TITLE OF PRESENTATION:

SOCIAL MEDIA

PRESENTED BY:

DORITY T. CHIBALU
 Introduction

It is 2p.m. and in the busy streets of Lusaka, a Zambian teenager takes a picture via her iPhone
and loads it up to her social network site (SNS), Whatsapp. Meanwhile, a high school boy in
Livingstone logs on to his Facebook page via his personal PC to say hello to his aunty who has
just woken up in Kitwe. Elsewhere, two university friends in Kabwe stay up late to play a social
media game in their local PC internet room, while another university student in Mpika logs on to
TikTok to chat with his fiancée in a far away village. In Kenya, two high school students sit
together editing and commenting on their Facebook pictures in a local café. At the same time,
two old friends meet up face-to-face in New York for breakfast, thanks to Facebook Places.

These fleeting moments of connection take place through flashes of light, across deep-sea cables
and microwave pulses that bounce invisibly between orbiting satellites. If we could see these
connections plotted around the globe, the world would be illuminated like an attractive
decoration, sparkling with the mediated social interactions of many of its nearly seven billion
inhabitants. Today, social media in its many forms accounts for a great deal of this mediated
activity. Social media bleeds across platforms (desktop computers, mobile phones, tablets and on
modern network-capable televisions), across social and media contexts, and creates various
forms of presence. As smartphones continue to move into mainstream everyday life in many
urban settings globally, the demographics of social media are also changing. Once upon a time,
SNSs were just for the young (boyd and Ellison 2007), but today young and old can be seen
using SNSs in everyday life.

All in all, Social Media is as a set of software and web tools that help users interact online, share
content and develop a personalised network of friends, colleagues or organisations. Every
individual uses their network differently, and there are no set rules about what is ‘right’ for each
site. However, the key word here is social. Users come to social media sites to talk to friends,
share ideas and hear the latest news. They do not, in general, log in to their accounts intending to
buy something.

Social media enable human relationships through technology. In other words, social media are
the media for social interaction. The two most visible applications of social media are the

1|Page
 building and consolidation of friendships among youngsters, and the building of networks for
career development. The two “hottest” applications of social media are marketing and
advertising for political/ideological purposes. In social media, users have become producers and
co-creators.

Key Concepts

Social media is a digital technology that allows the sharing of ideas and information, including
text and visuals, through virtual networks and communities. Social media typically features user-
generated content that lends itself to engagement via likes, shares, comments, and discussion1.
Social media includes a wide variety of websites and apps, some of which are focused on sharing
links and brief written messages, while others are designed to facilitate sharing of photographs
and videos. Social media is about conversations, community, connecting with the audience and
building relationships.

According to the Cambridge dictionary, the word ‘social’ relates to activities in which you meet and
spend time with other people and that happens during the time when you are not working. It can be said
that one has a social life when he or she is college or university. Social events bring people to interact. It
is also related to the way people live together.

According to the Cambridge dictionary, the word ‘Media’ relates to the internet, newspapers, magazines,
television, etc., considered as a group.

ICT is translated as Information Communication Technologies. It is a diverse set of technological tools

and resources used to transmit, store, create, share or exchange information.

A website is a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Websites are
typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, education, commerce,
entertainment, or social media. Hyperlinking between web pages guides the navigation of the
site, which often starts with a home page. The most-visited sites are Google, YouTube, and
Facebook.

2|Page
 Features and functions

The sites described here are among the best known and most popular. In every case, connecting
with someone on social media requires mutual consent, and either side can choose to break the
connection. Important note: if you are concerned about privacy, be sure to check out the privacy
settings on all the social media sites you use, since the default settings are not to everyone’s
taste.

Facebook:

Facebook is a social networking website where users can post comments, share photographs, and
post links to news or other interesting content on the web, chat live, and watch short-form video.

Shared content can be made publicly accessible, or it can be shared only among a select group of
friends or family via Facebook Groups, or with a single personFacebook has 800 million users,
making it a good place to promote your book to a potentially huge audience. You can sign up for
an account at www.facebook.com.

 Allows you to find friends and colleagues and join their networks.
 Lets you share text, links, images and video to all your friends.
 Encourages sharing of posts, so that friends of friends can see what you have posted. If
they like, they also share it further on their own networks.

 This multi-stage sharing across different social groups is one of the things that make Facebook
so appealing as a place to mention your book.

There are a range of functions which you can explore, including

 set up events and invite friends to attend.

 set up a dedicated page (called a ’fan page’) for you or your book where you can post news about
the book or your other work.
 set up your own special interest group, to discuss topics related to your research.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn.com is a professional network, and profiles and posts are focused on work-related
topics.

3|Page
  Contacts on LinkedIn are called Connections.
 You can connect with others in your area, join specialist groups and forums and create a
professional network with colleagues around the world.
 When you create a LinkedIn account, you will be guided through the process for creating
your professional profile, including experience, qualifications etc.
 As well as posting messages (text, links, photos, video) you can make (and receive)
professional endorsements.
 It is an excellent place to mention your book as you are likely to be making contact with
colleagues in an area similar to your own.
 Slideshare was recently acquired by LinkedIn. It allows users to post slide presentations
(e.g. using Microsoft PowerPoint) and share them with other users.

Twitter

According to its own website, Twitter.com is “an online social networking service that enables users to
send and read short 140-character messages called tweets”. It allows you to share short comments and
web links as well as images but obviously long pieces of text are not possible. This makes it great for
quickly spreading news, but less good for in depth discussions – although it is a useful way to share links.

WhatsApp

The benefits of using WhatsApp are as follows:

 Free international calls. WhatsApp uses your phone’s cellular or Wi-Fi connection to
facilitate messaging and voice calling to nearly anyone on the planet, alone or in a group,
 Easy chatting and calling over most platforms. WhatsApp is platform agnostic. ...
 Security. WhatsApp has a number of advanced security features. It has end-to-end
encryption, just like Apple’s iMessage and Signal.
 Global reach vs. the competition. WhatsApp says it serves more than 2 billion people in
over 180 countries, with over 1 billion daily active users.

In conclusion, social media impacts on the way in which we think experience and practice
‘online media’. It is no longer merely a form of teen socialising – it has become an integral part
of everyday life for both the young and the elderly. Social media is here to stay; as such we must
embrace it and use it wisely to develop our lives.

4|Page
Reference List

Agichtein, Eugene; Castillo, Carlos; Donato, Debora; Gionis, Aristides; Mishne, Gilad (2008).
"Finding high-quality content in social media" (PDF). WISDOM – Proceedings of the 2008
International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining: 183–193

Chohan, U., Souza, A. (2020-01-11). "The Joys & Ills of Social Media: A Review". SSRN
Electronic Journal

Dennis, A. (2017). "Social Media Outlets Ruling the World". Nice Branding Agency. Retrieved
October 10, 2021.

Edy, J. (1999). "Journalistic Uses of Collective Memory". Journal of Communication. 49 (2):

71–85.

Hawi, N.S.; Samaha, M. (2017). "The Relations Among Social Media Addiction, Self-Esteem,
and Life Satisfaction in University Students". Social Science Computer Review. 35 (5): 576–
586.

Neiger, M.; Meyers, O.; Zandberg, E. (2011-04-27). On Media Memory: Collective Memory in a
New Media Age. Springer. ISBN 978-0-230-30707

Robinson, L. (2021). "Social Media and Mental Health - HelpGuide.org". www.helpguide.org. .

5|Page