British High Commission launched ‘Great Debate’ competition titled ‘’Social media will be an enormous benefit to Pakistan by 2047’’& EVERY ADULT IN PAKISTAN WILL BE LITERATE 2047 at Rawalpindi

Report By; Asghar Ali Mubarak

Rawalpindi: The British High Commission in Pakistan launched the ‘Great Debate’ competition nationwide on other day as well as at Riphah International University Al-Mizan IIMCT Complex, Old Supreme Court Building, 274 Peshawar Road, Rawalpindi Cantt.. Speakers from twin cities participated in the six hours marathon session including two short breaks for refreshment of Great Debate participants. The more than 45 Speakers from different universities like Foundation, Behriya, Preston, AIOU, MAJU, HAMDARD, and RIPHAH University speakers registered them self for the ‘Great Debate’ competition. Out of 45 speakers ten speakers Muhammad Fahad Butt,Zeeshan Ali,Asghar Ali Mubarak,Alishba Tahir,Meher Ali,Rahim Shah,Mehwish Sajjad,Sundas Suleman,Ali Anjum and Daniyal Ahmed Chughtai qualified for the main round , four speakers succeed for Rawalpindi final stage in which Daniyal Ahmed Chughtai declared winner by the honorable judges educations Ms.Samina Najeeb head of English department Riphah International University ,Mr.Ashfaq Hussain director Riphah International University and renowned journalist Mr.Sheharya Khan president national press club Islamabad for the ‘Great Debate’ nationwide competition.

Ms.Naqia Mustansir concepts unlimited on behalf of British High Commission Islamabad well come the participants and briefed the audience that the first round of the British High Commissions’ Pakistan–wide Great Debate competition was held at National University of Science and Technology (NUST) last month in Islamabad. She informed that further rounds of the competition will take place in 11 other key cities across Pakistan where university students will debate on topics concerning the theme of the competition: Pakistan 2047. The winner Daniyal Ahmed Chughtai will join, Islamabad’s champion Zara Shafique from Institute of Space and Technology, in the grand final where the winner of the Great Debate competition will be announced, and will be awarded with the British High Commission Scholarship. Students from other cities are encouraged to visit and register on the website where they will see a list of the 11 other host cities:

The competition invites university students from across the country to showcase their talents on the art of public speaking– a skill essential towards their development and future careers. It is also an opportunity to celebrate and promote the UK and Pakistan’s shared culture of vibrant discussion and intellectual debate. The theme for the debate competition is Pakistan 2047. The topics, inspired by the theme, aimed at discussing key areas that can impact the modern Pakistan of 2047. The debate competition will take place in 12 cities of Pakistan from where 12 winners will move to the grand finale where the winner of the competition will be awarded with the British High Commission Scholarship. Students from universities across the country are invited to register themselves. In a message the British Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan Patrick Moody said, “On behalf of the British HIGH COMMISSION I am delighted to launch the Great Debate competition. It will be a wonderful opportunity to hear Pakistan’s youth debate – the nation’s future. Debating is a unique art and a cornerstone of development – preparing an individual for their life as a potential future leader of Pakistan. “I am sure that the debaters will take this opportunity to showcase the vision of the next generation of how to achieve a better future for Pakistan the British High Commission in Pakistan launched the Great Debate competition nationwide on other day. The competition invites university students from across Pakistan to showcase their talents on the art of public speaking– a skill essential towards their development and future careers. It is also an opportunity to celebrate and promote the UK and Pakistan’s shared culture of vibrant discussion and intellectual debate. The theme for the debate competition is Pakistan 2047. The topics, inspired by the theme, aim to have the future leaders of Pakistan discuss key areas that can impact the modern Pakistan of 2047.The Great Debate competition will take place in 12 key cities of Pakistan from where 12 winners will then move to the grand final where the winner of the Great Debate competition will be announced and be awarded with the British High Commission Scholarship. Students from universities across the country are invited to register on the website: www.greatdebate.com.pk.The grand finale of the Great Debate competition will be judged by a panel of experts. The British Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan, Patrick Moody said:“On behalf of the British High Commission I am delighted to launch the GREAT Debate competition. It will be a wonderful opportunity to hear Pakistan’s youth debate the nation’s future. Debating is a unique art and a cornerstone of development – preparing an individual for their life as a potential future leader of Pakistan. “I am sure that the debaters will take this opportunity to showcase the vision of the next generation of how to achieve a better future for Pakistan. “Mr.Ashfaq Hussain director Riphah International University stated that ‘It was a great experience for us. Everyone performed really well and I got a chance to learn a lot from other talented students today. It was very competitive yet at the same time quite an amazing day. I would like to thank the British High Commission for organizing this remarkable opportunity and to Riphah International University Rawalpindi for conducting it at their prestigious university .He further stated that
Socio-economic development of our country is inextricably linked with its higher education system, particularly scientific research and innovation in technology. In view of the knowledge explosion, globalization and rapidly changing scenario in the world, Riphah International University has established high quality institutions of higher education specializing in the Sciences, Engineering, Technology, Medicine, Management, Information Technology and Pharmaceutical Sciences. In the present era of global competition, Pakistan needs scientists, engineers, managers, software and information technology professionals, medical doctors, social scientists and highly competitive work force to meet the challenges of 21st century. We are determined to inculcate morality, ethics, Islamic values and national spirit in our students, in addition to high degree of professional competitiveness. Education has been unanimously regarded the key factor in the development of personality of an individual, as well as of a society and a nation. The other judge of the competition Mr.Sheharya Khan President National Press Club Islamabad said that the. We need a new ethical world order which can only be erected with the help of competent, confident and ethically pro-active human resource as the end product of our academic programs the social media is playing vital role in this regard. The Pakistani media is set to play its crucial role in the economic development of Pakistan. Thanks a lot to The British High Commission in Pakistan launched the Great Debate competition at Rawalpindi and nationwide on other day the British High Commission in Islamabad is committed to supporting Pakistan, especially its youth, in exploring and showcasing their creativity, and talent. One such talent is the art of debating. The art of rhetoric is central to the development of institutions, nations and the cornerstone of the development of some of the most important philosophical and political revelations known to man. Asghar Ali Mubarak a participant stated that the GREAT Debate competition gives us a unique experience to make a case, to persuade, to make an argument. These skills will help us and essential traits to possess in public affairs, law, and modern businesses and for budding young entrepreneurs. Once again Thanks a lot to The British High Commission in Pakistan.

Great Debate Competition

This year the British High Commission has launched the GREAT Debate competition in Pakistan.
The competition is open to all enrolled university students. It is an ideal opportunity to get involved in healthy debates and not only enhance knowledge on key current affairs topics but also improve public speaking, and research skills, gain confidence, and engage with fellow students from universities all over Pakistan.
The competition will start be launched on 8th September 2015 when registration begins. The debate competition will first have inter-city debates which will take place in 12 key cities. From these cities, 12 winners will be announced who will then proceed to Islamabad for the grand final. The inter-city debates will run from 22nd September 2015 to 10th November 2015.
The Great Debate Competition

At Rawalpindi during the ‘’GREAT Debate competition ‘’following speech was delivered by Asghar Ali Mubarak topic’’

‘’Social media will be an enormous benefit to Pakistan by 2047’’

BY;ASGHAR ALI MUBARAK

Facebook Twitter Google Linkedin

An Introduction to Social Media

Social media means online content created by a distinct group of individuals using web based tools and technologies. Social media is a mix of technology and sociology which has enabled people to express their views by publishing their thoughts, feedback and criticism about any person, news, products, services, etc.

Social media is a change from one-to-one discussion to many-to-many discussion. Social media has helped people make online friendships for personal, or contacts for any business. To make all these things possible social media networks are available for people to achieve their goals. Today my topic is for discussion is Social media will be an enormous benefit to Pakistan by 2047.Networks that can help online publications in Pakistan to leverage their business and get complete benefit from them in both readership and monetary terms.In present time spending money on advertisements is tough for any business (publication) and this is why role of social media becomes more clear and important. Social media is the cheapest outlet for any online business to achieve all those targets which were previously done by spending huge money.I’m taking www.dailymailnews.com as a example and case study to completely describe the importance of social media networks for it. This case study will suit fit for other publications as well, including, Daily Dawn Daily Times, The Nation, Geo TV and others. For the Daily Mail Islamabad three networks can play a huge role to expand its readership and its revenue which are Digg, Facebook and Twitter.An Introduction to The Daily Mail’s Website

www.dailymailnews.com is the Internet Edition of Mail Publication, a leading daily English net newspaper of Islamabad Pakistan. Recently, www.dailymailnews.com revamped its online look and totally changed the layout of its web page. Now it’s more user friendly, letting readers to explore and find all the relevant news they are looking for and its soft blue and grey /pink /green color combination is pleasing to the reader’s eyes.

As a whole Daily Mail tried to give it a more web1.0 look and no doubt they did it quite well. www.dailymailnews.com serves news from around the world ranging from current affairs to entertainment, sports to technology etc.

It is one of the most visited website in Pakistan. From these stats it is evident along with Pakistan, almost equal number of visitors land on www.dailymailnews.com from other countries, which shows that www.dailymailnews.com is not only for Pakistan but is a news source for people around the web.

Firstly, I would like to point out few things which can make www.dailymailnews.com more user-friendly:

Readers can not comment on news stories, which discourage readers from expressing their views. www.dailymailnews.com does have a blog where you can comment on posts but a very little percentage of readers visit blogs on news sites. For news sites blogs are a way for their authors to express their views individually. A news story without comments is likely to get least attention because comments trigger discussion among the readers which in fact is what a story needs. Moreover, commenting makes your reader loyal

Even thought www.dailymailnews.com improved its looks, they can still get much better. Content can be made more visible with proper placement.

RSS is a very integral part of any online publication which www.dailymailnews.com does have but not quite visible to readers. RSS placement on proper place can increase RSS subscribers count considerably.

Now, let’s move onto the importance of the selected social media networks for www.dailymailnews.com.

How Digg can benefit www.dailymailnews.com:

Digg is news sharing social network where people from around the world submit news stories, images and videos in a vast variety of categories and then other people vote those stories towards the Digg FrontPage.

There are more than 300,000 users on digg who submit hundreds and thousands of stories daily but only around 200 stories make to Digg FrontPage. It won’t be wrong if we regard these stories as the luckiest ones.

