2.2. Social Media Defined

Social media refers to a set of online tools that supports social interaction between users. The term is often used to contrast with more traditional media such as television and books that deliver content to mass populations but do not facilitate the creation or sharing of content by users. Social media is about “transforming monologue (one-to-many) into dialog (many-to-many).”^[1] In practice, it is a catchall phrase intended to describe the many novel online sociotechnical systems that have emerged in recent years, including services like email, discussion forums, blogs, microblogs, texting, chat, social networking sites, wikis, photo and video sharing sites, review sites, and multiplayer gaming communities. Related terms that describe many of these systems include Web 2.0, the read/write web, social computing, social software, collective action tools, sociotechnical systems, computer-mediated communication, groupware, computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), virtual or online communities, user-generated content, and consumer-generated media.

^[1] www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2007/06/29/the-definition-of-social-media

Pioneers of the information age such as Vannevar Bush who envisioned a hypertext-like device called the “memex” [1] and Douglas Engelbart who saw a future of graphical interfaces (i.e., windows), computer mice, and multiple-authored digital content [2] decades before it was realized, were interested in augmenting human intellect. In other words, they wanted to develop systems that “increase the capacity of man to approach a complex problem situation, to gain comprehension to suit his particular needs, and to derive solutions to problems” [2]. These goals have slowly been realized through remarkable developments in hypertext, human-computer interaction, the World Wide Web, and mobile technologies [3].