Social media

Social media refers to interactive digital technology platforms that facilitate the creation or sharing of information, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of social media arise due to the broad variety of stand-alone and built-in social media services currently available, there are common features:

• Social media are interactive Web 2.0 internet-based applications.
• 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.
• Users create service-specific profiles for the website or app that are designed and maintained by the social media organization.
• Social media facilitate the development of online social networks by connecting a user's profile with those of other individuals or groups.

History

The development of social media started off with simple platforms such as sixdegrees.com. Unlike instant messaging clients, such as ICQ and AOL's AIM, or chat clients like IRC, iChat or Chat Television, sixdegrees.com was the first online business that was created for real people, using their real names. However, the first social networks were short-lived because their users lost interest. The Social Network Revolution has led to the rise of networking sites. Facebook, introduced in 2004, became the largest social networking site in the world in early 2009.

Types of social media

Social media can be broken down into:

• Social networking sites (e.g., Facebook)
• Microblogging sites (e.g., Twitter)
• Content communities (e.g., YouTube)
• Blogs and blogging platforms (e.g., WordPress)
• Collaborative projects (e.g., Wikipedia)
• Virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life)

Impact of social media

Social media has a range of uses in business, politics, healthcare, science, and education. It has also been criticized for its role in spreading fake news, hate speech, and cyberbullying.

See also

• List of social networking websites
• Timeline of social media
• Social media and political communication in the United States
• Social media in the fashion industry

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