What is Social Media?

2.1.1. What is Social Media?#

There is no clear single definition for what counts as social media. John Hartley points out that you could consider almost all of culture as “social media.”

“All media are social. All society is mediated.”

This means that media, which includes painting, movies, books, speech, songs, dance, etc., all communicates in some way, and thus are social. And every social thing humans do is done through various mediums. So, for example, a war is enacted through the mediums of speech (e.g., threats, treaties, battle plans), coordinated movements, clothing (uniforms), and, of course, the mediums of weapons and violence.

But when we use the phrase “social media,” we mean something much more specific, something involving computers (or smartphones), the internet, communication, and networks of connected people.

We will think of social media in terms of internet-based social media platforms, along the lines of these definitions:

“By social media technologies, we mean those digital platforms, services, and apps built around the convergence of content sharing, public communication, and interpersonal connection.”

“Social media are interactive technologies that allow the creation or sharing/exchange of information, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.”

But, even though our focus is on internet-based social media platforms, since all media are social and all society is mediated, we will find that much of what we observe is also common throughout the rest of human culture.

In fact, moving parts of our social media experience into internet-based social media platforms might not make any fundamental changes to society. According to the Amplification Model of technology:

“The Internet changes nothing on its own, but it can amplify existing forces, and those amplified forces might change something.”