On average a story which gets on the Digg FrontPage receives a minimum of 10,000 unique visitors and a maximum of 050,000 unique visitors to the original news source. But the problem is that getting Digg FrontPage is not easy. Many factors depend for a story to hit FrontPage.

But Digg FrontPage is a very powerful thing for the respective story and the source as a whole. Let’s outline some of its benefits:

When your story gets exposed to a huge amount of readers it’s very likely that most of them will become a loyal reader if your content pleases them.

Digg readers are familiar with RSS and they mostly subscribe to the source’s RSS so they can stay update with its new content.

As soon you hit the FrontPage other news destinations start linking to you and your story gets huge number of back links and starts ranking in first page of search engines for the relevant keywords.

Many advertisers visit digg to hunt for top news sources to place their adverts and target a specific segment of audience. So you get many new advertisers all the time.

A reader will only go to a story if the title pleases him and if he is interested in it. So you only get targeted audience which is definitely interested in your content.

Huge spikes in traffic help improve site’s ranking in search engines.

Till date www.dailymailnews.comhas been submitted on Digg for 222 times from which it got FrontPage only three times. The first FrontPage it got in late 2005 and the two most recent it got in the month of June which were submitted by me.

It merits mentioning here that the latest FrontPage which www.dailymailnews.com got was about the T20 win of Pakistan. That news was submitted from many big sources like BBC and others and was submitted by many power diggers but only dailymailnews.com got FrontPage in just 2hour and 48minutes. http://dailymailnews.com/category/box-item/How Facebook can benefit www.dailymailnews.com:

Facebook is social network which enables users to connect with each other and share pictures and many other things. In recent years Facebook has evolved a lot; it has bought many new features.

Today, it is up to this mark that even Google has a threat from it and has failed acquiring it. Facebook has grown at a very rapid pace. There were networks like this before but Facebook has a very strong influence of every one’s life today.

From the CEO of a company to a normal house wife has a Facebook account which he/she uses for many purposes. Facebook no doubt is the most famous social network in Pakistan. To be more precise according to Facebook interface reports most recent stats say there are 333,580+ active users from Pakistan. And total internet users in Pakistan are 5 million+. So it is clear that huge audience can be targeted on Facebook.

Let’s outline some of its benefits:

Face book recently introduced Pages which has proved to be the best way to market any product and service on Face book. From Coca cola to Pringles Chips everyone has a Face book Page.

Pages are a way to engage audience with the product. It gives them a chance to stay updated about the latest happening as the Page simply updates statuses which land on to every fans feeds page.

No limit how many fans can be of any page? The page owner can send bulk privates messages to all of its fans at one time, even if the number is in millions.

Rather than from spending money on advertising on Face book, these pages can in turn be advertised, this is more economical and better than advertising your website itself.

Even by just advertising this page on the www.dailymailnews.com website will save every penny and the fans will keep flowing in.

Give fans a chance to submit their views, images, videos and even start discussions.

There are many smart ways to cater the needs of readers which make the page hot and tons of fans add up daily. I checked if www.dailymailnews.com has a Face book page but I wasn’t much surprised as www.dailymailnews.com does not have any page not even a group.
(By the way, I would say a complete no for Groups for any brand, because pages have been introduced to cut the problems which were available in groups)

How Twitter can benefit www.dailymailnews.com:

Twitter is the most recent and rapidly growing micro-blogging social media network. It’s very simple and the concept is just to let people update short 140 character messages to keep connected with friends, family and co-workers.
It is not that famous in Pakistan because of lack of awareness. But with time it will also become a hit. The thing which keeps people sticked to it are that it can be used anywhere.

On computer there are tons of apps which can suit your taste, otherwise you can even use twitter on any simple warp enabled mobile.

By the way when I checked www.dailymailnews.com already has a twitter account but it does not look that engaging and active. It is managed by Makhdoom Babur Sultan and it can be found here. Don’t know if it is actually started by www.dailymailnews.com news itself. With a few things this twitter account can drive a lot of traffic to www.dailymailnews.com.

Let’s outline some of its benefits:

These dates many marketing pundits are comparing Twitter with Digg, because twitter has capacity to successfully send back 10,000 visitors through a single tweet. It all depends how active you are and how effectively you tweet so you can get retweets. Writing tweets and using the best possible short title is the real key to retweets.

Breaking news get the most exposure and retweets. If mail group can manage a permanent guy for this job then this can be a hidden jewel of traffic.

By keeping association with other people by replying to them really helps you get the respect and in turn they can help you a lot.

Following others is not wrong, people who think following tons of people is wrong and kind of spam my then I must say they are totally wrong. Twitter is all about two way interactions. www.dailymailnews.com can get huge updates from public with this strategy. For example just see how The Onion drives tons of traffic to its site.

Lastly people love to keep up with news through twitter now. If you can provide good news then you can make real loyal tweet readers.

Conclusion:

Social media if used in the right way and with transparency can be a real change for www.dailymailnews.com and sites like it, which can not only return them with thousands of dollars as monetary, but also with influential return.

سوشل میڈیا 2047 طرف سے پاکستان کو ایک بہت بڑا فائدہ ہو جائے گا

Effective Social Media Strategies – Four Tips, Four Benefits

Companies that incorporate best practices in their approach to social media can get the maximum benefit from social media initiatives.

With the explosion of social media usage around the world, social media websites have become an important platform for businesses to engage with customers, prospects, employees, and candidates. For customer interactions, companies use external social media platforms to engage with existing and prospective customers, reinforce brand messaging, influence customer opinions, and provide targeted offers, and service customer more efficiently. In hiring, companies are using these platforms to reach out to and engage with prospective employees in a more targeted and engaging manner. In employee engagement, companies are deploying internal social media tools to drive greater employee engagement, collaboration, and productivity. In new product development and launch, companies are using a mix of internal and external social media tools for idea generation, idea evaluation, and fast new product launch.

Social media strategies

As companies focus on effectively leveraging social media platforms, there are a few critical things to keep in mind. Here are the four strategies that have achieved superior results:

1. Develop a comprehensive social media strategy. While Facebook And Twitter are the most used social media platforms, a comprehensive social media strategy should incorporate additional social media platforms where customers, prospects, employees and candidates could be talking about the company. Some examples include:

Business networking and hiring platforms such as Linkedin

Industry-specific platforms, e.g. travel forums, automotive message boards

Specialty multimedia sharing sites such as YouTube and Pinterest

Country-specific platforms such as Renren.com

To be able to know which social media platforms to incorporate as part of its social media strategy, a company needs to systematically track top platforms where the company and its brands are being discussed.

Establish a two-way communication model.Companies who use social media just to disseminate information to customers may not see high returns from social media usage. Instead, companies who use social media platforms as a two-way communication medium tend to have a more successful social media approach. There are several tactics that can be used to establish two-way communication, including:

Posting questions and surveys related to the company as well as general topics of interests

Getting customers, prospects, employees, and candidates to share their queries and experiences related to the company and its products, as well as themes related to the company’s business (e.g., best travel stories). This can even extend to the sharing of photos and videos

Set up dedicated customer service pages, tabs, or handles, as well as dedicated candidate query pages, with a promise of high responsiveness

Doing this requires constant focus on generating new ideas and content for social media, as well as the ability to post content and responses in a highly efficient and streamlined manner.

Retain control of content being posted on behalf of the company.Some companies tend to outsource their social media asset management to their advertising partners. In such situations, however, companies should make sure they retain control of and full editorial rights to what is being posted on their behalf. Companies can do this by putting in placed automated approval workflows and escalation processes between their partners and internal teams.
Set targets and measure performance.It is critical for companies embarking on social media initiatives to set targets, measure performance against those targets, and compare their performance against competitors. What is measured gets improved. Some of the key performance indicators to track include:

Share of social media conversations for the company/brand vis-à-vis competitors

Positive and negative sentiment for the company/brand vis-à-vis competitors

Monthly addition in number of social media followers

Average time taken to respond to comments by social media users by type of comment (e.g. positive feedback, customer service issue)

Percent of résumés being sourced via social media, and percent of positions being closed through social media

Reaping the benefits

Companies who incorporate these best practices in their social media strategy can get the maximum benefit from their social media initiatives. Some of the benefits include:

Overall:Increased followership on social media sites and increased brand share of voice on social media platforms vis-à-vis competitors
2. Sales improvements:Sales leads generated from social media platforms; and improved conversion of leads through actively engaging with prospects, providing targeted offers via social media, and driving greater brand advocacy by providing an open platform for happy customers to voice their opinions

3. Customer service improvements: Reduced time of responding to customers and improved customer satisfaction

4. Efficiency improvements: A large number of customers/prospects/candidates reached at a lower cost compared to traditional advertising/communication media, marketing campaigns executed faster, and faster ability to hire.

A social media strategy that incorporates the key principles listed above can results in significant benefits from social media usage for companies.

6 Main Benefits of Using A Social Media

If you aren’t using a social media management company already, you are likely missing out on some major benefits, and probably spending a great deal of time that you don’t need to in order to keep your social networks updated.

A social media management company can help you to be better at social media, and to create a presence that actually builds your business and helps you to engage with your customers. There are a few methods of managing your social media and using a social media management company is definitely the best.

Social media is one of the main ways that businesses communicate to customers or other businesses, but so many fail at social media because they simply don’t have the time to do all of the things required to make it successful.

Many companies have created dedicated social media managers or teams, but still have limited success. That’s because even for a dedicated team of people, it can be difficult to keep up with all of the latest that is going on with social media networks. That’s why using a social media management company can have enormous benefits.

Here are six of the biggest.

You Get Quality Content

When you use social media you want to create engaging, relevant content that will give value to your customers and you want it to be as high-quality as possible. Some companies outsource these professional writers, but when you use a social media management company you don’t have to worry about this step because they will take care of it for you.

You Get Extra Time

When you use a social media manager you get all of the time that you were spending posting on social media, creating clever hash tags and advertising campaigns, and all of the other tasks that go with maintaining a successful social network returned to you. You get all of that extra time that you can then use to grow your business and concentrate on the things that you need to deal with other than social media.

You Get the Benefit of Expertise

Social media management companies not only have the experience and understand the landscape of social media; they also have a great deal of knowledge.

