SOCIAL MEDIA

Social Media and Communication

Social Media and Communication

With 1 billion Facebook users, 500 million Twitter users and 2 million blog posts being published each day, new social media are giving traditional forms of media a run for their money. The best part is that these numbers keep adding up with each passing year (Maund, 2013, p.n.d.). However, there is a widespread misconception that social media inculcate social networks only, which is not the case. Social media are new online media that have the characteristics of user participation, openness, two-way conversation, community building and connectedness. Keeping the definition in mind, social media can be divided into seven different forms namely social networks, blogs, wikis, podcasts, forums, content communities and microblogging (Mayfield, 2008, pp.5-6).

Social media owes its success to the ability of letting users cooperate, share and collaborate their ideas or work on some topic or the other, thereby fulfilling the basic social needs of the social animals also known as humans. Also, the speed at which social media operates and evolves is exemplary in itself. Social media has taken over the online world so quickly because it gives the chance to users to produce and distribute content on their own. Gone are the days when this facility was restricted to a few individuals and organizations. Now anyone, with the help of various software, devices and the internet, anyone can upload and manage content. Perhaps, that is why people call social media 'revolutionary' with the power to affect businesses and even countries. The revolution in Egypt in 2011 is a big reminder of how social media can play its part in such a crucial situation (Gustin, 2011, p.n.d.).

The communication process has been undergoing constant change since decades. From hand written letters to emails, from emails to text messaging and now to even more concise forms of broadcast like Tweets or Facebook wall-posts, communication is becoming faster, shorter and advanced (Anonymous, 2007, p.2). Communication is at the heart of social media. However, whether these new media are helping or harming communication is an ongoing debate.

One of the biggest benefits of communication via social media is that there are no barriers of connecting with other people, which means that, befriending people is easy. Finding like-minded people, joining communities, getting inspired and expanding the social circle is literally a click away. Hence, social media provide a chance for people who may be introverts in real life to open their horizon and invite diverse people from all over the world into their network (Thomas, 2012, p.n.d.). Moreover, according to a survey, employers are increasingly using online platforms for employee hunting. Strong communication ties on social media can help someone land a job easily.

By evaluating the role of social media in academic learning, it can be said that this media is going beyond affecting individuals and, in fact, influencing large setups, as well. College communities use social media to teach, learn, communicate and consume knowledge so much so that faculty and authorities have also started using this medium ...