social media

The forms of electronic communication that individuals and companies use to share information with friends, colleagues and customers. A primary feature of social media such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook is that people actively follow someone who posts content, and they are able to respond. For example, users can resend (retweet) messages on Twitter and reply to posts on Facebook. See retweet.

Ordinary blogs may allow feedback, and some websites do as well, but social media is all about spreading information to participating users. Contrast with "industrial media," which refer to professionally produced radio, TV and film.

The terms "social media," "social network," "social networking," "social platform," "social neworking site" and "social networking service" are synonymous.

The Downside
The danger with social media is that erroneous news travels as fast as or faster than genuine news. In Clint Watts' insightful book "Messing with the Enemy: Surviving in a social media world of hackers, terrorists, Russians and fake news" he explains why social media becomes "antisocial media" (see fake news, disinformation and deepfake).

Worse yet, the social media platforms reinforce members' views of the world by feeding them similar information in the form of news and ads. Algorithms determine a person's social, religious and political opinions and feed them information that aligns with those views rather than giving them anything diverse or contradictory. These platforms have become extensions to radio, TV and Internet news, which over the past several decades have become opinion platforms that favor one side over the other. There is little balance in today's news from any single source except perhaps from "The Week," a print and online magazine noted for representing both sides in its articles. See influencer, viral content, new media, social networking service, blog, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, podcast and user-generated content.

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References in periodicals archive

Social media platforms have been abused for several selfish reasons.

Social Media And Rumours

Conversely, social media has far serious negative consequences.

We and the social media

Instead, they believe spending hours on social media can leave girls vulnerable to cyber bullying, as well as causing a lack of sleep and exercise.

Children who use social media a lot 'are more likely to have anxiety because they get less sleep, exercise and exposed to cyber bullying'

Developed in collaboration with the Mohammed bin Rashid School for Communication (MBRSC) of the American University in Dubai (AUD), the programme seeks to train Arab social media influencers in strategic communications and enable them to produce effective content on social media platforms.

Dubai social media influencer diploma course to start on September 8

'It's remarkable how much bank social media engagement has evolved and matured since we first conducted this survey two years ago,' said Jim Edrington, ABA's chief member engagement officer.

New ABA Report Examines Banks' Use of Social Media

Sagar Salva, Product Manager, Google Artificial Intelligence Research Group, on the other hand says 'blocking off social media platforms from your kids and making the topic taboo results in more bad than good.

Our blurred reality of social media

Additionally, if the rumors have been floated on social media , it can have a serious result for the concerned parties.

Social Media and its influence

Households in central Slovakia still have the fewest internet connections unlike western Slovakia, where the situation is the opposite.Slovak pensioners are discovering social media as well.

Number of Slovak pensioners on social media doubled in 4 years

She said information shared on social media was valuable and relevant, adding that in social media platforms, people get news at their own time provided they have Internet access.

Is social media replacing traditional media?

Participants will learn how to formulate a Social Media Marketing Plan, How to Utilize and optimize their social media campaign, learn Facebook and Instagram advertising, retargeting, and social media community management.

Social Media workshop addresses need for skills upgrade

"In 2016, we saw how effective social media was.We saw how potentially destructive of reasoned conversation social media was.

Comelec to poll bets: Register blogs, websites

Beyond hampering productivity and personal relationships, compulsive social media use can also contribute to anxiety, stress and depression.

Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook -- these social media platforms are where