Social networking sites

Studies claim that by the year 2020, social networking sites will bring 2.95 billion people (almost a third of the world’s population under the world digital social network. The four biggest platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Facebook now has daily users of 1.49 billion, Instagram has a daily username of 500 million while Snapchat has 188 million and lastly Twitter has 126 million daily active users.

While Facebook is more dedicated to recent updates, Instagram is more inclined to pictures. Facebook is a platform to share things for fun, whereas Twitter is used for serious updates like news. On the other hand, tweets stay on forever. However, Snapchat stories disappear in 24 hours. Also, Facebook and Snapchat allow users to gain friends but Instagram and Twitter allow users to gain follows. All four platforms share two common features: direct messaging where friends and follows would exchange private messages; and stories where users could upload a picture/video to appear on their feed for a day only.

All four of these platforms are unique in their services and even in their layout. Hence choosing one from this bunch is quite hard, especially for millennials who spend almost more than half of their day posting, sharing, and connecting. To conclude, even though there are numerous differences between these big networks, they all share a common goal of bringing voices, opinions and knowledge under one roof.

Sources: 

https://www.techmagnate.com/blog/instagram-vs-facebook-vs-twitter-vs-snapchat-which-better-business-marketing/

https://chrissniderdesign.com/blog/resources/social-media-statistics/

Social Networking

Social media is a platform by the people, for the people. It allows users to connect with their distant friends and relatives, browse news, buy and sell used goods and even use it for business purpose. For example, “with more than 2.27 billion monthly users, small businesses can use Facebook in a number of ways to promote services, increase customer support and boost recognition” (Saige Driver, 2019). Features like creating Facebook ads, arranging giveaways or even showing products on live video serves as goodwill for these small businesses.

Apart from these numerous benefits for both individuals and business owners, social media has its downsides. An issue that bothers us the most is how social media is affecting the lives of children. Nowadays, most discussions and ‘hangouts’ happen over Facebook chat rather than face-to-face. The question that arises is: Do these modern children learn the value of trust, empathy, and friendship like we did in the old days? (Hilary Stout, 2010) While this remains unanswered, the problems of cyber-bullying and scamming is nothing new. NBC has investigated that a million-dollar scam has been on Facebook for quite a while now (Rachel Polansky, 2018). Scammers usually try to sell a vehicle well below it’s worth and asks for a speedy transaction via eBay. They do not let the buyer see the product face to face and once they get the money, no one can connect to them again.

Thus, social media has both its pros and cons. It is totally up to us on how we view it. In recent times, there has been a crisis of fake news. But with rapid technological changes (such as authentic news app like Smart News) helped people to overcome the crisis. Even though we initially view changes as something negative, in the long run, these changes (specifically, technological improvements) come to our benefit.

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/fashion/02BEST.html

https://www.nbc-2.com/story/38062070/nbc2-investigators-multi-million-dollar-scam-being-used-on-facebook

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7761-facebook-business-guide.html

Blog v Wiki

To know the differences between a blog and a wiki, we first need to know the actual definitions of the words. According to wooster.edu, a wiki page is created, modified or organized by multiple users who want to collaboratively maintain the contents of a certain page. On the other hand, a blog (also called a weblog), is like a web-based diary where one single user posts his/her opinion on a particular topic. As you are reading this, you are actually using a weblog right now!

Let's now focus on the differences between a blog and wiki. A blog is somewhere an author shares his opinions and readers comment. This opinion sharing which take place in the comment section is usually approved by the blogger to create a one-to-many communication system. Also, the growth of blogs is slow compared to Wikis. Since only one post is created at a time, users not only tend to lose their patience to follow the blog after a period of time but also with the growing popularity of Facebook, users spend less time reading blogs (decreasing the user traffic). 

To add on, an uncountable number of blogs over the internet has made easier for users to follow blogs of different authors, different websites and even different companies. For instance, after yahoo's big coup of acquiring Tumblr in 2013, there was a significant amount of user decline on Tumblr. Though the CEO of Yahoo had said that the user traffic measures were a bit off since the traffic from Tumblr app was not incorporated with the stats, the main reason for user downfall was the emergence of Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed is similar but yet different from Tumblr. It not only focuses on blogs where users could share their thoughts, but also collaborates internet media, new, and entertainment (Jeff Bercovici, 2014).  Hence, both Tumblr and Buzzfeed serve as a platform where people could connect, share thoughts and opinions freely and without any formalities or hesitation.

On the other hand, Wikis are pages which can be created, edited and organized by a number of authors. It can be accessed by many other users and hence a many-to-many communication system is created. Unlike blogs where authors share their opinions, Wikis are used to share knowledge and facts. These are constantly being updated and discussions take place in the discussion forum of the page. The main advantage and disadvantage of a wiki are summed up by a special assistant at the United States Embassy in Rome, Stacie R. Hankins, "The advantages are obvious, in efficiency and in saving paper, but it has required a leap of faith, too. For, theoretically, at least, anyone at the State Department could have edited the biographies" (Noam Cohen, 2008).

References: 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2014/01/21/yahoos-next-problem-tumblrs-traffic-isnt-growing/#6ff1e5605621

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/business/media/04link.html

https://www.wooster.edu/offices/web/how/scotblogs/wiki-blog/

Social Networking: A Purposeful Loss of Privacy

Project Description- Amreen Zaman

With the recent data privacy scandal of Facebook, it is more than evident that as technology increases, privacy declines. Since the age of telegrams till today's age of telephones,  internet, and computers, every mean of communication technologies compromises the privacy of users. 

Not to mention, our love for using social media handles, GPS and even nearby WiFi hotspots, shows how much we prefer convenience over privacy. Daily tasks, as simple as giving a Facebook like or using our credit card at a grocery store requires giving up our personal data. In simpler words, our grandparents had more privacy than our parents, who had more privacy than us. 

Out of the many questions that arise, this paper would focus heavily on: What is privacy loss/concern and why is it such a big issue? How do people feel about technology invading our privacy? and lastly what is the future of privacy in this digital age? References would include peer-reviewed scholarly journals and/or articles, government websites, and trustworthy news sites.