You are working with experts in the world of social media and can advise you on which social networks to focus on, when to run advertising campaigns, how often to post to social media and many other things that require technical knowledge. You also get the added benefit of evolving information since they will stay up to date on what they need to know to manage your network successfully.

You Get Out of the Box Thinking

Social media management companies can provide creative solutions that you might not have been able to come up with on your own. Part of the reason is that they have experience and information that you don’t have, but they also have their finger on the pulse of the latest social media trends and so can act quickly when they spot an idea that they know is going to be successful.

They can give you fresh approaches to achieving your goals with social media and create original concepts that could give your brand a huge boost.

You save Money by Making Money

You are going to spend money when you use a social media management company, but it is important to remember that it is an investment and as such, you are likely to get a good return. When you use an experienced company that can help you grow your business, you are going to get more followers, more customers and your revenue is going to increase.

If you were to use your own team, it would likely cost a great deal more and you probably wouldn’t have as much success and using experienced and knowledgeable professionals.

You Get Results

Finally, you are going to get results. Social media management companies are going to work hard to get results for you, because that is the only way that they are able to build their business. They aren’t going to last very long unless they have a good track record of getting results for their clients.

DEFINITION of social media

Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. Websites and applications dedicated to forums, micro blogging, social networking , social bookmarking, social creation, and wikis are among the different types of social media.

Here are some prominent examples of social media:

Facebook is a popular free social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. According to statistics from the Nielsen Group, Internet users within the United States spend more time on Facebook than any other website.

Twitter is a free microblogging service that allows registered members to broadcast short posts called tweets. Twitter members can broadcast tweets and follow other users’ tweets by using multiple platforms and devices.

Google+ (pronounced Google plus) is Google’s social networking project, designed to replicate the way people interact offline more closely than is the case in other social networking services. The project’s slogan is “Real-life sharing rethought for the web.”

Wikipedia is a free, open content online encyclopedia created through the collaborative effort of a community of users known as Wikipedians. Anyone registered on the site can create an article for publication; registration is not required to edit articles. Wikipedia was founded in January of 2001.

LinkedIn is a social networking site designed specifically for the business community. The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally.

Reddit is a social news website and forum where stories are socially curated and promoted by site members. The site is composed of hundreds of sub-communities, known as “subreddits.” Each subreddit has a specific topic such as technology, politics or music. Reddit site members, also known as, “radiators,” submit content which is then voted upon by other members. The goal is to send well-regarded stories to the top of the site’s main thread page.

Pinterest is a social creation website for sharing and categorizing images found online. Pinterest requires brief descriptions but the main focus of the site is visual. Clicking on an image will take you to the original source, so, for example, if you click on a picture of a pair of shoes, you might be taken to a site where you can purchase them. An image of blueberry pancakes might take you to the recipe; a picture of a whimsical birdhouse might take you to the instructions.

Brian Solis created the following social media chart, known as the conversation prism, to categorize social sites and services into various types of social media.

Social media is becoming an integral part of life online as social websites and applications proliferate. Most traditional online media include social components, such as comment fields for users. In business, social media is used to market products, promote brands, and connect to current customers and foster new business.

Social media analytics is the practice of gathering data from blogs and social media websites and analyzing that data to make business decisions. The most common use of social media analytics is to mine customer sentiment to support marketing and customer service activities.

Social media marketing (SMM) takes advantage of social networking to help a company increase brand exposure and broaden customer reach. The goal is usually to create content compelling enough those users will share it with their social networks.

One of the key components of SMM is social media optimization (SMO). Like search engine optimization (SEO), SMO is a strategy for drawing new and unique visitors to a website. SMO can be done two ways: by adding social media links to content such as RSS feeds and sharing buttons, or by promoting activity through social media via status updates, tweets, or blog posts.

Social CRM (customer relationship marketing) can be a very powerful business tool. For example, establishing a Facebook page allows people who like your brand and the way you conduct business to Like your page, which creates a venue for communication, marketing and networking. Through social media sites, you can follow conversations about your brand for real-time market data and feedback.

From the customer’s perspective, social media makes it easy to tell a company and everyone else about their experiences with that company — whether those experiences are good or bad. The business can also respond very quickly to both positive and negative feedback, attend to customer problems and maintain, regain or rebuild customer confidence.

Enterprise social networking allows a company to connect individuals who share similar business interests or activities. Internally, social tools can help employee’s access information and resources they need to work together effectively and solve business problems. Externally, public social media platforms help an organization stay close to their customers and make it easier to conduct research that they can use to improve business processes and operations.

Social media is also often used for crowd sourcing. Customers can use social networking sites to offer ideas for future products or tweaks to current ones. In IT projects, crowd sourcing usually involves engaging and blending business and IT services from a mix of internal and external providers, sometimes with input from customers and/or the general public.

On the other hand, the integration of social media in the business world can also pose challenges. Social media policies are designed to set expectations for appropriate behavior and ensure that an employee’s posts will not expose the company to legal problems or public embarrassment. Such policies include directives for when an employee should identify himself as a representative of the company on a social networking website, as well as rules for what types of information can be shared.

What is social media? Here are some definitions…

When I was asked to wrap a neat definition around social media. It seems increasingly hard to do this without sounding like a bit of a tool.

I said something along the lines of: “It’s about participation, which can happen on your site and else where. It boosts engagement and as such you must learn to love it.”

Thankfully I avoided phrases like ‘new paradigm’ and ‘leveraging user-generated synergies’, but still, I wasn’t entirely happy with my framework. I didn’t talk about media, as such, or the types of media, but distilled it into interaction and engagement. I’m not sure that’s much of a definition, for the average journalist or newcomer.

I want a stickier, more memorable definition. So I looked it up, and asked the question to our Twitter followers to see what came back at me…

Social media defined

“Social media are primarily Internet-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings.” – Wikipedia

“A category of sites that is based on user participation and user-generated content. They include social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, or My Space, social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, social news sites like Digg or Simply, and other sites that are centered on user interaction.” – Lazworld

“Online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other.” – tvb.org

“Social media are works of user-created video, audio, text or multimedia that are published and shared in a social environment, such as a blog, wiki or video hosting site.” –Capilanou

“An umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures.” – Anvil Media

“Software tools that allow groups to generate content and engage in peer-to-peer conversations and exchange of content (examples are YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace etc).” – Bottle PR

“Social Media is the collection of tools and online spaces available to help individuals and businesses to accelerate their information and communication needs.” – Axel Schultze

Other useful pointers

iCrossing’s e-book (PDF) on social media neatly captures the five key elements of social media: participation, openness, conversation, community, connectedness.

Social media overlord Robert Scoble has previously described it thus: “When I say ‘social media’ or “new media” I’m talking about Internet media that has the ability to interact with it in some way.”

Marta Kagan’s excellent ‘What The F**K is Social Media’ slideshow has a pretty good definition: “Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio.”

The Twittersphere speaketh!

In addition to the above I thought it would be a good idea to ask our glorious Twitter followers the question: “What is social media?” (in 140 characters or less). Our thanks to all who took part.

Here’s what they defined it as…

Social media is like going to a large party. Put on your best outfit, try to be entertaining, don’t put own foot in mouth – @srufo

Social Media = Sharing Caring Conversations Online – @ActiveLife

A place to hang out and communicate with your own networks of contacts, friends and peers about stuff that interests you – @rumbels

Social Media = The facilitation and practice of engagement and conversation online – @rosiefresh

People. Technology. Communication. Ideas. Choice. – @EngineCreative

It’s new groups of online media which share things like openness, ‘connectedness’ participation, conversation and community – @KateBiz

Definition of social media: Media that allows discussion and interaction, as opposed to broadcast only. – @leifkendall

My definition of social media ‘the Internet’s original purpose-not a new phenomena’ but there are other forms of ‘offline’ SM – @greenwellys

Talking online with people you don’t know in the hope that they’ll become customers! – @supanovatrainer

A set of websites that allows users to directly interact with each other – @Nenad

The definition of social media du jour is, simply, ‘140 characters or less’ –@oliverpayne

This year’s equivalent of WAP portals – @mattycurry

A place where people go connect with other people. I guess the ‘love’ column in London Paper could even be a social media. It isn’t limited to online media –@matthewgain

No holds barred informal networking and content sharing – @thefloatingfrog

Internet tools developed and defined in part by the people who use them and that connect those people in some way – @talance

SM is a open platform, free form, uncensored conversation between millions of people worldwide without borders. – @catlowmusic

Our web tomorrow, today – @rafiq

Something non-institutional involving a level discursive playing field…or something like that – @alasdairt

Social media is getting a msg across in as few words as possible, in as little time as possible, to as many people as possible – @KateHorstead

Engage, share, spread, cooperate, interact, learn, enjoy – @fredchannel

An online communication community where networks formed by the members shape the flow and formation of the content? – @justingould

Social Media is how Internet changed social networking by using all the different web tools to communicate socially. – @tornow

It is a thing of opposites; compelling and annoying, time wasting and time efficient, useful and useless. – @nettya

That’s about 34 definitions to choose from. Not sure if that helps or hinders, but take yer pick, or add your own below.

Social media

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Diagram depicting the many different types of social media

Social media are computer-mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks. Social media is defined as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.”^[1] Furthermore, social media depend on mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content. They introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication between businesses, organizations, communities, and individuals These changes are the focus of the emerging field of technoself studies. Social media differ from traditional or industrial media in many ways, including quality,^[3] reach, frequency, usability, immediacy and permanence. Social media operates in a dialogic transmission system, (many sources to many receivers).^[4] This is in contrast to traditional media that operates under a monologic transmission model (one source to many receivers).

“Social media has been broadly defined to refer to ‘the many relatively inexpensive and widely accessible electronic tools that enable anyone to publish and access information, collaborate on a common effort, or build relationships'”

There are many effects that stem from internet usage. According to Nielsen, internet users continue to spend more time with social media sites than any other type of site. At the same time, the total time spent on social media in the U.S. across PC and mobile devices increased by 99 percent to 121 billion minutes in July 2012 compared to 66 billion minutes in July 2011.^[6] For content contributors, the benefits of participating in social media have gone beyond simply social sharing to building reputation and bringing in career opportunities and monetary income, as discussed in Tang, Gu, and Whinstone (2012)

Classification of social media

Classification of social media and overview of how important different types of social media (e.g. blogs) are for each of a company’s operational functions (e.g. marketing).

