Understanding Social Media

The purpose of this book is to understand the nature of social media and the impact they are having on almost all aspects of modern-day existence from family life and social interactions to education and commerce. Just as fish are unaware of the water they swim in and we humans are unaware of the air that we breathe so it is that the users of social media are unaware of the effects of these media and take their existence as a natural part of their environment. It is our intention to reveal the effects of social media on their users, how they are changing the nature of our social interactions and how we through our interaction with social media have become actual extensions of our social media, the reverse of McLuhan’s notion that media are extensions of mankind.

For the generations of today’s parents and grandparents this book will be a guide to the media that are changing the way our kids are growing up so differently from what we experienced when we were kids. Of course, every generation is confronted with a new set of circumstances but the changes for the last two generations with ←NaN | x→digital media, especially the last one with social media, has never been greater. For young folks this book will also be important as it will provide them with a guide to how social media are controlling their lives contrary to their belief that they are in control of how they use social media. A lesson from Marshall McLuhan and his famous one-liner, ‘the medium is the message’, is that the greatest impact from a medium is not its content but the way it changes the way we live and the impacts it has on all aspects of our lives. Another lesson from McLuhan is that the effects of media are subliminal because we focus on their content rather than how they create a new environment in which we operate. We hope our study will allow the users of social media to see the impacts of their involvement with social media of which they are unaware.

When we were beginning our study of social media we debated whether VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) apps like Zoom or Skype should be classified as social media. VoIP is nothing more than multi-media telephony using IP instead of the public switching telephone network. Therefore, it follows that if VoIP is social media or a social medium then the telephone is a social medium and hence a form of social media. This raises all kinds of interesting questions. What is (or are) social media anyway? If talking on the telephone is social media then isn’t talking face to face also a form of social media. Isn’t that also the case for any of the following forms of social media by that definition: the family, schools, clans, tribes, cities, nations, social societies, clubs, churches, temples, synagogues, mosques, armed forces, businesses, governments, organizations, friendships, dating, postal system correspondences, publications of all kinds, radio and TV shows, games, sports, card games, gambling and society in general. In short any and all interactions of humans are transmitted through some form of social media.

Then we thought what about the interactions of animals that interact in families, herds, flocks, schools (of fish), colonies (of insects) and even the interactions of plants, fungi and bacteria because all living organisms communicate with each other and hence their interactions are social. Where do we draw the line? What is the definition of social media, anyway? Well, first we drew the line with humans and do not consider the social media of non-human organisms, although the idea of considering the social media of non-human living organisms would an interesting topic for biologists. Are the colorful plumages of birds a display serving the ←NaN | xi→same purpose as Facebook or maybe Tinder as the peacock’s tail feathers facilitates hookups? Are animal cries like email or perhaps Zoom not VoIP but VoSW (voice over sound waves)? Birds definitely tweet. All interesting questions, but we will confine ourselves to human social media.

Next, we could have included in our study of social media all of the human forms of social media that do not involve computers and the Internet as we listed above. Once again, we had to draw the line to exclude the non-digital media and forms of social interaction which are interesting topics, but best addressed by sociologists. We therefore confine ourselves to an analysis of digital-based social media and make use of a media ecology perspective to understand how they have changed the nature of human interactions both digitally and non-digitally especially our face-to-face interactions.

Another issue we need to consider is whether the term ‘social media’ is singular or plural. Is Facebook a social medium or social media? The same goes for all the social media that we will discuss such as Tinder, email, VoIP, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, blogs, Twitter, and YouTube. As to whether or not the term ‘social media’ is singular or plural we have taken the position that it just depends on the context. In the title of our book Understanding Social Media the term is definitely plural as is the case with the first definition of social media below. In the next three definitions, however, it is singular since the definitions contain the expression ‘social media’ is denoting social media is singular. All four definitions make it clear, however, that the term ‘social media’ is confined to those media that are Internet and computer based.