After discussing Web 2.0 and social media differences in class this week I was curious to explore more aspects of what exactly IS social media and what effects has social media had on our society?
Let's start with the Mirriam Webster definition of social media- ": forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos)" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20media This is an interesting definition, and one that aligns pretty well with the definitions of my classmates this week, but how does this differ from the Web 2.0 definitions that we generated? And does this mean YouTube is social media since users are creating content like videos to share information with other users? Prior to this course and my readings this week I would not have considered YouTube to be social media, but I believe I have changed my mind. So many people these days are "YouTube" famous and have created a beautiful community of followers who watch and engage with their user-created videos, this would easily match the dictionary definition of social media.
Let's dig a little deeper into the scholarly world. Tufts University Relations has a page discussing social media and it's approved uses for different university departments https://communications.tufts.edu/marketing-and-branding/social-media-overview/ and they define social media very similar to the dictionary definition as well as listing several social media tools, one of which is YouTube. I found a very interesting article at the University of Michigan that was copyrighted and I am unsure if I can share here, but I will say that the authors of the article found very similar definitions for Web 2.0 and social media that we created in class, where Web 2.0 acts as the overarching umbrella and social media are more specific tools that full under that umbrella.
During my search, I found a few scholarly articles for how social media has influenced us and impacted society and this caught my attention. These research papers discuss the increased use of social media amongst teens and how it is correlated to an increase in anxiety due to peer pressure and unrealistic expectations. They also discuss how personal interactions in face-to-face environments have decreased and seemingly there has been a decrease in empathy as well. I downloaded a few of these articles to keep handy- I want to circle back around to them in a few months. I am curious if we will notice more or less of these negative effects after relying on social media so heavily during the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless, I think keeping these negative effects in mind will be extremely important when incorporating social media tools into aspects of education- it will be important to foster a healthy community on whichever social media tool you are using.
Let's start with the Mirriam Webster definition of social media- ": forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos)" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20media This is an interesting definition, and one that aligns pretty well with the definitions of my classmates this week, but how does this differ from the Web 2.0 definitions that we generated? And does this mean YouTube is social media since users are creating content like videos to share information with other users? Prior to this course and my readings this week I would not have considered YouTube to be social media, but I believe I have changed my mind. So many people these days are "YouTube" famous and have created a beautiful community of followers who watch and engage with their user-created videos, this would easily match the dictionary definition of social media.
Let's dig a little deeper into the scholarly world. Tufts University Relations has a page discussing social media and it's approved uses for different university departments https://communications.tufts.edu/marketing-and-branding/social-media-overview/ and they define social media very similar to the dictionary definition as well as listing several social media tools, one of which is YouTube. I found a very interesting article at the University of Michigan that was copyrighted and I am unsure if I can share here, but I will say that the authors of the article found very similar definitions for Web 2.0 and social media that we created in class, where Web 2.0 acts as the overarching umbrella and social media are more specific tools that full under that umbrella.
During my search, I found a few scholarly articles for how social media has influenced us and impacted society and this caught my attention. These research papers discuss the increased use of social media amongst teens and how it is correlated to an increase in anxiety due to peer pressure and unrealistic expectations. They also discuss how personal interactions in face-to-face environments have decreased and seemingly there has been a decrease in empathy as well. I downloaded a few of these articles to keep handy- I want to circle back around to them in a few months. I am curious if we will notice more or less of these negative effects after relying on social media so heavily during the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless, I think keeping these negative effects in mind will be extremely important when incorporating social media tools into aspects of education- it will be important to foster a healthy community on whichever social media tool you are using.
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