Social media technologies take on many different forms including blogs, business networks, enterprise social networks, forums, microblogs, photo sharing, products/services review, social bookmarking, social gaming, social networks, video sharing and virtual worlds.

The development of social media started off with simple platforms such as sixdegrees.com.^[9] Unlike instant messaging clients such as ICQ and AOL’s AIM, sixdegrees.com was the first online business that was created for real people, using their real names. However, the first social networks were short-lived because their users lost interest. The Social Network Revolution has led to the rise of the networking sites. Research^[10] shows that the audience spends 22 percent of their time on social networking sites, thus proving how popular social media platforms have become.

Virality

Some social media sites have greater virality – defined as a greater likelihood that users will reshare content posted (by another user) to their social network. Many social media sites provide specific functionality to help users reshare content – for example, Twitter‘s retweet button, Pinterest pin or Tumblr‘s reblog function. Businesses may have a particular interest in viral marketing;nonprofit organisations and activists may have similar interests in virality.

Mobile social media refers to the combination of mobile devices and social media. This is a group of mobile marketing applications that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.^[11] Due to the fact that mobile social media run on mobile devices, they differ from traditional social media by incorporating new factors such as the current location of the user (location-sensitivity) or the time delay between sending and receiving messages (time-sensitivity). According to Andreas Kaplan, mobile social media applications can be differentiated among four types:

Space-timers (location and time sensitive): Exchange of messages with relevance for one specific location at one specific point in time (e.g.Facebook Places; Foursquare)
Space-locators (only location sensitive): Exchange of messages, with relevance for one specific location, which are tagged to a certain place and read later by others (e.g.Yelp; Qype)
Quick-timers (only time sensitive): Transfer of traditional social media applications to mobile devices to increase immediacy (e.g. postingTwittermessages or Facebook status updates)
Slow-timers (neither location, nor time sensitive): Transfer of traditional social media applications to mobile devices (e.g. watching a YouTubevideo or reading a Wikipedia entry)

Mobile social media and business potential

Although traditional social media offer a variety of opportunities for companies in a wide range of business sectors, Economic Sector mobile social media makes use of the location- and time-sensitivity aspects of it in order to engage into marketing research, communication, sales promotions/discounts, and relationship development/loyalty programs.

Marketing research: Mobile social media applications offer data about offline consumer movements at a level of detail heretofore limited to online companies. Any firm can now know the exact time at which a customer entered one of its outlets, as well as comments made during the visit.^[11]
Communication: Mobile social media communication takes two forms, the first of which is company-to-consumer in which a company may establish a connection to a consumer based on its location and provide reviews about locations nearby. The second type of communication is user-generated content. For example, McDonald’s offered $5 and $10 gift cards to 100 users randomly selected among those checking in at one of the restaurants. This promotion increased check-ins by 33% (from 2,146 to 2,865), resulted in over 50 articles and blog posts, and prompted several hundred thousand news feeds and Twitter messages.
Sales promotions and discounts: Although in the past customers had to use printed coupons, mobile social media allows companies to tailor promotions to specific users at specific times. For example, when launching its California-Cancun service, Virgin America offered users who checked in through Loopt at one of three designated Border Grill taco trucks in San Francisco and Los Angeles between 11 am and 3 pm on August 31, 2010, two tacos for $1 and two flights to Mexico for the price of one.
Relationship development and loyalty programs: In order to increase long-term relationships with customers, companies are able to create loyalty programs that allow customers who check-in regularly at a location to earn discounts or perks. For example, American Eagle Outfitters remunerates such customers with a tiered 10%, 15%, or 20% discount on their total purchase.
E-Commerce: Mobile social media applications such ascom and Pinterest are influencing an upward trend in the popularity and accessibility of e-commerce, or online purchases

According to the Nielsen Company‘s “The U.S. Digital Consumer Report”, almost half (47%) of smartphone owners visit social networks every day via mobile applications. With the rapid adoption of mobile devices, social media has a symbiotic relationship with the mobile consumer.

Distinction from other media

E-commerce businesses may refer to social media as consumer-generated media (CGM). A common thread running through all definitions of social media is a blending of technology and social interaction for the co-creation of value.

People obtain information, education, news, and other data from electronic and print media. Social media are distinct from industrial or traditional media such as newspapers, television, and film as they are comparatively inexpensive and accessible. They enable anyone (even private individuals) to publish or access information. Industrial media generally require significant resources to publish information as in most cases the articles go through many revisions before being published.

One characteristic shared by both social and industrial media is the capability to reach small or large audiences; for example, either a blog post or a television show may reach no people or millions of people. Some of the properties that help describe the differences between social and industrial media are:

Quality: In industrial (traditional) publishing—mediated by a publisher—the typical range of quality is substantially narrower than in niche, unmediated markets. The main challenge posed by content in social media sites is the fact that the distribution of quality has high variance: from very high-quality items to low-quality, sometimes abusive content.
Reach: Both industrial and social media technologies provide scale and are capable of reaching a global audience. Industrial media, however, typically use a centralized framework for organization, production, and dissemination, whereas social media are by their very nature more decentralized, less hierarchical, and distinguished by multiple points of production and utility.
Frequency: The number of times an advertisement is displayed on social media platforms.
Accessibility: The means of production for industrial media are typically government and/or corporate (privately owned); social media tools are generally available to the public at little or no cost.
Usability: Industrial media production typically requires specialized skills and training. Conversely, most social media production requires only modest reinterpretation of existing skills; in theory, anyone with access can operate the means of social media production.
Immediacy: The time lag between communications produced by industrial media can be long (days, weeks, or even months) compared to social media (which can be capable of virtually instantaneous responses).
Permanence: Industrial media, once created, cannot be altered (once a magazine article is printed and distributed, changes cannot be made to that same article) whereas social media can be altered almost instantaneously by comments or editing.

Community media constitute a hybrid of industrial and social media. Though community-owned, some community radio, TV, and newspapers are run by professionals and some by amateurs. They use both social and industrial media frameworks.

Social media have also been recognized for the way they have changed how public relations professionals conduct their jobs. They have provided an open arena where people are free to exchange ideas on companies, brands, and products. As stated by Doc Searls and David Wagner, two authorities on the effects of Internet on marketing, advertising, and PR, “The best of the people in PR are not PR types at all. They understand that there aren’t censors, they’re the company’s best conversationalists.”^[ Social media provides an environment where users and PR professionals can converse, and where PR professionals can promote their brand and improve their company’s image by listening and responding to what the public is saying about their product.

Managing social media

There is an increasing trend towards using social media monitoring tools that allow marketers to search, track, and analyze conversation on the web about their brand or about topics of interest. This can be useful in PR management and campaign tracking, allowing the user to measure return on investment, competitor-auditing, and general public engagement. Tools range from free, basic applications to subscription-based, more in-depth tools.

The honeycomb framework defines how social media services focus on some or all of seven functional building blocks. These building blocks help explain the engagement needs of the social media audience. For instance, LinkedIn users are thought to care mostly about identity, reputation, and relationships, whereas YouTube’s primary features are sharing, conversations, groups, and reputation. Many companies build their own social containers that attempt to link the seven functional building blocks around their brands. These are private communities that engage people around a more narrow theme, as in around a particular brand, vocation or hobby, rather than social media containers such asGoogle+, Facebook, and Twitter. PR departments face significant challenges in dealing with viral negative sentiment directed at organizations or individuals on social media platforms (dubbed “sentimentitis”), which may be a reaction to an announcement or event.

Honeycomb framework of social media

In a 2011 article Jan H. Kietzmann, Kristopher Hermkens, Ian P. McCarthy and Bruno S. Silvestre

Present a framework that defines social media by using seven functional building blocks: identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and groups.

Identity: This block represents the extent to which users reveal their identities in a social media setting. This can include disclosing information such as name, age, gender, profession, location, and also information that portrays users in certain ways.
Conversations: This block represents the extent to which users communicate with other users in a social media setting. Many social media sites are designed primarily to facilitate conversations among individuals and groups. These conversations happen for all sorts of reasons. People tweet, blog, et cetera to meet new like-minded people, to ﬁnd true love, to build their self-esteem, or to be on the cutting edge of new ideas or trending topics. Yet others see social media as a way of making their message heard and positively impacting humanitarian causes, environmental problems, economic issues, or political debates.
Sharing: This block represents the extent to which users exchange, distribute, and receive content. The term ‘social’ often implies that exchanges between people are crucial. In many cases, however, sociality is about the objects that mediate these ties between people—the reasons why they meet online and associate with each other.
Presence: This block represents the extent to which users can know if other users are accessible. It includes knowing where others are, in the virtual world and/or in the real world, and whether they are available.
Relationships: This block represents the extent to which users can be related to other users. Two or more users have some form of association that leads them to converse, share objects of sociality, meet up, or simply just list each other as a friend or fan.
Reputation: This block represents the extent to which users can identify the standing of others, including themselves, in a social media setting. Reputation can have different meanings on social media platforms. In most cases, reputation is a matter of trust, but because information technologies are not yet good at determining such highly qualitative criteria, social media sites rely on ‘mechanical Turks’: tools that automatically aggregate user-generated information to determine trustworthiness.Reputation management is another aspect and use of social media.
Groups: This block represents the extent to which users can form communities and sub communities. The more ‘social’ a network becomes, the bigger the group of friends, followers, and contacts.^[2]

Building “social authority” and vanity

It is through this process of “building social authority” that social media becomes effective. One of the foundational concepts in social media has become that you cannot completely control your message through social media but rather you can simply begin to participate in the “conversation” expecting that you can achieve a significant influence in that conversation.

However, this conversation participation must be cleverly executed because although people are resistant to marketing in general, they are even more resistant to direct or overt marketing through social media platforms. This may seem counterintuitive but it is the main reason building social authority with credibility is so important. A marketer can generally not expect people to be receptive to a marketing message in and of itself. In the Edelman Trust Barometer report in 2008, the majority (58%) of the respondents reported they most trusted company or product information coming from “people like me” inferred to be information from someone they trusted. In the 2010 Trust Report,^[ the majority switched to 64% preferring their information from industry experts and academics. According to Inc. Technology’s Brent Leary, “This loss of trust, and the accompanying turn towards experts and authorities, seems to be coinciding with the rise of social media and networks.

