Essay On Characteristics Of Social Media

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1. Social media We live in a media age in which every possible information is just a few clicks away and social media has become integrated into our everyday lives as a source of entertainment, information and communication. It is especially true for the generation of students who are currently at lower and upper secondary schools and who basically grew up surrounded by modern technological advances, including social media. Palfrey (2008, p. 5-9) calls this generation “digital natives” and claims that because these students grew up in a digital age they have different expectations of what knowledge and experience they should receive in schools since information is readily available for them on the internet. He also states that digital natives learn new information in a different way …show more content…

They did an analysis of said social networking sites and came up with the following 5 characteristics of social media that make them so successful. 1. User-based Before social networking sites came to the scene, internet users were used to visiting websites based on content where all the information was chosen and edited by website administrators and users were only receiving the information. On the other hand, when social media appeared they gave users the opportunity to submit, edit and organize information according to their liking. Content on social media is not determined by one single person, but by people who care to comment or add other information. 2. Interactivity The essential key to the success of social media is that they are interactive. People share their opinions and experience with others who in some way react to that information. Many social media offer options to play game with other people, take quizzes, and simply connect with other people. 3. Community