No one can pinpoint the specific time when social media became 'social media' as the various groups that have attempted to define it cannot agree on that definition. I beleve it to be in and around 1991. In that time frame, AOL, IRC, MIRC, BBS, etc were in swing, effectively evolving into what is now known colloquially as 'social media' (see lack of definition above).

That's ~24 years ago. Anyone 24 and under in western countries grew up with it. If they didn't have access, they knew ,someone who did. By 2014, Facebook alone had 700 million users with over 30 billion individual pieces of content. All social media around the world combined is in the neighborhood of ~2.5 billion people and individual content into the trillions. That number has taken a life of its own with guestimates ranging from a few trillion to several hundred trillion. For the purposes of this entry, I'll limit it to the US, though it applies to many countries.

A conservative estimate of US users is in the 125 million range with another 25 or so million doing so in passing. For the statistical puritan's out there, do your own research if you doubt those numbers. I will quote the following from WHO for context.



So in 2012, 804 thousand people committed suicide world wide (that are known, the number is very likely in the low seven digits in reality). That number has been on the rise. In 2014, it was 40,000 people in the US alone.

Depression is often quoted. I saw one quote that stated 90% of them were mentally ill? So 10% were sane normal people that just decided one day to off themselves? That's another entry of its own.

That said, survivalist/preppers had better start paying attention. Modern psychologys answer is to throw a pill at it. Psychotropic drugs at that, that they really don't fully understand.

So how does this all relate? For that, a look at how integrated social media has become in the psyche of its users is required. Go sit on a bench in any busy public venue and simply observe those around you if you want examples of that. People have become addicted to it, effectively integrating their grayware with hardware/software to the point it's a part of them. If you have a son or daughter high school age to college age, challenge them to put down the phone and computer for three days and watch their reaction. Irritability, anxiety, mood changes, etc, most frequent users of social media experience the same symptoms as addicts.

Think about that for a moment. People have gotten to the point where the weaker among them have committed suicide due to being 'unfriended', or spoken to harshly. They find themselves simply unable to hit the off button just as much as a drug addict cannot help themselves from the next hit, or an alcoholic from the next drink.

Next we get to none suicide deaths. There has been people drive off into the ocean because their GPS was screwed up. So integrated were they mentally thst they could not accept the evidence before their eyes thst no road existed. They have fallen off of cliffs trying to get that selfy for facebook, or ran through a red light or off the road twittering or texting and as a result, walked out into traffic tweeting etc, killing themselves and others in the process. Governments cannot keep up with the stats on it given the frequency of occurrence. When combined with the related suicides, the death toll from it gets into the top five factors. Tracking it becomes near impossible given how much it contributes to other factors.

Should the lights ever go out from a CME, EMP, or other such grid down scenario, what do you think will become of the social media addicts? Do you believe these phone/social media zombies will become a problem?

What does someone do who has a significant part of their psyche ripped out irrevocably, and effectively over night?
Think this is crazy talk? Go look around with open eyes and mind.