2. What is Social Media?
Social Media is the hottest online trend of the last few years. Not only do
social media sites provide a way to keep in contact with friends, but they
can also offer opportunities for professional online networking. Social Media
could be advantageous for your career, but there are also disadvantages to
consider.
Social Media depends 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.
Social Media sites can be defined as a virtual place available on the
internet basically on the World Wide Web (www) through social
media, where users can create communicate within their interested social
network, they can share ideas, activities, events, watch and listen
music, play games send and receive messages and many more other
interesting activities. It also gives a platform to the users to create their own
virtual social space where they can upload or publish their own
information.
English Writing Skills (EGL113)
3. Advantages of Social Media
Social Media offers many benefits. The potential of this enhanced connectivity is huge.
you can now easily look up a connection’s credentials and business interests on their
social media profile.
These sites give users a platform across the globe to express their feelings and views.
It helps users to get interact with other users, no matter from where she/he operates
these sites in world.
These sites help users to organize and participate in any events.
Social Media sites help us to find our long-lost and childhood friends and relatives.
It is a great source of communication between two users, irrespective of the distance
between them.
These sites help users to refresh their mind and mood, as it is a great source of
entertainment and gaming.
English Writing Skills (EGL113)
4. Advantages of Social Media
It helps to give rise some newcomers in the world of music, acting, drama, and
other arts.
It helps in building credibility amongst the customers.
It helps to make people and community aware of any issue.
It helps to be in touch with our interested, loved ones, relevant group or people or
community.
Many people even can win many prizes through these sites.
These sites also help in terms of educations awareness and motivations though
many educational groups and communities.
Through these sites, users can easily get in touch with many celebrities and their
updates.
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5. Disadvantages of Social Media
One of the major demerits of these sites are increment in criminal activities, as
there is no hard restrictions on creating account on these sites.
Another important issue is security of our personal data and information, as its
free to everyone, most of the users create face accounts and misuse the personal
information of other users/celebrities.
Sometime some non genuine and face account users attacks to some religious
communities and political groups.
It encourages bad activities, and attacks many children and youths.
These sites unnecessarily waste our valuable time, when user spend time on
these sites and get addicted.
Addictions of these sites can even affect our mental conditions, sometime is
became a big reason of depression and tension.
English Writing Skills (EGL113)
6. Disadvantages of Social Media
It also affects our health directly.
User's reliability is not sure; it's very hard to trust on any stranger on these sites.
Many of time it has been seen that it became the reason of one's death, as it
becomes the medium to get in touch with the victim.
It affects children and youngster's studies. As they spend their valuable time on
these sites and loss their studies and concentration
It encourages many scams.
English Writing Skills (EGL113)
9. It was 2004 when Mark Zuckerberg started asking his fellow Harvard University students
to try out his new idea known as "the facebook." The online community allowed his peers
to create personal profiles, search for profiles and invite others from the university to
join. It was a smashing success almost immediately.
In 2006, Facebook opened its virtual doors to anyone with a registered e-mail address.
Not content to rest upon his accomplishments, Zuckerberg continued to push for new
features. One of the most revolutionary was creating an application programming
interface (API) for third-party developers. Suddenly, programmers could design
applications that could tap into Facebook's massive population. Applications range from
simple games and diversions to clever marketing campaigns.
In 2009, Facebook acquired FriendFeed and began to incorporate its aggregation services
into Facebook profiles. Facebook is still a private company -- in early 2010, two major
investors announced that Facebook would not seek an initial public offering (IPO) in 2010.
Looks like you'll have to wait a while longer to get your hands on Facebook stock.
In short: Facebook has become the most visited social networking site in the
world, receiving more than 10 million unique visitors than MySpace in January
2009, making it the No. 1 social networking site on our list.
English Writing Skills (EGL113)
12. Part Web site, part Web service – Twitter is an online environment where users can create
profiles, fill them with information and then build a network of people they "follow" (and a band
of others who follow them).
Twitter sends messages between users via the Short Message Service (SMS), better known as text
messaging. Members send their texts through Twitter to those they allow to follow them. The
messages, called Tweets, are super short: only 140 charters or shorter (there are technically 160
characters for use, but the first 20 are there to make room for user names in messages.)
The new phenomenon is called microblogging and it's incredibly popular.
"Even the president of the United States has a Facebook fan page and uses Twitter to reach the
American public where he has over 262,000 followers," says Brenda Powell, president and founder
of the company Social Networking Girls.
