Social media are new media technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongst virtual communities and networks. Common features include:
- Online platforms enable users to create and share content and participate in social networking.
- User-generated content such as text posts or comments, digital photos or videos, and data generated through online interactions.
- Service specific profiles that are designed and maintained by the social media organization.
- Social media helps the development of online social networks by connecting a user’s profile with those of other individuals or groups.
The term social in regard to media suggests platforms enable communal activity. Social media helps people connect and build networks. Users access social media through web-based or mobile applications. These interactive platforms allow individuals, communities, businesses, and organizations to share, co-create, discuss, participate in, and modify user-generated or self-curated content. Social media is used to share memories, form friendships, build communities and learn. They may be used to promote people, companies, products, and ideas. Social media can be used to consume, publish, or share news.
Popular social media platforms with over 100 million registered users include X, Facebook, WeChat, ShareChat, Instagram, Pinterest, QZone, Weibo, VK, Tumblr, Baidu Tieba, Threads, and LinkedIn. Depending on the interpretation, other popular platforms that are sometimes referred to as social media services include YouTube, Letterboxd, QQ, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, LINE, Snapchat, Viber, Reddit, Discord, and TikTok. Wikis and Roblox are examples of collaborative content creation.
Social media outlets differ from old media (e.g. newspapers, TV, and radio broadcasting) in many ways, including quality, reach, frequency, usability, relevancy, and permanence.[10] Social media outlets operate in a dialogic transmission system (many sources to many receivers) while traditional media operate under a monologic transmission model (one source to many receivers). For instance, a newspaper is delivered to many subscribers, and a radio station broadcasts the same programs to a city.
Social media has been criticized for a range of negative impacts on children and teenagers, including exposure to inappropriate content, exploitation by adults, sleep problems, attention problems, feelings of exclusion, and various mental health maladies. Social media has also received criticism as worsening political polarization and undermining democracy, exacerbated by platform capture by vested interests, with journalist Maria Ressa deeming it “toxic sludge” for increasing distrust among members of society.[16] During the 2020s, concerns have emerged over the risk posed by the large influence of social media platforms based in the United States to the sovereignty of countries in Europe, South America and Australasia.
Major news outlets across the world often have strong controls in place to avoid and fix false claims, but social media’s unique qualities bring viral content with little to no oversight. According to the American Psychological Association, “Algorithms that track user engagement to prioritize what is shown tend to favor content that spurs negative emotions like anger and outrage. Overall, most online misinformation originates from a small minority of “superspreaders,” but social media amplifies their reach and influence.”
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Social media encompasses an expanding suite of services:
- Blogs (ex. HuffPost, Boing Boing)
- Business networks (ex. LinkedIn, XING)
- Collaborative projects (Mozilla, GitHub)
- Enterprise social networks (Yammer, Socialcast, Slack)
- Forums (Gaia Online, IGN)
- Microblogs (Twitter, Tumblr, Weibo)
- Photo sharing (Pinterest, Flickr, Photobucket)
- Products/services review (Amazon, Upwork)
- Social bookmarking (Delicious, Pinterest)
- Social gaming including MMORPGs (Fortnite, World of Warcraft)
- Social network (Facebook, Instagram, Baidu Tieba, VK, QZone, ShareChat, WeChat, LINE)
- Video sharing (YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo)
- Virtual worlds (Second Life, Twinity)
Some services offer more than one type of service.
Mobile social media
Mobile social media refers to the use of social media on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. It is distinguished by its ubiquity, since users no longer have to be at a desk in order to participate on a computer. Mobile services can use the user’s location to offer information, connections, or services relevant to that location.
According to Andreas Kaplan, mobile social media activities fall among four types:
- Space-timers (location and time-sensitive): Exchange of messages with relevance for a specific location at a specific point in time (posting about a traffic jam)
- Space-locators (only location sensitive): Posts/messages with relevance for a specific location, read later by others (e.g. a restaurant review)
- Quick-timers (only time sensitive): Transfer of traditional social media mobile apps to increase immediacy (e.g. posting status updates)
- Slow-timers (neither location nor time sensitive): Transfer of traditional social media applications to mobile devices (e.g. watching a video)
