Social Media

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.[1][2] While challenges to the definition of social media arise[3][4] due to the variety of stand-alone and built-in social media services currently available, there are some common features:[2]

Social media are interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications.[2][5]

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.[2][5]

Users create service-specific profiles for the website or app that are designed and maintained by the social media organization.[2][6]

Social media helps the development of online social networks by connecting a user's profile with those of other individuals or groups.[2][6]

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Observers have noted a wide range of positive and negative impacts when it comes to the use of social media. Social media can help to improve an individual's sense of connectedness with real or online communities and can be an effective communication (or marketing) tool for corporations, entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, advocacy groups, political parties, and governments. Observers have also seen that there has been a rise in social movements using social media as a tool for communicating and organizing in times of political unrest.

Social media can also be used to read or share news, whether it is true or false.

Development of social-media platforms

SixDegrees, launched in 1997, is often regarded as the first social media site.

In 1991, when Tim Berners-Lee integrated hypertext software with the Internet, he created the World Wide Web, marking the beginning of the modern era of networked communication. This breakthrough facilitated the formation of online communities and enabled support for offline groups through the use of weblogs, list servers, and email services. The evolution of online services progressed from serving as channels for networked communication to becoming interactive platforms for networked social interaction with the advent of Web 2.0.[7]

The roots of social media can be traced back to the mid-1990s with the advent of platforms like GeoCities, Classmates.com, and SixDegrees.com.[21] While instant messaging and chat clients existed at the time, SixDegrees was unique as it was the first online service designed for real people to connect using their actual names. It boasted features like profiles, friends lists, and school affiliations, making it "the very first social networking site" according to CBS News.[21][22] The platform's name was inspired by the "six degrees of separation" concept, which suggests that every person on the planet is just six connections away from everyone else.[23]

Fast forward to the early 2000s, and social media platforms gained widespread popularity with the likes of Friendster and Myspace, followed by Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, among others.[24]

Research from 2015 shows that the world spent 22% of their online time on social networks,[25] thus suggesting the popularity of social media platforms, likely fueled by the widespread adoption of smartphones.[26] There are as many as 4.76 billion social media users in the world[27] as of January 2023, equating to 59.4% of the total global population.

the United States use social networking services despite the fact that many social media sites have policies that state one must be at least 13 years old or older to join.[65] In 2017, Common Sense Media conducted a nationally representative survey of parents of children from birth to age 8 and found that 4% of children at this age used social media sites such as Instagram, Snapchat, or (now-defunct) Musical.ly "often" or "sometimes".[66] A different nationally representative survey by Common Sense in 2019 surveyed young Americans ages 8–16 and found that about 31% of children ages 8–12 ever use social media such as Snapchat, Instagram, or Facebook.[67] In that same survey, when American teens ages 16–18 were asked when they started using social media, 28% said they started to use it before they were 13 years old. However, the median age of starting to use social media was 14 years old.