeah in fact I was called La Mala de la pelicula because I like that name I didn't want my name to be in any of my writing so right that was your avatar that was my first Vlog and and that was the first time I was in love with with the internet in general so then um the the social media didn't even exist at that moment and I was writing I was discovering another writers and it was like a little world that not everybody was involved in right at that moment you guys were influencers before the term existed you were doing new things yeah just interested in fun and that was a little community of writers and creative creative creative and tech savvy because you mix creativity with technology exactly exactly we were kind of making a little bit of bending ring Banting yeah Reinventing the communique where you communicate sure sure exactly and at the same time I was studying advertising because I always love um Brands and The Branding world and all of that so what I wanted to do is mix in both things mixing the storytelling thing with the branding thing and when the social media starts and that was a possibility because wait this is connecting all the dots exactly because before of that and before that before that branding was just TV it was print it was commercials on TV or radio and that was not a conversation between branding and the consumers right it was it was just a listen to our message exactly and it works yeah sure while I mean it works pretty good you can ask your mom and that all that you know my mom is the number one consumer shout out to my mom yeah the TV unit like if you guys guys watch madman which I recommend a lot they give you a lot of clues about the advertising models at the 60s and the 70s Show in the 50s and it was amazed right Edward Bernays is amazing genius but it was just messages for the consumer and the consumer just the the way they answer is buying stuff or not buying stuff but they couldn't participate in the conversation they could just be talked at exactly right but then with the social media what I felt was well what I felt on everybody else I think well we felt as I said you were like you can give a message to the consumers and the consumers they felt that we can just answer to the brands too right we feel about that when we feel consuming something if we like it if we don't like it I mean you might even be able to give the brand ideas oh we never thought of that exactly so so your creative team at the brand gets bigger and bigger because you're you're actually polling your audience your people exactly and it was pretty interesting because we we didn't even know what we were doing does anybody really know what they're doing it was everything very very new and and I started really soon I was really lucky I started working in in a social media Network which was 20 I don't know if some of the listeners I'm sure everybody knows 20 was bigger than Coca-Cola for a period bigger than than Facebook and and we're going to look at 20 a little bit later but yeah you worked there from when to when were you at 20 roughly I don't remember but it was like four or five years of my life uh when I started just working and right after my my studies was in the end so I was the the number 20 no 32 32nd employee oh wow um in that company and we were pretty young we were all of us we were like in our 20 something yeah it was like a little startup it was it was and our our boss was North America weekend which was my first time working with you like Oh no I got I got you people is that are you is this racism over here nobody was pretty interesting that guy was still being really smart selling Dental sure well just to take a little you know a little startup and turn it into the Spanish Facebook yeah as it was called yeah yeah well it was pretty bigger than than that do many many years in the end well Facebook is a bigger company uh much more employees much more resources investors yeah it means what it wins always but right right it was a nice competition for a while right right and it was it sounds like not just that the people using 20 enjoyed it and got it but also that same energy was happening at the company so it was really social now I feel like social media has turned us into anti-social creatures and we're going to talk about the dark side yeah I always like to talk about that stuff too but let's let's start then with the intro because I like to put vocabulary that I think everybody needs to know and then we're going to Define social media and then we're going to go through a timeline of some of the biggest ones and I want you to kind of help me describe everyone well the ones you're familiar with obviously okay so this relatively new invention obviously that part's easy has somehow the alguna Manera see water seeps into wood or a sponge into okay so it it has somehow seeped its way into our lives like a double-edged sword what it is a double edge sword and I said it can help you of course social media can help you get your message across and we're going to look at the positive stuff too and potentially harm you there's that double-edged sword then I said Society is seemingly more and more hooked every day on these powerful platforms as time passes then I said whether we're working playing chatting or just gossiping because let's admit it we all do some gossiping on on social media we spend endless hours scrolling and scroll is this yeah it's a very important word[Music] we're gonna talk about that later but that's the key the key there's the end yeah okay okay I don't want to get ahead of myself but pin that in English and I said we we spend endless hours scrolling through these so-called social sites these digital domains have managed to mold and consequito have managed to mold the language and give new meanings to words in the Lexus and I mean before when you said the word tweet you thought of a bird before when you said my wall you thought of the wall of your house before when you said I'm gonna post it I'm gonna put it in at the post office I'm Gonna Mail it so to tag somebody these words that have always been with us have gained new meanings and I think that's an interesting thing as a linguist as well and then I said we'll suss out social media yes explorer suss out so what is social media simply defined