Social media mining

Social Media Mining is the process of representing, analyzing, and extracting actionable patterns from social media data. Social Media Mining, introduces basic concepts and principal algorithms suitable for investigating massive social media data; it discusses theories and methodologies from different disciplines such as computer science, data mining, machine learning, social network analysis, network science, sociology, ethnography, statistics, optimization, and mathematics. It encompasses the tools to formally represent, measure, model, and mine meaningful patterns from large-scale social media data.

Global usage

According to the article “The Emerging Role of Social Media in Political and Regime Change” by Rita Safranek, “The Middle East and North Africa region has one of the most youthful populations in the world, with people under 25 making up between 35-45% of the population in each country. They make up the majority of social media users, including about 17 million Facebook users, 25,000 Twitter accounts and 40,000 active blogs, according to the Arab Advisors Group.

Effects of using social media for news purposes

Just as television turned a nation of people who listened to media content into watchers of media content, the emergence of social media has created a nation of media content creators. According to 2011 Pew Research data, nearly 80% of American adults are online and nearly 60% of them use social networking sites.^[24] More Americans get their news via the Internet than from newspapers or radio, as well as three-fourths who say they get news from e-mail or social media sites updates, according to a report published by CNN. The survey suggests that Facebook and Twitter make news a more participatory experience than before as people share news articles and comment on other people’s posts. According to CNN, in 2010 75% of people got their news forwarded through e-mail or social media posts, whereas 37% of people shared a news item via Facebook or Twitter.

In the United States, 81% of people say they look online for news of the weather, first and foremost. National news at 73%, 52% for sports news, and 41% for entertainment or celebrity news. Based on this study, done for the Pew Center, two-thirds of the sample’s online news users were younger than 50, and 30% were younger than 30. The survey involved tracking daily the habits of 2,259 adults 18 or older.^[26] 33% of young adults get news from social networks. 34% watched TV news and 13% read print or digital content. 19% of Americans got news from Face book, Google+, or LinkedIn. 36% of those who get news from social network got it yesterday from survey. More than 36% of Twitter users use accounts to follow news organizations or journalists. 19% of users say they got information from news organizations of journalists. TV remains most popular source of news, but audience is aging (only 34% of young people).

29% of those younger than 25 said they got no news yesterday either digitally or traditional news platforms. Only 5% under 30 said they follow news about political figures and events in DC. Only 14% of respondents could answer all four questions about which party controls the House, current unemployment rate, what nation Angela Merkel leads, and which presidential candidate favors taxing higher-income Americans. Facebook and Twitter now pathways to news, but are not replacements for traditional ones. 70% get social media news from friends and family on Facebook.

Social media fosters communication. An internet research company, PewResearch Center, claims that “more than half of internet users (52%) use two or more of the social media sites measured (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest) to communicate with their family or friends

For children, using social media sites can help promote creativity, interaction, and learning. It can also help them with homework and class work. Moreover, social media enable them to stay connected with their peers, and help them to interact with each other. Some can get involved with developing fundraising campaigns and political events. However, it can impact social skills due to the absence of face-to-face contact. Social media can affect mental health of teens. Teens who use Facebook frequently and especially who are susceptible may become more narcissistic, antisocial, and aggressive. Teens become strongly influenced by advertising, and it influences buying habits for in the future. Since the creation of Facebook in 2004, it has become a distraction and a way to waste time for many users.

In a recent study conducted, high school students ages 18 and younger were examined in an effort to find their preference for receiving news. Based on interviews with 61 teenagers, conducted from December 2007 to February 2011, most of the teen participants reported reading print newspapers only “sometimes,” with fewer than 10% reading them daily. The teenagers instead reported learning about current events from social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and blogs.^[31] Another study showed that social media users read a set of news that is different from what newspaper editors feature in the print press.

Using nanotechnology as an example, Runge et al. (2013)^[ studied tweets from Twitter and found that some 41% of the discourse about nanotechnology focused on its negative impacts, suggesting that a portion of the public may be concerned with how various forms of nanotechnology are used in the future. Although optimistic-sounding and neutral-sounding tweets were equally likely to express certainty or uncertainty, the pessimistic tweets were nearly twice as likely to appear certain of an outcome as uncertain. These results imply the possibility of a preconceived negative perception of many news articles associated with nanotechnology. Alternatively, these results could also imply that posts of a more pessimistic nature that are also written with an air of certainty are more likely to be shared or otherwise permeate groups on Twitter. Similar biases need to be considered when the utility of new media is addressed, as the potential for human opinion to over-emphasize any particular news story is greater despite the general improvement in addressed potential uncertainty and bias in news articles than in traditional media. On October 2, 2013, the most common hash tag throughout the United States was “#government shutdown,” as well as ones focusing on political parties, Obama, and healthcare. Most news sources have Twitter, and Facebook, pages, like CNN and the New York Times, providing links to their online articles, getting an increased readership. Additionally, several college news organizations and administrators have Twitter pages as a way to share news and connect to students.

According to “Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2013, in the US, among those who use social media to find news, 47% of these people are under 45 years old, and 23% are above 45 years old. However social media as a main news gateway does not follow the same pattern across countries. For example, in this report, in Brazil, 60% of the respondents said social media was one of the five most important ways to find news online, 45% in Spain, 17% in the UK, 38% in Italy, 14% in France, 22% in Denmark, 30% in the U.S., and 12% in Japan. Moreover, there are differences among countries about commenting on news in social networks, 38% of the respondents in Brazil said they commented on news in social network in a week. These percentages are 21% in the U.S. and 10% in the UK. The authors argued that differences among countries may be due to culture difference rather than different levels of access to technical tools.

History and memory effects

News media and television journalism have been instrumental in the shaping of American collective memory for much of the twentieth century. Indeed, since the United States’ colonial era, news media has influenced collective memory and discourse about national development and trauma. In many ways, mainstream journalists have maintained an authoritative voice as the storytellers of the American past. Their documentary style narratives, detailed exposes, and their positions in the present make them prime sources for public memory. Specifically, news media journalists have shaped collective memory on nearly every major national event – from the deaths of social and political figures to the progression of political hopefuls. Journalists provide elaborate descriptions of commemorative events in U.S. history and contemporary popular cultural sensations. Many Americans learn the significance of historical events and political issues through news media, as they are presented on popular news stations.However, journalistic influence is growing less important, whereas social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, provide a constant supply of alternative news sources for users.

As social networking becomes more popular among older and younger generations, sites such as Face book and YouTube gradually undermine the traditionally authoritative voices of news media. For example, American citizens contest media coverage of various social and political events as they see fit, inserting their voices into the narratives about America’s past and present and shaping their own collective memories. An example of this is the public explosion of the Trayvon Martin shooting in Sanford, Florida. News media coverage of the incident was minimal until social media users made the story recognizable through their constant discussion of the case. Approximately one month after the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, its online coverage by everyday Americans garnered national attention from mainstream media journalists, in turn exemplifying media activism. In some ways, the spread of this tragic event through alternative news sources parallels that of the Emmitt Till – whose murder became a national story after it circulated African American and Communists newspapers. Social media was also influential in the widespread attention given to the revolutionary outbreaks in the Middle East and North Africa during 2011. However, there is some debate about the extent to which social media facilitated this kind of change. Another example of this shift is in the ongoing Kony 2012 campaign, which surfaced first on YouTube and later garnered a great amount of attention from mainstream news media journalists. These journalists now monitor social media sites to inform their reports on the movement. Lastly, in the past couple of presidential elections, the use of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter were used to predict election results. U.S. President Barack Obama was more liked on Facebook than his opponent Mitt Romney and it was found by a study done by Oxford Institute Internet Experiment that more people liked to tweet about comments of President Obama rather than Romney.

Criticisms of social media

Criticisms of social media range from criticisms of the ease of use of specific platforms and their capabilities, disparity of information available, issues with trustworthiness and reliability of information presented, the impact of social media use on an individual’s concentration, ownership of media content, and the meaning of interactions created by social media. Although some social media platforms offer users the opportunity to cross-post simultaneously, some social network platforms have been criticized for poor interoperability between platforms, which leads to the creation of information silos- isolated pockets of data contained in one social media platform However, it is also argued that social media have positive effects such as allowing the democratization of the internet while also allowing individuals to advertise themselves and form friendships. Others^] have noted that the term “Social” cannot account for technological features of a platform alone, hence the level of sociability should determined by the actual performances of its users.

There has been a dramatic decrease in face-to-face interactions as more and more social media platforms have been introduced with the threat of cyber-bullying and online sexual predators being more prevalent Social media may expose children to images of alcohol, tobacco, and sexual behaviors In regards to cyber-bullying, It has been proven that individuals who have no experience with cyber-bullying often have a better well-being than individuals who have been bullied online.

Twitter is increasingly a target of heavy activity of marketers. Their actions, focused on gaining massive numbers of followers, include use of advanced scripts and manipulation techniques that distort the prime idea of social media by abusing human trustfulness. Twitter also promotes social connections among students. It can be used to enhance communication building and critical thinking. Domizi (2013) utilised Twitter in a graduate seminar requiring students to post weekly tweets to extend classroom discussions. Students reportedly used Twitter to connect with content and other students. Additionally, students found it ‘to be useful professionally and personally’.

British-American entrepreneur and author Andrew Keen criticizes social media in his book The Cult of the Amateur, writing, “Out of this anarchy, it suddenly became clear that what was governing the infinite monkeys now inputting away on the Internet was the law of digital Darwinism, the survival of the loudest and most opinionated. Under these rules, the only way to intellectually prevail is by infinite filibustering.. This is also relative to the issue “justice” in the social network. For example, the phenomenon “Human flesh search engine” in Asia raised the discussion of “private-law” brought by social network platform.

Comparative Media professor José van Dijck contends in her book “The Culture of Connectivity” (2013) that to understand the full weight of social media, their technological dimensions should be connected to the social and the cultural. She critically describes six social media platforms. One of her findings is the way Facebook had been successful in framing the term ‘sharing’ in such a way that third party use of user data is neglected in favour of intra-user connectedness.

