Are You a Social Media Expert?

Overview of Social Media: Definition, Features, History, and Technology

Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks.
Social media platforms are user-centric and enable communal activity, enhancing social connectivity and allowing users to create, share, co-create, discuss, participate, and modify user-generated or self-curated content.
Some of the most popular social media websites include Twitter, Facebook, WeChat, Instagram, and LinkedIn, with as many as 4.76 billion social media users in the world as of January 2023.
Social media differ from traditional media in quality, reach, frequency, usability, relevancy, and permanence, and operate in a dialogic transmission system compared to traditional media's monologic transmission model.
Social media have both positive and negative impacts, being used to improve an individual's sense of connectedness, communication, and marketing, as well as to document memories, learn about and explore things, advertise oneself, and form friendships, and also to spread false information and to organize social movements.
The history of social media dates back to early computing and the development of PLATO, ARPANET, and BBSes in the 1960s and 1970s, followed by the World Wide Web and Web 2.0 in the 1990s and 2000s, and the rise of platforms like GeoCities, SixDegrees, Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Social media are defined by their ability to bring people together and share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content, and marketing and social media experts broadly agree that social media includes 13 types, such as social networks, blogs, microblogs, wikis, and photo and video sharing platforms.
Mobile social media refers to the use of social media on mobile devices, and incorporates the current location of the user (location-sensitivity) or the time delay between sending and receiving messages, and can assist companies with marketing research, communication, and relationship development.
Social media sites are powerful tools for sharing content across networks, and certain content has the potential to spread virally, leading to widespread advertising coverage at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing campaigns.
Bots are automated programs that operate on the internet, and chatbots and social bots are programmed to mimic natural human interactions, such as liking, commenting, following, and unfollowing on social media platforms, leading to the creation of a new industry of bot providers.
Cyborgs are either bot-assisted humans or human-assisted bots, used for a number of different purposes both legitimate and illegitimate, from spreading fake news to creating marketing buzz, and often try to pose as real people or blend human and bot activity in a strategic way.
There has been rapid growth in the number of United States patent applications that cover new technologies thatOverview of Social Media: History, Usage, and Impact
Social media platforms have evolved from text-based microblogging to include photo and video sharing, media studios, and integrated image and video hosting.
As of 2022, an estimated 3.96 billion people globally use social media, with this number expected to increase to 4.41 billion in 2025.
The most popular social networking services as of January 2022 include Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram.
Studies have found that personality traits such as extraversion and openness have a positive relationship with social media usage, while emotional stability has a negative association.
Despite age restrictions, children under 13 in the US use social media, with 4% of children aged 0-8 and 31% of children aged 8-12 using sites such as Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media usage increased among adults and children, with YouTube being the most popular service for both groups.
Governments use social media for reputation management and to engage with citizens, while law enforcement uses it for investigations and searches for missing persons.
Businesses use social media for marketing research, communication, sales promotions, and e-commerce, with social media monitoring tools used for public relations management and advertising-campaign tracking.
Social media marketing can be divided into paid media, earned media, and owned media, and can enhance a brand through "building social authority".
Influencer marketing is a common practice, with digital endorsements successfully attracting social media users, particularly younger consumers.
Social media has been used in political processes and activities, with debate about its role in democratizing media participation and facilitating political change.
State-sponsored cyber-groups have weaponized social media platforms to attack governments, while militant groups have used social media for organizing and recruiting.The Impact of Social Media: From Politics to Health Behaviors
Phishing attacks via email are the most common tactic to breach government networks, while phishing attacks on social media rose 500% in 2016.
Social media has been used to influence political opinions in foreign countries, with examples including a Twitter campaign in Saudi Arabia against Hillary Clinton and the Bahraini government using social media to target rights activists.
Employers are examining job applicants’ social media profiles as part of the hiring assessment, leading to ethical questions and legislation in some countries to protect employees from sharing their usernames and passwords.
Social media has caused significant problems for some job applicants who have been rejected for a job because of online comments they made on social media websites.
Scientists use social media to share their scientific knowledge and new findings on platforms such as ResearchGate, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Academia.edu, with Twitter being the most common type of social media that scientists use.
Social media comments and images are being used in a range of court cases including employment law, child custody/child support, and insurance disability claims.
Social media is used to fulfill perceived social needs such as socializing with friends and family as well as romance and flirting, with a 2018 survey finding that 40% of American teens thought that social media was “extremely” or “very” important for them to keep up with their friends on a day-to-day basis.
Social media can cause stress and anxiety due to the permanence of online posts, fear of being hacked, or universities and employers exploring social media pages.
Social media can breed a negative feedback loop of viewing and uploading photos, self-comparison, feelings of disappointment when perceived social success is not achieved, and disordered body perception.
Social media can function as a supportive system for adolescents’ health, as they are able to mobilize around health issues that they themselves deem relevant, but there is a considerable amount of uninformed and incorrect sources that promote unhealthy and dangerous methods of weight loss.
The constant comparison to edited photos of others and their living situations can lead to negative emotions, isolation, and not eating, increasing the feeling of loneliness in adults.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media has influenced different health behaviors, with the spread of information throughout social media regarding treatments against the virus.
There is a need for people to evaluate and identify reliable health information, commonly known as health literacy, and for governments and public health organizations to use social media to interact with users.The Negative Effects of Social Media
Excessive use of social media is linked to worse mental health and can lead to addiction-like symptoms.
Social media can negatively impact individual and collective memory by replacing traditional news media and allowing for personal narratives to shape public memory.
Negative interpersonal interactions, including cyberbullying and online harassment, can lead to real-world danger and have negative effects on both the bully and the victim.
Social comparison on social media can lead to decreased self-esteem and body dissatisfaction, particularly among women influenced by weight loss content on social media.
Social media use can lead to sleep disturbance, particularly among young adults, and has clinical ramifications for health and well-being.
Emotional effects of social media include Facebook depression, social media burnout, and fear of missing out (FOMO).
Social media can perpetuate the digital divide, where individuals with less access to technology and education are left behind.
The filter bubble effect of social media can increase political polarization by selectively exposing individuals to content that aligns with their beliefs.
Selective exposure can heighten political polarization, particularly with gender differences in political use of Twitter.
Efforts to combat selective exposure may increase political polarization, but social media use can also lead to persuasion of political beliefs.
Social media can have a supportive effect, particularly in fostering a sense of community and support among health professionals and students.
There are ongoing efforts to combat the negative effects of social media, including promoting body positivity and using social media for positive change.