social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information ideas interests and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks am I missing anything I mean that's in a nutshell it is all right so when did this start let me test you here I didn't I didn't tell you I was going to test you what was the first social media site the first social media site as far as I know uh Mark Zuckerberg was based in the concept of the Six Degrees of Separation absolutely wow you know it well I have to read a lot it's called six degrees Yeah Yeah the first one was called six degrees that's right and that was in 1997. it's not too long ago it's recent I don't remember pretty good but I I it was something about an experiment how far are you from Morgan Freeman sure I think I remember it was Morgan Freeman in the states we say Kevin Bacon oh it was Kevin Bacon Kevin yeah whatever whatever I got you yeah it was Kevin Bacon exactly so six degrees yeah that was the first social media website six degrees it opened in 1997 and well as we know it shut down in 2001 but it wasn't as you said I don't remember it a lot of people don't remember it just because it was the first doesn't mean it had the success of the ones that followed well it has to be we I mean everything grows with the technology that support supports it right so that's what I wanted to get on because we're talking about the social media site six degrees but without the computer yeah the internet and as you just said the smartphone the device which is really you know brought it home that's everything now you have everything all the ingredients you need exactly so six degrees well it didn't work too much but we go we're gonna fast forward to December 2002.[Music] LinkedIn is born I know you I know you but I refuse to say it wrong we're LinkedIn yeah and Linkedin you can tell me a little bit about LinkedIn because I really don't know very much and I know you're more familiar with it is this the professional one how would you define this to somebody who doesn't know what I really think is something right now yeah it's like a nego a nego Serene oh and an ego stroke ego stroke yeah yeah come on it's turned into a Facebook of sorts and sometimes I have friends that they told me that they they can get hooked get hooked they're getting cooked with that uh oh my God on LinkedIn so to get hooked on get click on that uh social media social network yeah it's pretty weird sometimes I open my LinkedIn and what I see is everybody talking about themselves how cool they are how many degrees they have sure and and how many kids they save this summer oh my goodness okay so it's annoying it's annoying it it's kind of useful do people really let me ask you this do people really get jobs through there I have good I have gotten I've gotten jobs through Linkedin so okay so there is a professional aspect or was it is but but it's true that like every social network and you can express yourself and what you do usually is express yourself as good as you can right you don't present yourself in right now I'm like I had diarrhea this morning or well some people do so I've heard people say those those kind of posts they don't we don't talk about how bad was the day today at our jobs you know right right in general but I had no idea that LinkedIn was before Facebook and Friendster and Myspace so LinkedIn I didn't know neither I gotta say LinkedIn it was born December tooth because we're going in order here so six degrees LinkedIn but it makes sense because if you think about it it was like a useful tool yeah like I remember one called Monster jobs too like there was a lot that had to do with yeah the corporate world and and that kind of stuff sure so I guess it makes sense then I remember this one when I was living in New York City we go to March 2002 so that same year Friendster do you remember friends I remember Friendster I remember I had Friendster and Napster I was like everything's ER over here on the internet I remember Napster I don't remember friends I don't even think it came to Spain because you guys were too busy with 20. not yet not yet we're getting to nobody was big here in 2002 the forums forums yeah well still being still being still being something that everybody for like Reddit or something right but yeah but still having like a lot of activity sure sure I always do I know you you love the local forums in the towns useful and they're great to gossip exactly let's be honest so Friendster I remember that one that this is where I start to remember from my childhood Friendster I didn't really use it much but I thought it was cool because all of a sudden I was like Oh I thought I had two friends and I have a hundred yeah and it made me feel like okay so I guess that was the first thing where I was like wow I can be really in touch with a lot of people here with just one sin and they also collect like the feeling of your collection look at my collection of friends and remember it was the time that you wanna download every music ever oh yeah every movie like everybody wants to have everything sure and nobody was watching that movies or listening to them because it was impossible yeah isn't as much on watching as much and having as much friends yeah yeah yeah but everybody likes the collecting uh Philly like sure I don't know two two thousand hundred millions of friends right right and and no time to see any of them right so Friendster well that that didn't last too long well actually it did but I don't remember it lasting long it finally closed in June 2015. but again it wasn't as big as this next one Myspace oh yeah Myspace Myspace I think was that was a global one yeah that that in Spain that was really really like something cool what was the guy's name Jared the guy there was one guy who created he was the mark Amigo in my space I don't remember his name but I remember yeah that there was that so Friendster Myspace Myspace was from August 2000 is when it started August 2003 excuse me by July 2005 it reached 22 million users wow and it was growing at 2 million new users a month and remember you're talking about a year that the iPhone first iPhone wasn't even yeah it wasn't even out yet that's right everybody was doing it on their desktop or laptop exactly 22 well I think that's where everybody realized the potential everybody said what how