Disparity

Eric Ehrmann contends that social media in the form of public diplomacy create a patina of inclusiveness that covers^[59] traditional economic interests that are structured to ensure that wealth is pumped up to the top of the economic pyramid, perpetuating the digital divide and post Marxian class conflict. He also voices concern over the trend that finds social utilities operating in a quasi-libertarian global environment of oligopoly that requires users in economically challenged nations to spend high percentages of annual income to pay for devices and services to participate in the social media lifestyle.

The phrase “Digital divide” was coined in 1996 by Lloyd Morrlsett, a founder of the Children’s Television Workshop and President of the Markle Foundation, to describe the chasm that purportedly separates information technology (IT) haves from have-nots in the US. As Virginia Eubanks explains the digital divide in terms of social structure that have-not side users don’t have much consumer power but they have side have the power. Money and labors go from the have-not to have.

Neil Postman also contends that social media will increase an information disparity between winners – who are able to use the social media actively – and losers – who are not familiar with modern technologies.

Trustworthiness

Because large-scale collaborative co-creation is one of the main ways of forming information in the social network, the user generated content is sometimes viewed with skepticism; readers do not trust it as a reliable source of information. Aniket Kittur, Bongowon Suh and Ed H. Chi took wikis under examination and indicated that, “One possibility is that distrust of wiki content is not due to the inherently mutable nature of the system but instead to the lack of available information for judging trustworthinessTo be more specific, the authors mention that reasons for distrusting collaborative systems with user-generated content, such as Wikipedia, include a lack of information regarding accuracy of contents, motives and expertise of editors, stability of content, coverage of topics and the absence of sources.

Social media is also an important source of news. According to ‘Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2013’, social media are one of the most important ways for people find news online (the others being traditional brands, search engines and news aggregators). The report suggested that in the United Kingdom, trust in news which comes from social media sources is low, compared to news from other sources (e.g. online news from traditional broadcaster or online news from national newspapers). People who aged at 24-35 trust social media most, whereas trust declined with the increase of age.

Rainie and Wellman have argued that media making now has become a participation work, which changes communication systems. The center of power is shifted from only the media (as the gatekeeper) to the peripheral area, which may include government, organizations, and out to the edge, the individual. These changes in communication systems raise empirical questions about trust to media effect. Prior empirical studies have shown that trust in information sources plays a major role in people’s decision making. People’s attitudes more easily change when they hear messages from trustworthy sources. In the Reuters report, 27% of respondents agree that they worry about the accuracy of a story on a blog. However, 40% of them believe the stories on blogs are more balanced than traditional papers because they are provided with a range of opinions. Recent research has shown that in the new social media communication environment, the civil or uncivil nature of comments will bias people’s information processing even if the message is from a trustworthy source,^[65] which bring the practical and ethical question about the responsibility of communicator in the social media environment.

Concentration

Some have said that “fast (social) media and deep slow thought don’t mix well.” From Nicholas Carr, “As media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” However, there are several benefits brought from deep reading. For example, “our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connection that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.” But needs for convenience often make it difficult to choose this slower, more deliberate way.

Few real impacts

For Malcolm Gladwell, the role of social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, in revolutions and protests is overstated. On the one hand, social media make it easier for individuals, and in these case activists, to express themselves. On the other hand, it is harder for that expression to have an impact.

Gladwell distinguishes between social media activism and high risk activism, which brings real changes. Activism and especially high-risk activism involves strong-tie relationships, hierarchies, coordination, motivation, exposing oneself to high risks, making sacrifices.

Gladwell discusses that social media are built around weak ties and he argues that “social networks are effective at increasing participation — by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires”. According to him “Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice, but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice”.

Furthermore, social media’s role in democratizing media participation may fall short of ideals. Social media has been championed as allowing anyone with an Internet connection to become a content creator^. and empowering the “active audience”. But international survey data suggest online media audience members are largely passive consumers, while content creation is dominated by the few.

According to the “Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2013” the percent of online news users who blog about news issues ranges from 1–5%. Greater percentages use social media to comment on news, with participation ranging from 8% in Germany to 38% in Brazil. But online news users are most likely to just talk about online news with friend’s offline or use social media to share stories without creating content.

Reliability

2009–2010 Yahoo fellow at Georgetown University contends that the information uploaded to Twitter may have little relevance to the rest of the people who do not use Twitter. In the article “Iran: Downside to the “Twitter Revolution”” in the magazine Dissent , he says:

“Twitter only adds to the noise: it’s simply impossible to pack much context into its 140 characters. All other biases are present as well: in a country like Iran it’s mostly pro-Western, technology-friendly and iPod-carrying young people who are the natural and most frequent users of Twitter. They are a tiny and, most important, extremely untypical segment of the Iranian population (the number of Twitter users in Iran — a country of more than seventy million people.)”

Even in the United States, the birth-country of Twitter, in 2012 the social network had only 107.7 million accounts. Because there are likely to be many multi-account users, and the United States in 2012 had a population of 314.7 million,^[ the adoption of Twitter is somewhat limited.

Professor Matthew Auer of Bates College casts doubt on the conventional wisdom that social media are open and participatory. He also speculates on the emergence of “anti-social media” used as “instruments of pure control.”

Ownership of social media content

Social media content is generated through social media interactions done by the users through the site. There has always been a huge debate on the ownership of the content on social media platforms because it is generated by the users and hosted by the company. Added to this is the danger to security of information, which can be leaked to third parties with economic interests in the platform, or parasites who comb the data for their own databases. The author of Social Media Is Bullshit, Brandon Mendelson, claims that the “true” owners of content created on social media sites only benefits the large corporations who own those sites and rarely the users that created them.

Privacy

Privacy rights advocates warn users about uses for the information that can be gathered through social media. Some information is captured without the user’s knowledge or consent, such as through electronic tracking and third party application on social networks. Others include law enforcement and governmental use of this information including the gathering of so-called social media intelligence through mining techniques.

Additional privacy concerns relate to the impact of social media monitoring by employers whose policies include prohibitions against workers’ postings on social networking sites. A survey done in 2010 from different universities revealed that there are lines drawn between personal and professional lives. Many of the users surveyed admitted to misrepresenting themselves online. Employees can be concerned because their social media sites reflect their personal lives and not their professional lives, but yet employers are censoring them on the internet.

Other privacy concerns with employers and social media are when employers use social media as a tool to screen a prospective employee. This issue raises many ethical questions that some consider an employer’s right and others consider discrimination. Except in the states of California, Maryland, and Illinois, there are no laws that prohibit employers from using social media profiles as a basis of whether or not someone should be hired. Title VII also prohibits discrimination during any aspect of employment including hiring or firing, recruitment, or testing.

Social media has been integrating itself into the workplace and this has led to conflicts within employees and employers. Particularly, Facebook has been seen as a popular platform for employers to investigate in order to learn more about potential employees. This conflict first started in Maryland when an employer requested and received an employee’s Facebook username and password. State lawmakers first introduced legislation in 2012 to prohibit employers from requesting passwords to personal social accounts in order to get a job or to keep a job. This led to Canada, Germany, the U.S. Congress and 11 U.S. states to pass or propose legislation that prevents employers’ access to private social accounts of employees.

Many Western European countries have already implemented laws that restrict the regulation of social media in the workplace. States including Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin have passed legislation that protects potential employees and current employees from employers that demand them to give forth their username or password for a social media account. Laws that forbid employers from disciplining an employee based on activity off the job on social media sites have also been put into act in states including California, Colorado, Connecticut, North Dakota and New York. Several states have similar laws that protect students in colleges and universities from having to grant access to their social media accounts. Eight states have passed the law that prohibits post secondary institutions from demanding social media login information from any prospective or current students and privacy legislation has been introduced or is pending in at least 36 states as of July 2013.

As of May 2014, legislation has been introduced and is in the process of pending in at least 28 states and has been enacted in Maine and Wisconsin. In addition, the National Labor Relations Board has been devoting a lot of their attention to attacking employer policies regarding social media that can discipline employees who seek to speak and post freely on social media sites.

Effects on interpersonal relationships

Data suggest that participants use social media to fulfill perceived social needs, but are typically disappointed.^[ Lonely individuals are drawn to the Internet for emotional support. This causes problems as it interferes with “real life socializing”. Some of these views are summed up in an Atlantic article by Stephen Marche titled, Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? In which the author argues that social media provides more breadth, but not the depth of relationships that humans require.

Sherry Turkle explores similar issues in her book Alone Together as she discusses how people confuse social media usage with authentic communication. People tend to act differently online and are less afraid to hurt each other’s feelings. Some online behaviors cause stress and anxiety, much of this associated with friends and the permanence of online posts. This anxiety is also associated with the fear of being hacked or of colleges and employers exploring social media pages and finding unsavory things posted. Turkle also speculates that people are beginning to prefer texting to face-to-face communication, which can contribute to feelings of loneliness.

Some researchers have also found that only exchanges that involved direct communication and reciprocation of messages to each other increased feelings of connectedness. However, passively using social media without sending or receiving messages to individuals does not make people feel less lonely unless they were lonely to begin with.

A study published in the Public Library of Science in 2013 revealed that the perception of Facebook being an important resource for social connection was diminished by the number of people found to have developed low self-esteem, and the more they used the network the lower their level of self-esteem.

A current controversial topic is whether or not social media addiction should be explicitly categorized as a psychological ailment.^[92] Extended use of social media has led to increased Internet addiction, cyber bullying, sexting, sleep deprivation, and the decline of face-to-face interaction. Several clinics in the UK classify social media addiction is a certifiable medical condition with one psychiatric consultant claiming that he treats as many as one hundred cases a year.

Positive effects of social media

In the book “Networked – The new social operating system” by Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman, the two authors reflect on mainly positive effects of social media and other internet based social networks. According to the authors, social media are used to document memories, learn about and explore things, advertise oneself and form friendships. For instance, they claim that the communication through internet based services can be done more privately than in real life. Furthermore, Rainie and Wellman discuss that everybody has the possibility to become a content creator. Content creation provides networked individuals opportunities to reach wider audiences. Moreover, it can positively affect their social standing and gain political support. This can lead to influence on issues that are important for someone. As a concrete example of the positive effects of social media, the authors use the Tunisian revolution in 2011, where people used Facebook to gather meetings, protest actions, etc.

Rainie and Wellman (Ibid) also discuss that content creation is a voluntary and participatory act. What is important is that networked individuals create, edit and manage content in collaboration with other networked individuals. This way they contribute in expanding knowledge. Wikis are examples of collaborative content creation.

