The best way to define social media is to break it down. Media is an instrument of communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of communication.
Defining media become debatable at times. To make it as easy as possible we break the term. Media is a communicative device. Hence, social media is a social communicative device. It is a platform through which through which individuals and the public generate and share different content. With the aid of new technologies and enhanced communication techniques introduced, social media have become easily accessible worldwide. Especially, through Facebook and Twitter, social media have now become the prevailing cause of news updates.
Why We Need Social Media?
In fact, Social media is a very broad term and covers a large range of forms, which include different forums, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, etc. Moreover this includes different websites: social bookmarking which involves interaction with sites and searching via sites bookmarked by individuals, social news that provides communication by voting for contents by commenting, social networking that enables interaction by adding friends and relatives, commenting, arguing over issues. In addition to these are social photo and video sharing websites. Most importantly there is Wikis that refers to interaction by posting articles and editing the existing ones.
The important thing about social media is that it has the ability to reach a global audience, either small or large, because it is easily accessible to everyone. Moreover, this type of media is also inexpensive as compared to the traditional media (newspaper, film, television). Other points distinguishing it include mode of production and operations, skills and cost of consumer.
There is no time delay between communications, as it is an instantaneous means of interaction. Even more, immediate alterations are possible by means of commenting or editing. No news is permanent, updated every second instead.
Reputation of Social Media:
Social media have also earned reputation in the arena of business. It has changed and enhanced the way professionals conducted their public relations. People now possess latest and straight forward methods to share ideas about brands and different products. This is because social media endows with a situation where clients and skilled individuals can communicate, give support to their product and develop their company’s representation, by keeping in touch with the public’s response.
In addition to all above-mentioned benefits of social media, it has also resulted in a positive impact on students because this has enhanced teaching techniques and studying methods. It provides with easy research on any topic immediately enabling students to work on their assignments by endeavoring less comparatively. Moreover, nobody lags behind as social media creates awareness of even the minute issues in every single individual. It updates the public of news of not only the country in which they are living, but in fact of the entire world.
At the same time, social media has negative impact on the youth. Current generation is engaged in social networking more than any other activity. Hence, one should use social media properly to gain maximum benefits.