Societal Context: Module 2

Hello!

For Societal Context 2nd Module, we were given the task to identify a current or past societal trend and also analyze the impacts it has towards society. After several researches on the World Wide Web and also a couple of self-observations in reality, I have decided to choose “Social Media” as the main topic for my Societal Context 2nd Module. Hope you’ll find it an interesting read.

Social Media

What is Social Media?

What is social media? It is sometimes difficult to answer that question. The phrase, social media, is being tossed around a lot in today’s world. If Wikipedia is a social media site, and MySpace is a social media site, and Mag.nolia is a social media site, then what exactly is social media? (Daniel Nations, 2013).

Social media is based on both mobile-based and web-based technologies. Social media is used to enable interactive communication between individuals, organizations and communities, locally and globally (New Zealand Teacher Council, 2013).

Below is a social media map that provides a visual summary of some of today’s common types of social media platforms and also their purposes:-

Social Media Map (New Zealand Teachers Council, 2013)

Social Media in Plain English (Lee LeFever, 2008)

The video above shows why social media is the next big thing in today's world and also explains "what is social media?” By using a village called Scoopville and ice cream as an example, it shows how social media has become useful for the people today. The video states that everyone is this world have their very own unique ideas, no matter what the idea is all about. However, it was difficult back then to know what people think of your idea due to the limited amount of people a certain person knows. With the existence of social media, things were getting clearer and at the same time improving the people's life. In short, social media has given the chance to the people to share and also bring them closer together. With social media, people could share their thoughts about that certain idea, rate that certain idea and also comment on that certain idea. Not only that, social media has also helped the people in business wise. Companies or organizations no longer need to spend big sums of money to advertise or promote their merchandise when they can just use social media for free. At the same time, people could also give their feedbacks on that certain idea or merchandise. This will help in making improvements on that certain idea or merchandise easier and hassle free. Social media also helps to create new opportunities for people to create, communicate and many more. 

Forms of Social Media

Networking

 

Networking Websites (Interactive Insight Group, 2013)

Networking sites allow the user to create a personal web page and some just requires the user to just sign up and create an account. With the web page or account, the user is allow to stay connected with friends, share contents with other users, to communicate with other users and many more. The most commonly used social networks today are Facebook, Skype and Google+ (Angel Tesorero, 2013).

Social Networking in Plain English (Lee LeFever, 2007)

As mentioned by the video above, network gets things done and makes things happen. The example used in the video were sending a mail, getting electricity to your home or driving from one state to another, all this requires a network. So what is a social network? Based on the video above, a social network is where you would have the opportunity to find jobs, new and old friends, a life partner and more. How is this possible? Social network helps a user to connect with other people worldwide by just clicking a button. In reality, this is impossible to do so but with social network it helps the user to see a bigger picture. The video also shows how a social network works and how to get around a social network site. Long story short, social network helps the user to keep in touch with friends, whether they’re old or new, find a job, find a house, find a life partner and many more things. That’s the power of the social network and all this can be done at the comfort of your own home without any cost.

Blogging

Blogging Websites (Interactive Insight Group, 2013)

Blogging is known to be one of the best forms of social media. Blogs are actually online journals, with new entries appearing almost every second and are constantly updated by users worldwide (Angel Tesorero, 2013).

Blogs in Plain English (Lee LeFever, 2007)

The video above explains about “what is a blog?” and “how does a blog work?” The video explains it a very simple way by using news as the main topic. The video compares how news was broadcasted last time during the 20th century and how news is broadcasted today in the 21st century. Back then during the 20th century, news was broadcasted professionally. However, news back then was very general and limited. Comparing to how news is broadcasted in today’s 21st century, news today are still broadcasted professionally but with a slight twist. Last time only reporters were the ones who would get the news out to the world, nowadays everyone can be a reporter and produce news all thanks to web blog or also known as blogs. The examples used in the video was a business man could tell the world about how his work, a mom can tell the world about her family or a sports star can share things with his or her fans worldwide all by using a web blog. Not only that, people who see these blogs are allow commenting on them, sharing them with other bloggers and many more. As you can see, a blog is not just a one-way street as mentioned in the video. Blogs also helps to build relationships and create communities due to all the communication that is happening within a blog. So far there has been over 70 million bloggers worldwide until today and all these bloggers have the power of media by their side.

