Mohammad Mehrdadfar - Social Media; A MUST or a Personal Preference

Name: Mohammad Mehrdadfar

ID: 1081108014

Email: mmdf20@hotmail.com

We MUST submit this article in our group weblog; if not, we will lose 10% of the total mark! That is just a small sample of how social media effect our life; weather we agree or not!

Wikipedia defines Social Media as below:

“Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. The term refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.”

Good or bad, the cancer cells of web-communication have spread rapidly in our lives. New demands in our modern world formed an interconnected society, including people of all nations; regardless of their beliefs, cultures and geographical distance. Like all other mass media, people cannot live without social media soon.

In “What is Social Media” e-book (http://www.icrossing.co.uk/fileadmin/uploads/eBooks/What_is_Social_Media_iCrossing_ebook.pdf), social media is divided into these groups:

·         Social networks (e.g. Facebook, Google plus)

·         Blogs (e.g. Blogger, Wordpress)

·         Wikis (e.g. Wikipedia)

·         Podcasts (e.g. Apple iTunes)

·         Forums (e.g. forum.lowyat.net)

·         Content communities (Flickr, Youtube)

·         Micro blogging (Twitter)

Among all different types of social media, social networks play more important role in our routine life, especially in the young generation. Facebook with over 700 million users so far, is the leader of web-based communication networks. The common use of this portal is to be in touch with friends and relatives, but except usual these communications, portals like Facebook, may cause social movement enforcements in the real world. We all know the role of Facebook in the recent worldwide events, such as Egypt revolution or Japan earthquake. In the other hand, mass communication sites like this can easily waste a lot of useful time of people around the world, just for sharing things which are not as important as the time that taking for them!

Other types of Social Media are also important for us. We can have an updated personal diary or a group journal in a weblog form or find any kind of information in Wikipedia (the biggest manmade encyclopedia ever). Majority of big companies have their own forum for their customers to share the ideas and get supported from shared information. The companies can benefit from valuable consumer opinions as well. Informative websites like YouTube also very crucial for us. A wide range of information can easily share and be seen in the infinite space of web and the latest news can broadcast; not in the way that governments do!

Nowadays, social media in any form is like a passport to travel to the new virtual world. You may not like using it, but you definitely lose a wide range of privilege provided specially for you. In my opinion, social media is just like a vehicle. It is not good and not bad. It is what it is. It’s more depends on you how to drive. Remember, Electricity power can lighten your home at nights and warm you up in a cold weather or, it can kill you if you use it in a wrong way!!