The rise of Social Media over the past few years has been nothing short of meteoric. Also known as New Media, sites such as MySpace and FaceBook have more members than most countries have citizens. Other sites like Digg, YouTube and Twitter are growing fast. Empires are being built and established in only a few years. So why is it that Social Media has grown so big and why is it so popular?

Here are my personal Top 6 Reasons why I think Social Media Rocks:

1. Social Media Is Addictive

First of all, Social Media is extremely addictive. All of the below topics add up to great reasons why New Media is so popular but the main reason for it’s meteoric rise is the social aspect of these sites. Once you get established in a site such as Facebook or Twitter, you get hooked. You can make lots of friends and have great fun interacting and networking with people from all walks of life. That is pretty cool.

2. Social Media Has No Borders

In the old days (10-20 years ago) we were pretty much limited to how many international friends we had. Unless we traveled a lot or had “Pen-Pals”, most of our friends were located close by. No longer the case! Social Media has allowed us to break all borders (besides a few countries that still restrict internet activity) and make friends all over the world. Even better, we can now stay in touch on a daily basis and become a much more international community.

3. New Media Is Killing Old Media

Newspapers and TV stations are dying a painful death due to the introduction of Web 2.0 and rightfully so. People are sick of getting yesterdays news today when they can have “now’s” news immediately. New Media gives us instant gratification. No more waiting for tonights news on TV to find out what happened last night or today.

4. Keeping The Media Honest

Social Media is forcing public figures and news corporations to stay honest (or at least “more honest”). The people don’t like being lied to by either politicians, newspapers or TV stations. Social Media allows the people to feed back immediate responses to those public figures and make their opinions known “right now”.

5. Choice Of Media

We now have a greater choice of what media we use. Social Media allows us to be more versatile and stay with the channels we prefer rather than using the ones pushed on us by a government or fortune 500 company.

6. Participation

One of the best things about Social Media is the ability to participate. The internet was initially meant for sharing information and downloading content. Now it is the user that feeds back as much or more than the internet providers probably ever intended. That creates a web of almost uncontrollable content – by the people, for the people.

Social Media Rocks

The bottom line is: Social Media Rocks! It has brought together the world in a social way that no other single event ever has. The level of participation is bigger and better than ever before and it will only grow bigger. Imagine how world events like the Tiananmen Square Massacre would have unfolded with people Tweeting and FaceBooking the event live on their iPhone or Google Android?

Would the people of the USA have tolerated the 2000 election(?) result of George W Bush v. Al Gore with the power of Social Media at their hands? Maybe, maybe not. However, I definitely don’t that think the days of underhanded tactics are over, but the world population will now become more in control of democratic processes and fair news distribution than they ever were in the past.

Let’s hope so anyway.

I’ll open up the comments below and to let you feed back your participation. Everyone has differing opinions and that is the beauty of the world.