Collaboration

Collaboration Websites (Interactive Insight Group, 2013)

Collaboration websites allow people to share information, gain information and at the same time add content to or edit the information that has already existed. Collaboration websites acts as a communal database or document. The world’s best-known collaboration website is Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia which supply users with over 2 million English language articles (Angel Tesorero, 2013).

Wetpaint Wikis in Plain English (Lee LeFever, 2007)

The video above shows one of the collaboration websites that is commonly used in today’s world called Wetpaint Wiki. Wetpaint Wiki, Wikipedia, Wikia and more are all very similar to each other. Based on the video, the wonders of collaboration websites is that everyone can pitch in. This means that anyone and everyone can be the author of that certain topic, information, article and etc. How is this possible? This is because collaboration websites allow the public to edit that certain article at any given time. Collaboration websites are very useful and organize. Useful in a sense where a user can gather new information, find a topic that they love and more. On the other hand, collaboration websites are more organized compared to blogs because you can search for a specific topic that you’re interested in easily compared to a blog. Not only that, it works like a blog as well where a user can upload pictures, videos and more at any given moment. A user can even edit an already existing article and add pictures or videos to it. Hence, collaboration websites are easy, fun and free to use. Collaboration websites also tends to increase the growth between users and also has tones of information that people could use.

Video-Sharing

Video-Sharing Websites (Interactive Insight Group, 2013)

Video-sharing allow users to upload video content to be place on a website, distribute or share. Users will upload videos via the hosting service’s website, desktop applications, mobile and many more ways. All types of video content can be uploaded whether it is a short video clip or a full length movie. The video host will store the video content that was uploaded by the user on it server and produce different types of embed codes or links to allow other users to view that certain video (Andy Plesser, 2007).

Micro-Blogging

Micro-Blogging Websites (Interactive Insight Group, 2013)

Micro-blogging is social networking mix with bite-sized blogging. This is where small quantity of contents or updates are spread online and also through the mobile phone network. Until today, Twitter is clearly ahead in this field of social media (Angel Tesorero, 2013).

Twitter in Plain English (Lee LeFever, 2008)

The video above explains about one of the most commonly used micro-blogging social media which is Twitter. Based on the video, Twitter is very simple to use and it is also personal. Instead of using emails, blogs and other ways of communicate with friends or family which can be weird, time consuming or other apparent reason, people nowadays use Twitter or micro-blogging sites. With Twitter, users are allow to share short, bit-sized updates on what they are doing, what they are eating, where they are or anything at all. It’s like an email, blog and other social media websites out there. The major difference between Twitter and the rest is that Twitter keeps it short and simple. Users can access Twitter almost anywhere, either on the laptops, desktops, mobile phones and more. Since Twitter is a social media network, it brings people closer to each other by letting people know all the small things that is happening in your life. Small things are sometimes big things. However, Twitter is not the only micro-blogging website out there. There are plenty more micro-blogging website like Rejaw, numpa, shout’em and many more. 

Image-Sharing

Image-Sharing Websites (Interactive Insight Group, 2013)

Image-sharing enables users to publish or transfer digital photos online, hence enabling sharing with other users publicly or privately. Image-sharing is provided through both applications and websites that allows the display and upload of digital images. The term image-sharing can also be applied to the use of online photo galleries that are managed and set up by a certain user, this includes photoblogs. Sharing means that other users are allow viewing the digital photos but not necessarily downloading them. Users are also given different copyright options (Sarah Kessler, 2011).

