Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation,
sharing and aggregation of content, ideas, interests, and other forms of
expression through virtual communities and networks.[1][2] Social media
refers to new forms of media that involve interactive participation. While
challenges to the definition of social media arise[3][4] due to the variety of
stand-alone and built-in social media services currently available, there are
some common features:[2]
Social media are interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications.[2][5][6]
User-generated content—such as text posts or comments, digital photos
or videos, and data generated through all online interactions—is the
lifeblood of social media.[2][5]
Users create service-specific profiles for the website or app that are
designed and maintained by the social media organization.[2][7]
Social media helps the development of online social networks by
connecting a user's profile with those of other individuals or groups.[2][7]
Social media app icons on a smartphone screen
The term social in regard to media suggests that platforms are user-centric
and enable communal activity. As such, social media can be viewed as
online facilitators or enhancers of human networks—webs of individuals
who enhance social connectivity.[8]
Users usually access social media services through web-based apps on
desktops or download services that offer social media functionality to their
mobile devices (e.g. smartphones and tablets). As users engage with these
electronic services, they create highly interactive platforms in which
individuals, communities, and organizations can share, co-create, discuss,
participate, and modify user-generated or self-curated content posted
online.[9][7][1] Additionally, social media are used to document memories,
learn about and explore things, advertise oneself, and form friendships
along with the growth of ideas from the creation of blogs, podcasts, videos,
and gaming sites.[10] This changing relationship between humans and
technology is the focus of the emerging field of technological self-
studies.[11] Some of the most popular social media websites, with more
than 100 million registered users, include Twitter, Facebook (and its
associated Messenger), WeChat, ShareChat, Instagram (and its
associated app Threads), QZone, Weibo, VK, Tumblr, Baidu Tieba, and
LinkedIn. Depending on interpretation, other popular platforms that are
sometimes referred to as social media services include YouTube,
Letterboxd, QQ, Quora, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, LINE, Snapchat,
Pinterest, Viber, Reddit, Discord, TikTok, Microsoft Teams, and more.
Wikis are examples of collaborative content creation.
Social media outlets differ from traditional media (e.g. print magazines and
newspapers, TV, and radio broadcasting) in many ways, including
quality,[12] reach, frequency, usability, relevancy, and permanence.[13]
Additionally, social media outlets operate in a dialogic transmission system
(i.e., many sources to many receivers) while traditional media outlets
operate under a monologic transmission model (i.e., one source to many
receivers). For instance, a newspaper is delivered to many subscribers,
and a radio station broadcasts the same programs to an entire city.[14]
Since the dramatic expansion of the Internet, digital media or digital rhetoric
can be used to represent or identify a culture. Studying the rhetoric that
exists in the digital environment has become a crucial new process for
many scholars.
Observers have noted a wide range of positive and negative impacts when
it comes to the use of social media. Social media can help to improve an
individual's sense of connectedness with real or online communities and
can be an effective communication (or marketing) tool for corporations,
entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, advocacy groups, political parties,
and governments. Observers have also seen that there has been a rise in
social movements using social media as a tool for communicating and
organizing in times of political unrest.
Social media can also be used to read or share news, whether it is true or
false.
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