Social media has been used to assist in searches for missing persons. When 21-year-old University of Cincinnati student Brogan Dulle disappeared in May 2014 from near his apartment in the Clifton neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, his friends and family used social media to organize and fund a search effort. The disappearance made international news when their efforts went viral on Facebook, Twitter, GoFundMe, and The Huffington Post during the week-long search. Dulle’s body was eventually found in a building next door to his apartment.

Employment impact

Use of social media by young people has caused significant problems for some people when they entered the job market. A survey of 17,000 young people in six countries in 2013 found that 1 in 10 people aged 16 to 34 have been rejected for a job because of online comments.^. A 2014 survey of recruiters found that 93% of them check candidates’ social media postings.

These cases have created some privacy implications as to whether or not companies should have the right to look at employee’s Facebook profiles. In March 2012, Facebook decided they might take legal action against employers for gaining access to employee’s profiles through their passwords.^[113] According to Facebook Chief Privacy Officer for policy, Erin Egan, the company has worked hard to give its users the tools to control who sees their information. He also said users shouldn’t be forced to share private information and communications just to get a job. According to the network’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, sharing or soliciting a password is a violation to Facebook. Employees may still give their password information out to get a job, but according to Erin Egan, Facebook will continue to do their part to protect the privacy and security of their users.

College admission

Before social media, admissions officials in the United States used SAT scores, extra-curricular activities, letters of recommendation, and high school GPA‘s to determine whether to accept or deny an applicant. According to Kaplan, Inc, a corporation that provides higher education preparation, in 2012 27% of admissions officers used Google to learn more about an applicant, with 26% checking Facebook.

Political effects of social media

The popularity of getting political news from social media platforms is greatly increasing. A 2014 study showed that 62% of web users turn to Facebook to find political news. This social phenomenon allows for political information, true or not, to spread quickly and easily among peer networks. Furthermore, social media sites are now encouraging political involvement by uniting like-minded people, reminding users to vote in elections, and analyzing users’ political affiliation data to find cultural similarities and differences.

Social media can help taint the reputation of political figures fairly quickly with information that may or may not be true. Information spreads like wildfire and before a politician can even get an opportunity to address the information, either to confirm, deny, or explain, the public has already formed an opinion about the politician based on that information. However, when conducted on purpose, the spread of information on social media for political means can help campaigns immensely. The Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2008, is considered to be one of the most successful in terms of social media. On the other hand, negative word-of-mouth in social media concerning a political figure can be very unfortunate for a politician and can cost the politician his/her career if the information is very damaging. For example, Anthony Weiner’s misuse of the social media platform, Twitter, eventually led to his resignation from U.S. Congress.

Open forums online have also been the root of negative effects in the political sphere. Some politicians have made the mistake of using open forums to try and reach a broader audience and thus more potential voters. What they forgot to account for was that the forums would be open to everyone, including those in opposition. Having no control over the comments being posted, negative included, has been damaging for some with unfortunate oversight. Additionally, a constraint of social media as a tool for public political discourse is that if oppressive governments recognize the ability social media has to cause change, they shut it down. During the peak of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the internet and social media played a huge role in facilitating information. At that time, Hosni Mubarak was the president of Egypt and head the regime for almost 30 years. Mubarak was so threatened by the immense power that the internet and social media gave the people that the government successfully shut down the internet, using the Ramses Exchange, for a period of time in February 2011.

Social media as an open forum gives a voice to those who have previously not had the ability to be heard. in 2015, some countries are still becoming equipped with internet accessibility and other technologies. Social media is giving everyone a voice to speak out against government regimes. In 2014, the rural areas in Paraguay were only just receiving access to social media, such as Facebook. In congruence with the users worldwide, teens and young adults in Paraguay are drawn to Facebook and others types of social media as a means to self-express. Social media is becoming a main conduit for social mobilization and government critiques because, “the government can’t control what we say on the internet.”

Younger generations are becoming more involved in politics due to the increase of political news posted on various types of social media. Due to the heavier use of social media among younger generations, they are exposed to politics more frequently, and in a way that is integrated into their online social lives. While informing younger generations of political news is important, there are many biases within the realms of social media. It can be difficult for outsiders to truly understand the conditions of dissent when they are removed from direct involvement. Social media can create a false sense of understanding among people who are not directly involved in the issue. An example of social media creating misconceptions can be seen during the Arab Spring protests. Today’s generation rely heavily on social media to understand what is happening in the world, and consequently people are exposed to both true and false information. For example, Americans have several misconceptions surrounding the events of the Arab Springs movement.

Social media can be used to create political change, both major and minor. For example, in 2011 Egyptians used Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube as a means to communicate and organize demonstrations and rallies to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak. Statistics show that during this time the rate of Tweets from Egypt increased from 2,300 to 230,000 per day and the top 23 protest videos had approximately 5.5 million views This not only allowed for organization among protesters, but also allowed the uprising to gain the attention of people around the world.

Social media use by extremist groups

The world is becoming increasingly connected via the power of the Internet; Facebook launched internet.org, an initiative to gain even the most remote parts of society access to the World Wide Web. Political movements have begun to see social media as a major organizing and recruiting tool and the reverse can be said for society. In 2014 62% of all web users turned to sites such as Facebook to gain access to political news. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS, has used social media to promote their cause, going as far as the production of their own online magazine named the Islamic State Report in an attempt to recruit more fighters. Other extremist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Taliban are increasingly using social media to raise funds, recruit and radicalize persons and it has become increasingly effective. In Canada, two girls from the city of Montreal have left their country in an effort to join ISIS in Syria after exploring ISIS on Social Media and eventually being recruited. On Twitter there is an App called the Dawn of Glad Tidings that users can download and keep up to date on news about ISIS. Hundreds of users around the world have signed up for the App which once downloaded will post tweets and hash-tags to your account that are in support of ISIS. As ISIS marched on the northern region of Iraq tweets in support of their efforts reached a high of 40,000 a day. ISIS support on-line is a defiant factor in the radicalization of youth. Mass media has yet to adopt the view that social media plays a vital link in the radicalization of persons in an effort to discredit social media as a legitimate news source. When ISIS supportive tweets make their way on Twitter they result in 72 re-tweets to the original which further spreads the destructive message portrayed by ISIS. These tweets have made their way to the account known as active hash-tags, which further helps broadcast ISIS’ message as the account sends out to its followers the most popular hash-tags of the day. Social Media is a key factor in the modern recruiting practises of groups like ISIS.

Social media and the community

Social media has had a large impact on the LGBTQ community. Social media creates a digital community in which LGBTQ individuals are able to communicate with each other, regardless of geographic distance. Several social media apps have been developed that are targeted specifically for the LGBTQ community.

Grindr is an example of a form of social media that was created specifically for the LGBTQ community. Grindr is an app that uses the host phones geo location to locate other men using the app in close proximity. Grindr was the first gay geo-social app to launch in the iTunes App Store and has since become the largest and most popular gay mobile app in the world. There are approximately 5 million users of Grindr in 192 countries. Approximately 10,000 download the app every day While Grindr is mainly used as a dating app, the Grindr leadership has demonstrated that they would like to help achieve more equality for the LGBTQ community. Joel Simkhai, the founder of Grindr said in an interview”We don’t have the same rights as everyone else; we are a unique company where 100 percent of my audience does not have equality.” He believes Grindr has a responsibility to improve the quality of life by achieving equality for its members.

In 2011, an initiative was started called “Grindr-For-Equality.” The goal of “Equality” is to raise public awareness of issues facing the LGBTQ community. Users are encouraged to submit information to the Grindr website when they hear about issues relating to the LGBTQ community in their area. When users log onto Grindr, they are presented with a notification containing information about the issue. For example, Grindr for Equality sent a broadcast message to all Grindr users to raise awareness and celebrate the repeal of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in September 2011. The message included a link to a donation page for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. More than 5,000 Grindr users clicked through to that page whisper is another app that has a large effect on the LGBTQ population. Users select a background photo for their post, and then write a short caption with their message The purpose of the app is for users to anonymously share secrets, or things they wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing publicly, and they post it on the app’s main page. What attracts most people to the app is its promise of anonymity this anonymity is especially useful for LGBTQ members who have not publicly announced their sexuality, because it allows them to confide in a supportive digital community without having to reveal their identity. Whisper also includes a section dedicated to the LGBTQ community which often contains Coming out stories.

Many LGBTQ civil rights groups are active on social media, such as Human Rights Campaign and the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Social media allows civil rights groups to spread their message to a large, diverse audience, which is useful in creating awareness of issues faced by the LGBTQ community

Patents

Number of US social network patent applications published and patents issued per year since 2003.^[134]

There has been rapid growth in the number of US patent applications that cover new technologies related to social media, and the number of them that are published has been growing rapidly over the past five years. There are now over 2000 published patent applications.^[135] As many as 7000 applications may be currently on file including those that haven’t been published yet. Only slightly over 100 of these applications have issued as patents, however, largely due to the multi-year backlog in examination of business method patents, patents which outline and claim new methods of doing business.

Social media in the classroom

Having social media in the classroom has been a controversial topic for the last several years. Many parents and educators have been fearful of the repercussions of having social media in the classroom.^[137] As result, cell phones have been banned from classroom and schools have blocked many popular social media websites. However, despite adult’s apprehensions, students are (or will be) using social media. As a result of that, schools have realized that they need to incorporate these tools into the classroom because the rules are changing. The Peel District School Board (PDSB) in Ontario is one of many school boards that has begun to accept the use of social media in the classroom. In 2013, the PDSB introduced a “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) policy and have unblocked many social media sites. Fewkes and McCabe (2012) have researched about the benefits of using Facebook in the classroom.

Wikipedia[edit]

In early 2013, Steve Joordens, a professor at the University of Toronto, encouraged the 1,900 students enrolled in his introductory psychology course to add content to Wikipedia pages featuring content that related to the course. Like other educators, Joordens argued that the assignment would not only strengthen the site’s psychology-related content, but also provide an opportunity for students to engage in critical reflection about the negotiations involved in collaborative knowledge production. However, Wikipedia’s all-volunteer editorial staff complained that the students’ contributions resulted in an overwhelming number of additions to the site, and that some of the contributions were inaccurate.^[141]

Facebook and the classroom

Facebook represents a potentially useful tool in educational contexts. It allows for both an asynchronous and synchronous, open dialogue via a familiar and regularly accessed medium, and supports the integration of multimodal content such as student-created photographs and video and URLs to other texts, in a platform that many students are already familiar with. Further, it allows students to ask more minor questions that they might not otherwise feel motivated to visit a professor in person during office hours to ask. It also allows students to manage their own privacy settings, and often work with the privacy settings they have already established as registered users.