Online Photo Sharing in Plain English (Lee LeFever, 2012)

The video above explains how online photo sharing works and also explains to the users on how to use it. According to the video, photography has changed a lot over the years. Back in the day, photos used to be developed and placed either in a photo book or just hung up on the wall. However, nowadays photos are rarely developed and mostly end up in computers, phone or any other electronic devices. With photo sharing websites, a user is able to upload and save his or her photos on the internet. This has made life easier for some user in a way where they have easy access to their photos, easy to find their photos with the help of tags, and they are always saved on the computer. Adding on, photo sharing also let users to make new friends by sharing their photos with the public. To add more fun, people that view your photos can even comment on them, like them or anything. In conclusion, not only photo sharing websites helps the user to keep their photos organized and save, but also allows them to socialize with the public. 

Elements of Social Media

The best way to understand social media is to label them as a group of new types of online media. There are several important elements that differentiate social media apart from the other types of traditional media or online content. Most social media networks share most, if not all of the following elements (Angel Tesorero & Inkling Media, 2013):-

User Generated Content

User Generated Content (Living Well Education, 2013)

The times of visiting a website and just reading the content written by a random person are all but gone. In today’s world, we, the users, are all content creators, authors and participants. Even commenting on a random blog, video, picture or even just replying to someone publicly becomes content nowadays. This is what, in today’s world, known as Web 2.0 (Inkling Media, n.d.).

Conversation

Conversation (Mary Osborne, 2013)

Social media is not a one-way medium. Anything that any random user posts via a social media network has the probability to start off a conversation. Plus, with technologies such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and more, everyone can be part of the ever-evolving conversations. At the same time, everyone would also have the ability to jump in and out of a conversation whenever they feel like it. In reality, a user may contribute as little or as much as they like towards a conversation, hence shaping the conversation (Inkling Media, n.d.).

Build & Maintain Relationship

Build & Maintain Relationship (Debbie, 2012)

With social media, a user is able to keep in touch with their existing friends and at the same time find new friends based on their shared interests, hobbies, music and more. From a business point of view, a user is able to keep in touch with current clients or even find new potential clients for their business. In short, users are able to reconnect with old friends and maintain any existing relationships on a day to day basis (Inkling Media, n.d.).

Communication

Communication (Durkin, 2012)

In today’s world, writing letters or picking up the phone has been obsolete. Nowadays, people communicate with their friends, relatives, co-workers or anyone at all via text messaging, email, sometimes even through social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Due to this phenomenon, information can be shared easily, contacting with multiple people all at the same time is possible and many more (Inkling Media, n.d.).

Information Sharing

Information Sharing (DWB Associates, 2013)

Users now are given the ability to share certain information that they find interesting, whether if it’s from a newspaper, online or somewhere, to a several people all at the same time by just one click of a button. In the olden days, photocopying, hand distributing and other old methods were used to share information with others. In today’s world, information is shared via social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and more. Adding on, the information shared will not only is shared with a single person but with hundreds or maybe millions of people worldwide at one time (Inkling Media, n.d.).

Community & Consumer Focused

Community & Consumer Focused (Jean Foster, 2012)

Most media out there are mainly company or product focused. However, social media is entirely different. Social media is mainly about building a community and functions as such. The members, who consist of both the consumer and company or organization, are the participants in this social media community. The community is the one that directives the scope and shape of a certain content (Inkling Media, n.d.).

Societal Impact of Social Media

The Positives

Friends & Relations

Friends & Relations (Lucy, 2012)

Social media started off as a place where people could connect with their friends, family, clients or anyone in a convenient and easy way. Truthfully speaking, many people today might have found their old friends from college, work and more who they have lost touch with due to some apparent reason; this is possible all because of social media. Social media has given opportunities to people to connect or reconnect with other people and build a better or a new relationship with whom they were unable to meet face to face (Syed Noman Ali, 2012).

