Social Media

Social Media

1. social networking sites: websites that function as onlie communities of users

   • PLATFORMS
     • facebook
       • founded by mark zuckerberg, eduardo saverin
         • initially limited to Harvard students, then boston area students, then ivy league
           • gradually expanded to most people with a university email address, then by 2006, anyone above 13
             • 2008- ads created a positive cash flow
             • initially, not very profitable even though a lot of people on the site
               • facebook depression: depression that develops when teens start spending too much time on social networking sites such as facebook
                 • facebook envy: people begin to feel envious of other people's lives on facebook
                   • idealized identity hypothesis: social media users show idealized characteristics that do not reflect who they really are
                 • facebook controversies
                   • ad targeting: facenook can target you based on age, location, relationship status, likes and dislikes
                     • can be easily mined by anyone
     • twitter
       • launched in 2006
         • gained popularity after the SXSW show in 2007; hashtag emerged on twitter in 2007
           • 2010, they started offering promoted tweets to generate revenue; companies purchase promoted tweets, which are shown to users
             • twitter has gained a reputation for being a political platform: arab spring, ISIS, american politics
               • Twitter owns vine, twitpic, and periscope
     • Instagram
       • founded in 2010- integrated hashtags in 2011
         • purchased facebook in 2012, with the company remaining independently managed- IG does its own things
           • began selling ads in 2013
             • launched boomerang
               • most followers: intagram
     • snapchat
       • started as a class proj
         • creators pushed out one of their fellow creators, reggie brown
           • originally, disappearing video and picture messages
             • expanded to include stories
               • added dm, filters, lens feature
                 • snap controversy- unethical polls
     • YouTube
       • launced in 2005
         • inspired by Janet Jackson controversty, video could not be easily shared
           • 2007, started trials for system that would automatically detect videos that infringed
             • videos initially had to be a certiain length, but this chanegd after content ID came into wide use
               • partner program- allows a video uploaded to share revenue produced by ads on the website
                 • youtube takes 45% and the uploader gets 55%
                   • youtube known for defining and reinforcing culture, "Virality"
                     • has a lot of people who are famous for being on YouTube and then move outward to other media
                       • moving outward is not necessarily how they become successful
   • dual-factor of social media use: claims that this engagement is motivated by two very basic social needs- the need to belong and the need for self-presentation
     • affective forecasting error: the discrepancy between the expected and actual emotions generated by facebook activity- decline in users mood after using the social network
     • extended real life hypothesis: the idea that we use our social media to communicate our actual identities
       • internet can give voice to those who typically don't have one:
         • flash mobs/smart mobs: georgapically dispersed groups connected only by communications technology, quickly drawn together to perform collective action
           • encryption: the electronic coding or masking of information that can be deciphered only by a recipient with the proper decrypting key
             • network neutrality: the requirement that all ISP's allow free flow of web traffic
               • technology gap: the widening disparity between the communicationtechnology haves and have nots
                 • digital divide: the lack of tech access among specific groups of Americans
                   • information gaps: tech gap feeds this
                     • municipal broadband: publicly provided low-cost, high-speed internet access
       • dataveillance: the massive collection and distillation of consumer data
         • we can opt out or opt in
         • Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Chip:
           • grain-of-sand-sized microchip and antenna embedded in consumer products that transmit a radio signal
         • Augumented Reality (AR): permits users to point phones at things in the real world and be instantly linked to websites containing information about those things superimposed over the screen image
           • Internet of Things (IoT):everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data. i.e. merchants using in store devices to automatically ring up customers, track real time shopping behaviors, tailored offered to customers
         • click stream: the electronic tracking of the choices we make when we are onlne; made possible by cookie, identifying code added to a computer's hard drive by a visited website
   • platforms that enable the interactive web by engaging users to participate in, comment on, and create content
     • Types of Social Media
       • Blogs
         • allow ppl to post content to a website that others can read
           • contain posts in chronological, journal-like format; usually allow for comments
             • can be personal or professional
             • sometimes can develop into news or culture sites
               • the huffington post, mashable, gawker
             • microblogging: twitter is usually considered to be a microblogging site
               • short messages arranged in chronological order
       • Collaborative Projects
         • a number of users come together to build something together
           • the most obvious example of this- WIKI
             • how reliable is Wiki
               • false info can last a long time depending on how popular a page is
                 • gamergate
                   • crowdfunding, organizing, event-planning
                     • crowdfunding: the practice of using digital technology to solicit donations from a large number of people for a cause or project, to attract financial and other support for those in need
       • Content Communities
         • websites that exist specifically to share content
           • sharing texts (fanfictions), photos (flickr), or videos (YouTube)
       • Social networking sites
         • social media
           • designed to facilitate connection between indivs
             • person to person, facilitated by the website
               • my space, facebook