Social Media 

Definition

Social media are web-based services that enable individuals, communities, and organizations to

work together, connect, interact, and build a community. These capabilities are achieved by

empowering users to generate, co-generate, modify, share, and engage with user-generated

content that is readily available (McCay-Peet et al., 2017)

Social Media History

The traditional forms of media, such as print, radio, telephone, and television, all employ a top-

down, broadcast communications approach. However, social media, on the other hand, permit

interaction between users in a peer-to-peer manner. As a result of the built-in peer-to-peer

discussion capabilities of social media, individuals can openly share their ideas and opinions on

an equal footing with one another. The vast majority of social media tools allow users to develop

and maintain social and professional contacts effortlessly. The first blogs debuted online in the

1990s but gained widespread acceptance after the turn of the century. Blogs are considered to be

one of the earliest types of social media. One of the most recent developments in social media,

Snapchat, is a platform that "snaps" pictures of its users' lives, including what they are doing,

where they are, and other information. LinkedIn is a social networking site that allows

professionals to network. Many big firms utilize LinkedIn as a recruiting tool because of its

extensive professional user base. Visual social media platforms are included in this discussion

because they emphasize media sharing. These platforms are helpful for a variety of purposes

(Sponder & Khan, 2018)

The popularity of social media increased dramatically with the advent of blogging. In the early

2000s, social networking sites like MySpace and professional networking sites like LinkedIn

rose to popularity, and picture-sharing sites like Photobucket and Flickr were widely used. By
allowing users to upload and exchange videos, YouTube revolutionized long-distance

communication in 2005. Social networking sites like Facebook and microblogging services like

Twitter were made available to people all over the globe in 2006. To this day, these platforms

continue to rank among the most frequented social media destinations online. Tumblr, Spotify,

Foursquare, and Pinterest are just a few sites that sprang up to meet the need for specialized

social networking (Hendricks, 2021)

There is a plethora of social media platforms available today, and many of them are compatible

with one another for cross-posting. This fosters a setting where people may connect with as

many people as possible without losing the depth of interpersonal interaction. What social

networking will look like a decade or a century from now is anyone's guess, but it seems likely

that it will continue to exist in some form for as long as people do (Hendricks, 2021)

Social Media Ethics

Our behaviors and how we relate to one another are both influenced by ethical guidelines and

moral principles, respectively (Freberg, 2021)

In collecting, aggregating, and reporting data from social media platforms, academics and

practitioners are only starting to cope with the myriad of ethical challenges highlighted. These

questions relate to personal privacy, accuracy, and responsibility. Even if the data collected from

social media platforms are frequently made available to the public, many ethical concerns should

give researchers pause. As a result of the fact that only some users of social networking sites are

happy with the idea of having their data analyzed, consent is frequently at the heart of many

arguments. Ethical issues are not just applicable to scraping large amounts of data; they are

equally pertinent in research of a more limited scope that relies on a few individual cases. These

sorts of talks acquire an ever-increasing level of relevance due to the introduction of new
legislation in various countries. For instance, the European Union recently adopted a new rule

that gives individuals greater control over their data stored on the internet. This particular topic

falls under the "right to be forgotten." Both the legality of storing data that users may desire to be

erased and the biases of the data acquired for analysis are new research concerns that have been

opened up for consideration by academics as a result of the unfolding legal problems (McCay-

Peet et al., 2017)

Social Media Uses

The use of social media makes it possible for people to maintain relationships with their

friends and extended family members. In addition, some individuals will utilize the different

social media platforms to network and locate professional prospects, connect with others from all

over the world who have similar interests, and express their ideas, feelings, and insights online

(Dollarhide, 2021)

Conclusion

Social media has become a fertile topic of study and a potential method for data

collection due to its increasing prevalence and effect on various social phenomena, such as

politics, self-presentation, social interaction, social movements, and scholarship. If ongoing

efforts are any indication, more work will be put into creating and evaluating new social media

research methodologies, which will aid in incorporating this growing body of information into

established models. However, given the growth of social media scholarship, more critical

research is needed to understand the biases inherent in using social media methodologies,

develop best practices for social media research, and support researchers and protect social

media users. The necessity to establish guidelines for dealing with ethical concerns is

exceptionally pressing. For instance, may academics utilize social media data without the
permission of the people who created the content? Should they utilize the data in the aggregate

form if they do use it? What ramifications, including incarceration, humiliation, mockery, and

damage to reputation, might participants incur if researchers make tweets and blog material

accessible, even if anonymized? There is much room for improvement in how academics collect,

store, analyze, and apply social media data. This is true regarding the social phenomena being

studied on these platforms.

 References

Dollarhide, M. (2021). Social Media: Definition, Effects, and List of Top Apps.

Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-media.asp

Freberg, K. (2021). Social Media for Strategic Communication: Creative Strategies and

Research-Based Applications (Second). SAGE Publications, Inc.

Hendricks, D. (2021, January 22). Complete History of Social Media: Then And Now.

Small Business Trends. https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/the-complete-history-of-social-

media-infographic.html

McCay-Peet, L., & Quan-Haase, A. (2017). What is social media and what questions can

social media research help us answer. The SAGE handbook of social media research methods,

13-26. https://methods-sagepub-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/book/the-sage-handbook-of-social-

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Sponder, M., & Khan, G. F. (2018). Digital Analytics for Marketing (Mastering Business

Analytics) (1st ed.). Routledge.