many people oh um wow we're gonna collect like you just said we're gonna collect users we collect friends they collect users and your time and your data and your energy sure sure yeah um so two million that's what I think people started to see the potential and the guy you think you might recognize his name well you pronounce it differently Mark Zuckerberg yeah that's all right that's the Spanish Fruit sorry well Facebook went live in February 2004. February 2004 it went live in September 2009 it announced that it made money for the first time it turned a profit look at how long that took five years to turn a profit now they're making money hand over fist October 2012 Facebook reaches 1 billion active users meet me Jonas and English is a billion and I think that's where they saw the power again that wait not just Millions we can have billions of people march 2018 was not a good moment for Facebook this is when Facebook's image changed because everybody was like oh I love it Mark's cool he's one of us and then Cambridge analytica yeah election tampering fake news and I think now you tell me if I'm right here trust in Facebook and Instagram and Mark Zuckerberg's platforms which are three big ones zero well you're right I think it's zero but at the same time we're we're still using it every day like more than three hours yeah but Facebook I wouldn't say I would say but I don't I don't think about Facebook and you think about WhatsApp you think about Instagram sure this is huge everybody I know it's always using those platforms and it's we're still talking about Mark Zuckerberg and let me ask you has he ever had an original idea because uh the stories with Snapchat the other was hotter like every idea even from the twins the original idea uh for Facebook right you gotta do it he's a businessman he's not a tech genius and he did so maybe he's he's a genius in his own way we'll find out his story is still being told right now as we speak which is interesting June 2005 the following year the world's angriest website read it I love Reddit you have photo coaches is it a similar thing where you're like it's kind of like a foreign these guys are we say in Spain the fifas oh okay yeah we don't know the thing is we don't know them in the United States but everybody knows Reddit yeah Reddit is a news source a gossip everything can be really funny yeah I mean absolutely absolutely February 2005 YouTube is born and YouTube can't imagine that's where I watch my TV as you know I don't really watch TV in October 2006 YouTube was acquired by Google for 1.65 billion dollars that was a good thing yeah seriously yeah seriously that I mean good job Google buying YouTube because it was a great idea it worked really cheap and then now we're getting to one where you're gonna really help me the end of 2006 a few people get together on the granbya is that where it was no at the beginning beginning wasn't there but then we moved at the at Gambia no we move off Plaza de las Cortes and then we move at Gambia but that was like the end all right so the end of 2006 20 was founded and tell us a little bit about 20 what was the philosophy what how did it go from being just this little startup into this huge I mean huge when I say huge 15 million registered users I mean that's huge it was at that time and remember again the the iPhone wasn't launched at that time yeah 2007 was there it was 2007. yeah the following year so I think everybody was using in general their computers and their students especially because the internet was huge and and everybody was there on the computer when they come back home from studying or whatever right remember the messenger we were oh yeah MSN Messenger sure because we gonna still keep in touch with our friends right talk about what happened we're having all of them together not all of them but you can make like little groups of chatting yeah and you wouldn't have to spend money on a text message I remember that yeah it was like kind of cool so what I think was it was a really good idea about 20 was it at the beginning it was um you can just go through 20 through an invitation to 20 so gotcha you had to get an invite exactly so it was kind of exclusive okay and that makes it cooler I think sure sure of course so it was a for for uni how to say universities University students college kids it was for that people but then step by step it was I mean who who wants to follow the the university people like the youngest ones right they look up to them teenagers wanted and almost all young peoples from I think it was you gotta be 14 I think okay if I remember from 14 into 20 something it was a 20 people there all of them we were there and we I remember and it was one of the the highest the biggest thing I remember it was a at the at the Mundial the World Cup the World Cup in when Spain was uh having their La selection their winning streak so that I mean 20 was having at the same time the the highest rates of use so it went hand in hand a little bit too because everybody wants to wants to share their feelings their feelings pictures what they have what we had at that moment was a mix between messenger thing because you can chat with all your friends but uh the biggest thing was the the pictures thing for example Sundays were the biggest day because after weekend what people used to be make what we used to do was upload all the pictures because we remember we we still don't have the iPhones or right but we had that you have to come home upload them to the camera digital cameras or you would put the chip in the computer sure so what we did was upload all the pictures without any filters because remember at that time that was another thing there was a 20 generation pictures that we still have well I still have those pictures in my computer I'm sure if you think about it it's like if I think about my my nephew and niece that they are in their their teenagers as I was when I used 20 and I wasn't that in a year I was a little bit older but I mean right there was no filters we were kind of um genuine yeah what you see is what you get exactly let me see and now it's weird I meet people and I'm like oh so that's what you really look like yeah it's pretty crazy everything changed really fast yeah but then with the with the iPhones and now that everything all they did it