All sorts of famous people are on Twitter. If you sign up for an account, you can follow
astronauts, scientists, athletes, musicians, actors and writers. Or you can ignore the celebrities and
focus on your friends.
Some Twitters use the service to arrange parties or other events. Others just like to keep their
friends up to speed on what's going on in their lives. The messages can be sent via phone, through
the Twitter Web site or one of hundreds new desktop or smart phone widgets.
English Writing Skills (EGL113)
15. LinkedIn is an online social network for business professionals, which is designed specifically for
professional networking, to help them find a job, discover sales leads, connect with potential
business partners. Unlike most of the other social networks, LinkedIn does not focus on making
friends or sharing media like photos, videos and music. To start using LinkedIn you need to register
and create a profile page. To register to LinkedIn, you need to provide personal information. You
can update the profile with your education and job details and a summary. Additionally, you can
also give and receive recommendations from co-workers and bosses. There are more than 75
million professionals registered on LinkedIn.
English Writing Skills (EGL113)
18. YouTube isn't what you'd traditionally call a social networking site. Its purpose is to provide a place
where people can upload and view videos, most of which are user-generated. But it's one of the
most popular places on the Web to interact -- and react -- via text or video comments: just one
more way to keep people coming back.
Anyone can view most YouTube videos, but to post one you need to create a member account. As a
member, you can create user profiles and include as much or as little information about yourself as
you like. Each member's page is customizable and hosts the videos that member has uploaded to
YouTube.
The hippest thing to do on YouTube these days may be video logging, or vlogging. It's similar to
blogging -- members post videos in which they talk about a subject that interests or concerns them.
Other users can comment on the video and conversations develop as a result.
While YouTube has always featured a user comments option, the social networking aspect of the
site really took off when the site introduced video comments in May 2006. Instead of leaving a
text-based comment in response to a video, members can now record short videos in responses.
English Writing Skills (EGL113)
21. Instagram is a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends and family.
Take a picture or video, choose a filter to transform its look and feel, then post to Instagram — it's
that easy. You can even share to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and more. It's a new way to see the
world. It is a smart phone app for Android and IOS platform
Instagram, like any other social network, is based around having friends or followers. On
Instagram you ‘follow’ people. At the top of your profile (or anyone’s profile) you will see the
username, profile pic, how many photos have been uploaded, how many followers the account
has, and how many they are following. When you follow someone, their photos show up in your
stream. The only other things you can do are ‘like‘ photos and comment on them. Both are
appreciated. People ask questions in the comments, like ‘where was this taken’ or ‘what app did
you use for that?’. Once you get into using Instagram, you will see how laid back people are and
how much fun they are having. It’s currently a very friendly community.
English Writing Skills (EGL113)
24. MySpace isn't the oldest online social network, but it helped define them -- and it incorporates
many different Web services into a comprehensive package. Every MySpace profile comes with the
ability to post blogs, news items and status updates and create rich, detailed user profiles.
Members can post and share pictures, videos and music, plus can create groups and invite other
members to join.
But what makes MySpace stand out from the crowd is the sweet sound of free marketing. For
bands and unsigned performers, MySpace is a sort of virtual audition stage to debut new
tracks, share information or arrange special shows for their fans.
In late 2009, the news broke that MySpace would begin to use Facebook Connect, an API
developed by the site's largest rival in the social community market. Could this mean MySpace will
shift more toward being a content site for musicians than a social networking site?
On MySpace, your social network starts growing from the first day. When you join MySpace, the
first step is to create a profile. You then, invite friends to join there and search for your friends on
already profiled on MySpace these friends become your initial Friend Space. Once the friendship is
confirmed all the people in your friends' Friend Space become part of your network. In that
sense, everyone on MySpace is in your Extended Network. As part of terms of MySpace, the user
must be at least 14 years old to register.
English Writing Skills (EGL113)
27. Conclusion
Social networking sites are playing very significant role in today time; it
has a direct impact on all age group people. Though it has many cons but
still these are like an effective tool in communicating millions of people
and spreading our expressions and view worldwide. We all need a change
in the pattern of use, in order to prevent miss-happenings on these sites.
If we will be active and aware these sites will serve us their batter and
will bring some more revolution in the world of cyber technology.
English Writing Skills (EGL113)
28. Credits
We would like to thanks Miss Noreen Tahir for her kind support
Through out lectures.
Haris, Hashir, Rashid & Saad
English Writing Skills (EGL113)
Editor's Notes
Geocities, created in 1994, was one of the first social media sites. The concept was for users to create their own websites, characterized by one of six "cities" that were known for certain characteristics.