Facebook is one alternative means for shyer students to be able to voice their thoughts in and outside of the classroom. It allows students to collect their thoughts and articulate them in writing before committing to their expression. Further, the level of informality typical to Facebook can also aid students in self-expression and encourage more frequent student-and-instructor and student-and-student communication. At the same time, Towner and Munoz note that this informality may actually drive many educators and students away from using Facebook for educational purposes.

From a course management perspective, Facebook may be less efficient as a replacement for more conventional course management systems, both because of its limitations with regards to uploading assignments and due to some students’ (and educators’) resistance to its use in education. Specifically, there are features of student-to-student collaboration that may be conducted more efficiently on dedicated course management systems, such as the organization of posts in a nested and linked format. That said, a number of studies suggest that students post to discussion forums more frequently and are generally more active discussants on Facebook posts versus conventional course management systems like WebCT or Blackboard (Chu and Meulemans, 2008; Salaway, et al., 2008; Schroeder and Greenbowe, 2009).

Additionally, Facebook’s privacy settings can be difficult to understand and manage; leaving some potential users – particularly females and older students – uncomfortable about the level of privacy and safety afforded them.^[144] Further, familiarity and comfortability with Facebook is often divided by socio-economic class, with students whose parents obtained a college degree, or at least having attended college for some span of time, being more likely to already be active users.^[146] Instructors ought to seriously consider and respect these hesitancies, and refrain from “forcing” Facebook on their students for academic purposes. Instructors also ought to consider that rendering Facebook optional, but continuing to provide content through it to students who elect to use it, places an unfair burden on hesitant students, who then are forced to choose between using a technology they are uncomfortable with and participating fully in the course. A related limitation, particularly at the level of K-12 schooling, is the distrust (and in some cases, outright disallowal) of the use of Facebook in formal classroom settings in many educational jurisdictions.

However, this hesitancy towards Facebook use is continually diminishing in the United States, as the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s annual report for 2012 shows that the likelihood of a person to be a registered Facebook user only fluctuates by 13 percent between different levels of educational attainment, 9 percent between urban, suburban, and rural users, only 5 percent between different household income brackets. The largest gap occurs between age brackets, with 86 percent of 18-29-year-olds reported as registered users as opposed to only 35 percent of 65-and-up-year-old users.

Twitter

Twitter also promotes social connections among students. It can be used to enhance communication building and critical thinking. Domizi (2013) utilized Twitter in a graduate seminar requiring students to post weekly tweets to extend classroom discussions. Students reportedly used Twitter to connect with content and other students. Additionally, students found it “to be useful professionally and personally”. Junco, Heibergert, and Loken (2011) completed a study of 132 students to examine the link between social media and student engagement and social media and grades. They divided the students into two groups, one used Twitter and the other did not. Twitter was used to discuss material, organize study groups, post class announcements, and connect with classmates. Junco and his colleagues (2011) found that the students in the Twitter group had higher GPAs and greater engagement scores than the control group^. Gao, Luo, and Zhang (2012) reviewed literature about Twitter published between 2008 and 2011. They concluded that Twitter allowed students to participate with each other in class (back channel), and extend discussion outside of class. They also reported that students used Twitter to get up-to-date news and connect with professionals in their field. Students reported that micro blogging encouraged students to “participate at a higher level”. Because the posts cannot exceed 140 characters, students were required to express ideas, reflect, and focus on important concepts in a concise manner. Some students found this very beneficial. Other students did not like the character limit. Also, some students found micro blogging to be overwhelming (information overload). The research indicated that many students did not actually participate in the discussions, “they just lurked”.

YouTube

See also: Social impact of YouTube

YouTube is the most frequently used social media tool in the classroom.^[153]^[^{not in citation given}^] Students can watch videos, answer questions, and discuss content. Additionally, students can create videos to share with others. Sherer and Shea (2011) claimed that YouTube increased participation, personalization (customization), and productivity. YouTube also improved students’ digital skills and provided opportunity for peer learning and problem solving^[ (2012) found that videos kept students’ attention, generated interest in the subject, and clarified course content^. Additionally, the students reported that the videos helped them recall information and visualize real world applications of course concepts.

Advertising on social media

This section requires expansion.

Tweets containing advertising

In 2013, the United Kingdom Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) began to advise celebrities and sportstars to make it clear if they had been paid to tweet about a product or service by using the hashtag #spon or #ad within tweets containing endorsements. In July 2013, Wayne Rooney was accused of misleading followers by not including either of these tags in a tweet promoting Nike. The tweet read:

“The pitches change. The killer instinct doesn’t. Own the turf, anywhere. @NikeFootball #myground.

The tweet was investigated by the ASA but no charges were pressed. The ASA stated that “We considered the reference to Nike Football was prominent and clearly linked the tweet with the Nike brand. When asked about whether the number of complaints regarding misleading social advertising had increased, the ASA stated that the number of complaints had risen marginally since 2011 but that complaints were “very low” in the “grand scheme.

Censorship incidents

Banner in Bangkok, observed on the 30th of June 2014, informing the Thai public that ‘like’ or ‘share’ violent or illegal activity on social media is unacceptable to Thai culture.

Social media often features in political struggles to control public perception and online activity.

For example, in 2013 social media was banned in Turkey after the Taksim Gezi Park protests. Both Twitter and YouTube were closed in country with Turkish court’s decision. And a new law, passed by Turkish Parliament, has granted immunity to Turkey’s Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) personnel. The TİB was also given the authority to block access to specific websites without the need for a court order.^[158]

More recently, in the 2014 Thai coup d’état, the public was explicitly instructed not to ‘share’ or ‘like’ dissenting views on social media or face prison. In July that same year, in response to Wikileaks‘ release of a secret suppression order made by the Victorian Supreme Court, media lawyers were quoted in the Australian media to the effect that “anyone who tweets a link to the Wikileaks report, posts it on Facebook, or shares it in any way online could also face charges”.

Cybercrime and cyber terrorism – Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2015

Cybercrime bill: Give it a read before sharing pictures even

By’ Asghar Ali Mubarak Published in The Daily mail Islamabad: April 20, 2015

The Proposed sections might be the final nail in Pakistan’s internet coffin. The Cybercrime and cyber terrorism – Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2015 to be exact – were the buzzwords on almost every social media and mainstream news website past week. This was since the government is about to enact a cybercrime law to criminalise offences committed over the internet.

The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology, which has already approved the recommendations (amendments) of its subcommittee or technical working group, is ready to present the PEC Bill 2015 in the NA so it can become a law.

Sounds great? Not really. The proposed bill threatens almost every internet user in the country rather than protecting them from cybercrimes. The rights activist, civil society and the IT industry has, therefore, termed it a draconian law in the words of Barrister Zahid Jamil – an international expert on cybercrime who drafted the original PEC Bill in 2014.

The requirement

Before analysing how the proposed bill threatens civil liberties, let us discuss why the legislation is needed in the first place.

In the past, Islamabad had been dealing with cybercrimes through the now-defunct PEC Ordinance 2007. With the rapid changes evolving in Information and Communications Technology, a fresh and up-to-date cybercrime law was need of the hour.

Pakistanis chose their MNAs (legislators) in the 2011 general elections. The job of these legislators is to get rid of outdated laws and formulate new ones that society deems fit, which is not the case here.

Whatever the private sector, civil society and rights activists had negotiated to exclude from the bill has been added to the current draft, turning it back into PEC Ordinance 2007, according to sources.

If they made a few changes to the original draft, it could be reversed, said an official but they changed it completely and now the whole document needs to be trashed.

Since the private sector was excluded from the process, Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) for IT and IT-enabled services offered to hold a training session for the parliamentarians so that Barrister Jamil could provide them with an expert analysis before they enact it as a law. “After all, it’s about the future of our children,” said an official.

If passed into a law in its current form, the PEC Act 2015 will pose great risk to internet freedom, freedom of press, freedom of expression and give unprecedented powers to the government to potentially victimise ordinary internet users on fake grounds.

What constitutes the irrationality?

The bill has broadened the spectrum of cybercrime by incorporating vague and technically-flawed definitions.

For example, section 34 empowers Pakistan Telecommunication Authority or any officer authorized by the government to block any information system (websites for example) if necessary in the interest of glory of the religion, security or defense of Pakistan, friendly relations with foreign states, public order and decency or morality.

This is a big concern since the government has already been doing it in the name of national security and religion. Moreover, this will kill all social media discussions on sensitive topics published on any website including this newspaper – putting an abrupt end to intellectual discussions and exchange of knowledge. This has already happened in case of the on-going discussion regarding the government’s confused stance on the Yemen conflict.

Sections 17 and 18 have criminalized political criticism and political expression in the form of analysis, commentary, blogs, cartoons and caricatures. As per Section 19, any person who tests system security will be an offender – in short, white-hat hackers, hobbyists, people who hack for academic purposes to identify security flaws in systems, or teenagers who for recreation (albeit wrongly) deface websites, could end up getting convicted as cyber terrorists.

Obscene or immoral messages on social media – Face book and Twitter for example – have been made offences as per section 20. It was done without defining obscenity or immorality thus, giving sweeping powers to investigating agencies to implicate anyone on these charges.

Moreover, section 21 makes it an offence to take a picture of a natural person and distribute it without his consent – a big threat to photojournalists and citizen journalist or bloggers who expose various crimes through videos and pictures using social media, such as Face book and Twitter.

It could also mean sharing of friends’ pictures on social mobile apps, such as WhatsApp and Viber without their consent will be an offence. Even sending emails without prior consent of the addressee can be an offence.

Not only that, the proposed bill also includes offences that are not related to cybercrime. Section 15 and 16, which deal with unauthorised issuance of SIM cards and tampering with communication equipment are already dealt with in the PTA Act – they are not related to cybercrimes.

These are only handful of examples demonstrating how the proposed bill can affect the country’s internet community. It is, therefore, important that the government includes private sector’s input before enacting the bill as a law.