was that missing piece that that missing link that just brought it all together because now you could take the picture put it up you know and comment in the same moment exactly and chatting at the same time sure and and then video came in to play and there were even games I remember at first like farm animals and things like this we had our own player which was not YouTube so we have our Revenue share deals with the content creators so they they upload their their music their stuff like now with twitch kind of sure you know sure but but 20 was earning money with with that that's incredible and to think that 20 was around the same time as Twitter they came out Twitter came out also in March 2006 in 2007 our little friend the hashtag oh yeah debuted and that was huge because you could search by categories and things became a lot more searchable oh it is like a before and after absolutely a before and after a turning point October 2008 Spotify goes live changes the downloading music and having it on huge thing this was a huge thing and then they added podcasts which is another thing that's used and shared on social media yeah such such as this podcast March 2010 Pinterest goes live I've got to be honest I know nothing about Pinterest what can you tell me about it what is what is the most feminine if you want to say okay social network because um the majority of the user we were we were women right electricity girls and okay it was like a collecting Social Network I I don't use it anymore but I used to love it because for example if you like I don't know um interior design it was like a lot of pictures of interior design of different houses right and I loved collecting that kind of things and I don't know relaxes me look at that and having ideas getting ideas and for that kind of creative minds it was a cool tool in a while okay gotcha got you because I I got to say I've seen Pages very visual okay okay then October 2010 Instagram was launched it hit 1 million users by December in two months April 2012 Facebook acquires Instagram for 1 billion US dollars yeah well I think that was another good deal another good purchase right July 2011 Snapchat that was huge in the United States well it started here too in Spain being huge but I remember if if if if I remember um the Snapchat um leader CEO was asked about the market in Spain if if he was worried because it was more Instagram users than Snapchat users at one point and he said something like he doesn't care about the Spain or some European countries because we were poor people oh my goodness well look at Snapchat yeah Snapchat and Mark Zuckerberg said I'll take that idea and reach more people well September 2015 Snapchat introduced its filters feature and now you could make yourself look more made up mass marquisada or look like you're puking rainbows or look like a cat how exciting this is the craziest thing to me like some like I have a friend that works in um how do you say like the surgery aesthetic plastic surgery because she's a plastic surgeon yeah she works there she's just a secretary but she knows what people wanted because they they go there and they ask for things and what people young people ask now is for having their faces faces like Instagram filters like I wanna look like this and they show their faces with a with the filter and a Snapchat or an Instagram filter and it's like make make me look like this oh my goodness these filters have done a lot of harm which we're going to talk about it is crazy right now I I'm super worried about that yeah especially having a young daughter too we got to be really careful and we'll wrap up our timeline in the first part of the show here September 2017. tick tock goes live internationally first it was bite dance or whatever it was called but this is when Tick Tock hit the World by far the most controversial but also the most popular now yeah I think it is and the King right now you can't you can't deny it but it is it is what it is the United States might not like it but this is the king is the king and and as you know they have a little difference between the algorithm in oxidant and in the west oh yeah in China that's true this is from China as you know and for example in China young people are the the most heavy users like yeah the heavy users like sure like here too in Europe and like in the States but for example they have their own rules like after I think it was after eight in the afternoon they can't use the normal Tick Tock sure sure so they can just watch videos about certain subjects like how to fix things but not gaming thing not wasting your time well entertaining right we say entertaining because it's entertaining in the end I mean China I'm not defending one what they do but the thing is they are doing different than we are doing because here we don't have There's No Limit there's no line I mean in the end when you ask here uh young people what they want to do when they grow up they say first thing influencers so sad so so sad but did you go to China they and you asked them what they're going to be when they grow up Engineers yeah it's incredible Architects or that kind of stuff and obviously again I'm not defending China because it hasn't anything to defend in myself in my opinion but it is different absolutely well we're gonna talk we've got to wrap up we're going late over here but we're gonna don't worry this is interesting we're having a great conversation but we're going to continue this conversation in the bonus episode just a quick reminder guys there's a bonus episode every week where you can get PDF documents you can even get classes with me and if you want more information go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso and I want to send a shout out to all my patrons especially my super duper students Javier Paco Roberto Jose Maria Mila and Alex and don't forget about my Interstellar students Carmen Lina Paco David and Edgar if you guys want to find out more information on how you can join my Curious Community go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso and in the bonus part as I said we're going to take a look at going viral we're going to take a look at advertising and monetizing fun facts and the dark side I sure hope you'll join us in the bonus episode of today's f y ah laughs[Applause][Music][Music]