What’s “Social” about Social Media?

What’s “Social” about Social Media?

In order to answer this question, we must consider the development of such an interface, and the reason why it was brought forward, gaining huge popularity over the years.

It begins with a simple thought: linking and wiring a bunch of computers together.

Essentially the internet was created as a way to communicate information from one computer to the other. Sending emails and packages of data became more and more practical with time, and soon enough came the birth of the “web.” Albeit many use the terms “web” and “internet” interchangeably, it is important to note that while the internet is the network of all networks, in other words, the glue that binds all computers together; the web is simply a way to access the information transmitted by all these computers, in other words, the web is built on top of the internet and is one part of it.

Now that we’ve gotten that part figured out. How did the web develop and give rise to what we know today as Social Media?

To answer this, it is essential for us to take a look at how the web developed. In Understanding Social Media, Hinton and Hjorth discuss the evolution of the web: from Web 1.0, to Web 2.0.

When the web started gaining popularity and attention, businesses began seeing the interface as profitable and important. This lead to several attempts at the monetization of the web. Most of those attempts were focusing on business models such as the Television and other models inspired by the traditional media, where the companies would provide content, attract attention, and sell their material/content to users. While it proved easy to gain attention, selling it was a challenge. People were just not willing to pay money online.

Many businesses failed and suffered from such attempts, deeming the web as an unsafe commerce. Surely enough, there was not enough research on the topic at the time. Businesses like Microsoft kept trying to push with applications like MSN failing miserably at first.

Slowly, companies started launching the first ever online ads and found that those are a portal to fast money. The dot-come startup businesses slowly started gaining popularity, bringing forward promises of overnight wealth with tons of businesses investing in what looked to be a very promising market. Until, of course, 10 March 2000, when Wall Street suffered its biggest crash in a single day because of a large number of over-valued companies with little to no profit whatsoever.

It wasn’t until such a big fallout that companies started realizing that: online users are not like TV audiences; in other words, Web 2.0 was born.

Web 2.0 does not refer to any changes in the infrastructure of the web, however, it is more about the new ways in which businesses began approaching the web and interacting with it.

Instead of trying to sell a product to the user, the user was now able to create and generate their own products and share them with the world.

With that being said, Social Media is a product created in the midst of Web 2.0 as a tool for the user to be able to communicate with friends and family as well as with larger crowds. In What is a Critical Introduction to Social Media? The author describes different ways in which Social Media is Social. In a way, the very fact that someone is sitting in front of a computer or mobile device created and manufactured by another human being is a social act. The biding of information of one individual with another’s, or the “wisdom of crowds” is also considered social. The obvious easy to use communication tools are very social. Social Media allows for communities to be formed online and discussions to flame up and start, creating a sense of belongingness to a world of users that find similarities in one another. Engaging in Social Media allows us to socialize in all these different forms of sociality. The world’s most visited websites nowadays are Google, Facebook, and YouTube: websites that all promote and engage users in these forms of sociality.

On another hand, in What’s Social About Social Media? Jensen (2015) sheds a light on another idea. Society was previously divided into three main structures: The Private Sphere — our personal and family life; the Government — which work to keep stability, apply law enforcement, and ensure a material infrastructure of our social lives; and the Public Sphere — the main political and cultural institutions. The author states that “social media can be understood as a special vehicle of civil society, manifesting a third force in society, beyond state and market.” In a way, Social Media could also be considered civil media because it gives voice for movements that fall outside, or are against political and cultural establishments, giving way into the Public Sphere. In another way, Social Media is an outlet that is constituting and reconstituting all of society because it gives way to many-to-many communication with other media outlets and amidst pressures from all social spheres.

With that being said, and keeping in mind that Social Media comes off as a great and promising outlet at first, I can’t help but ask this question:

What’s the catch?

Why give way to a completely free outlet that brings forth so many positives?

Is it really free?

Wait… Is it all positive?

While Social Media is a great tool for empowerment, everything comes at a cost. Mark Zuckerberg is the 5th richest man in the world after all. But, how so?

Easy. Not everything on Social Media is free.

Social Media is and will continue to be an outlet that depends on its users to generate content, so in a lot of ways, the user is the product.

On another hand, Data such as our preferences, likes, interests, are used for businesses to market their products to the right people. Again, in a lot of ways, the user is the product.

Social Media can be easily looked at through a double-edged sword metaphor: on one side, empowerment, and on the other, control.

References

Hinton, S., & Hjorth, L. (2013). Understanding Social Media. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Fuchs, C. (2017). Social Media: A Critical Introduction. Los Angeles: Sage.

Jensen, K. B. (2015, May 11). What’s Social About Social Media? Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305115578874