Reducing Communication Barriers

 Reducing Communication Barrier (WordPress.com, 2011)

Due to social media being around today, people are able to communicate their perceptions and thoughts over a certain topic with an enormous amount of audiences. The sharing feature that is provided on most social media network allows people to make opinions about any kind of topic reach enormous amount of people. Even the people who are not friends or related to that person can know their opinions or even join in the discussion. Furthermore, social media has enabled the option to make groups so that a person could share news, information, ask for opinions and many more with people that are like minded. Long story short, there are numerous options that are available for people to communicate with other on these social media networks (Syed Noman Ali, 2012).

Opportunities for Businesses

Opportunities for Businesses (Oriental Kitchen Equipment, 2012) 

Social media networks have become an important part in people’s life especially today. Many people will not realize this but as soon as they switch on their laptops or desktops to access the World Wide Web, they sub-consciously open their favorite social media network just to check out the current news, updates and more that they have received. Adding on, businesses have realized the importance of social media networks in people’s life, and they are using this to their advantage by using several methods to promote their merchandise. There are several personalized applications being produced on the social media platforms, with the main objective to promote the merchandise or brand. As social media networks is cost effective and brand have an enormous audience, companies and organizations are shifting towards the social media network (Syed Noman Ali, 2012).

The Negatives

Leads to Addiction

Leads to Addiction (Eric Limer, 2012)

Social media networks may lead to addiction. Countless hours spent in the social media networks can distract the attention and focus from a specific task. Furthermore, social media networks tend to deplete the motivational level of the people, especially of the students and teenagers. Students and teenagers nowadays tend to mainly rely on the internet and technology instead of learning the expertise and practical knowledge of the everyday life (Imtiaz Ali, 2013).

Bad Influence towards Children

Bad Influence towards Children (Keith Tusing, 2013)

Children can be greatly influenced by all these current social media networks if they were given a chance to use them. The reason behind this is because sometime random people would share photos, videos or any sort of form of media that contains sex, violence, drugs and many more negative issues. This can be very damaging towards the children and teenagers behavior. It gives a negative impact towards the society as these teenagers and children tend to get involve with crime related activities due to the negative influences existing on social media networks (Imtiaz Ali, 2013).

Threats towards Privacy

Threats towards Privacy (Ai Insite, 2010)

It is normal for users to share information on social media networks. However, this may backfire and turn into something negative. Sometimes users tend to share too much information on the social media which may pose threats to themselves. Even though with the existing high-end security settings nowadays, the chances of a user’s personal information to be leaked out on a social media network are still amazingly high. Downloading, copying, plagiarizing and more of a person’s pictures, information, status and more is a very simple task to do nowadays and it can be done by simply clicking a few buttons (Imtiaz Ali, 2013).

Reference

• Nations, D. (2013). What is Social Media?. Retrieved from http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/social-media.htm
• New Zealand Teachers Council. (2013). What is Social Media. Retrieved from http://www.teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/what-social-media
• Tesorero, A. (2013, April 13). The Characteristics of Social Media. Retrieved from http://homeofservice.com/blogs/21/#.UigXZ8Zmim5
• Inkling Media. (n.d.). Elements of Social Media. Retrieved from http://inklingmedia.net/social-media/elements-of-social-media/#.UigXusZmim5
• Wikipedia. (2013, Spetember 4). Video hosting service. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_hosting_service
• Wikipedia. (2013, August 1). Photo sharing. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_sharing
• Ali, S. N. (2012, August 8). Social Media - A Good Thing or a Bad Thing?. Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com/syed-noman-ali/608781/social-media-good-thing-or-bad-thing
• Ali, I. (2013). Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society. Retrieved from http://www.techbead.com/positive-and-negative-effects-of-social-media-on-society/
• LeFever, L. (2008, March 5). Twitter in Plain English. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o
• LeFever, L. (2008, May 28). Social Media in Plain English. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpIOClX1jPE
• LeFever, L. (2007, November 29). Blogs in Plain English. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI
• LeFever, L. (2007, October 2). Wetpaint Wikis in Plain English. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7BAU2XX5Ws
• LeFever, L. (2007, June 27). Social Networking in Plain English. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc

Thank you.

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