Social media
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Social media are new media technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongst virtual communities and networks. Common features include:
Online platforms enable users to create and share content and participate in social networking. User-generated content—such as text posts or comments, digital photos or videos, and data generated through online interactions. Service-specific profiles that are designed and maintained by the social media organization. Social media helps the development of online social networks by connecting a user's profile with those of other individuals or groups. The term social in regard to media suggests platforms enable communal activity. Social media helps people connect and build networks. Users access social media through web-based or mobile applications. These interactive platforms allow individuals, communities, businesses, and organizations to share, co-create, discuss, participate in, and modify user-generated or self-curated content. Social media is used to share memories, form friendships, and learn. They may be used to promote people, companies, products, and ideas. Social media can be used to consume, publish, or share news. Social media platforms can be categorized based on their primary function.
Social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn focus on building personal and professional connections. Microblogging platforms, such as Twitter (now X), Threads and Mastodon, emphasize short-form content and rapid information sharing. Media sharing networks, including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat, allow users to share images, videos, and live streams. Discussion and community forums like Reddit, Quora, and Discord facilitate conversations, Q&A, and niche community engagement. Live streaming platforms, such as Twitch, Facebook Live, and YouTube Live, enable real-time audience interaction. Decentralized social media platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky aim to provide social networking without corporate control, offering users more autonomy over their data and interactions. Popular social media platforms with over 100 million registered users include Twitter, Facebook, WeChat, ShareChat, Instagram, Pinterest, QZone, Weibo, VK, Tumblr, Baidu Tieba, Threads and LinkedIn. Depending on interpretation, other popular platforms that are sometimes referred to as social media services include YouTube, Letterboxd, QQ, Quora, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, LINE, Snapchat, Viber, Reddit, Discord, and TikTok. Wikis are examples of collaborative content creation. Social media outlets differ from old media (e.g. newspapers, TV, and radio broadcasting) in many ways, including quality, reach, frequency, usability, relevancy, and permanence. Social media outlets operate in a dialogic transmission system (many sources to many receivers) while traditional media operate under a monologic transmission model (one source to many receivers). For instance, a newspaper is delivered to many subscribers, and a radio station broadcasts the same programs to a city. Social media has been criticized for a range of negative impacts on children and teenagers, including exposure to inappropriate content, exploitation by adults, sleep problems, attention problems, feelings of exclusion, and various mental health maladies. Social media has also received criticism as worsening political polarization and undermining democracy, exacerbated by platform capture by vested interests, with journalist Maria Ressa deeming it "toxic sludge" for increasing distrust among members of society. Major news outlets often have strong controls in place to avoid and fix false claims, but social media's unique qualities bring viral content with little to no oversight. "Algorithms that track user engagement to prioritize what is shown tend to favor content that spurs negative emotions like anger and outrage. Overall, most online misinformation originates from a small minority of "superspreaders," but social media amplifies their reach and influence."