What is the difference between social media and social networking?
As mentioned earlier, many people view social media and social networking interchangeably as if they mean the same thing. Although the difference is subtle, but they are not the same. Social networking is actually a subcategory of social media.
The easiest way to understand the difference between social media and social networking is by thinking of the different words "media" and "networking". Media refers to the information that you are actually sharing whether it is a link to an article, a video, an animated GIF, a PDF document, a simple status update, or something else.
Networking, on the other hand, is about what your audience does with you and your relationship with them. Your network may include people such as friends, relatives, colleagues, your past, current clients, advisors, and even complete strangers.
They certainly overlap, which is why it gets confusing. For example, you can share media to get likes and comments from social networks, which are a form of social networking.
But you can also upvote a link on Reddit, which is a social media platform, without the intention of helping the community and building relationships with other users.
Still confused? Try to think of social media as a fruit. Apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, berries, melons and pineapples are part of the broader fruit category, social networking, social news, social bookmarking, wikis, blogs and private web messaging are part of the broader social media category.
What are some known issues with social media?
Social media is not just a fun and game with your friends, brands praising celebrities, and brands you follow. There are a number of common problems that have not been fully resolved on most major social media platforms despite their efforts on social media.
1) Spam:
Social media makes it easier for spammers real people and bots to bombard other people with content. If you have a Twitter account, you may have experienced some spambot follow or interaction. Similarly, if you run a WordPress blog, you will get spam comments or you may get caught in two spam filters.
2) Cyberbullying / Cyberstalking:
Children and teenagers are particularly susceptible to cyberbullying because they take more risks when it comes to posting on social media. And now that we all interact on SocialMedia via our mobile devices, most major platforms make it possible for cyberstalkers to share our location to open doors.
3) Self-image manipulation:
When a user posts about himself on social media, it is only a small part of his life. While followers may see someone who is happy and alive through their posts on social media, making them feel comparatively boring or inadequate.
The truth is that users can fully control which parts of their lives they broadcast and which parts do not.
4) Information overload:
It is not uncommon to follow more than 200 Facebook friends or more than 1,000 Twitter accounts. If there are so many people posting new content on so many accounts, then it is almost impossible to maintain it.
5) Fake news:
Many websites promote links to their completely false news stories on SocialMedia to get traffic. Many users do not realize at first that they are fake.
6) Privacy / Security:
Many socialmedia platforms are hacked from time to time despite good security measures. Some sites do not even offer privacy options so that users can keep their information private, as they want.
It has its own benefits along with some of the known issues mentioned above on social media, which need to have a look.
Well there are many benefits of social media, some of which are-
1) Connectivity:
The first and main benefit of social media is connectivity. People can connect with anyone from anywhere, regardless of location and religion. The beauty of social media is that you can connect with someone to learn and share your thoughts.
2) Education:
Social media has many benefits for students and teachers. It is very easy for experts and professionals to educate people through social media. You can follow anyone to learn from anyone and increase your knowledge about any field. Regardless of your location and educational background, you can educate yourself without paying for it.
3) Help:
You can share your issues with the community for help and guidance. Whether it is help in the form of money or advice, you can get it from the community with which you are connected.
4) Information and Updates:
The main advantage of social media is that you update yourself with the latest happenings across the world. Most of the time, television and print media are biased these days and do not convey true messages. With the help of social media, you can do some research and get facts and truthful information.
5) Promotion:
Whether you have an offline business or online, you can promote your business to the largest audience. The whole world is open to you, and can promote them.
This makes businesses profitable and less expensive, as most of the spending on the business is for advertising and promotion. This can be reduced by frequent and regular involvement on social media to connect with the right audience.
6) Noble Cause:
Social media can also be used for great reasons. For example, an NGO, social welfare activities and promoting donations for the needy. People are using social media to donate to needy people and this can be a quick way to help such people.
7) Awareness:
Social media creates awareness and innovates the way people live. It is social media that has helped people discover new and innovative content that can enhance personal life. From farmers to teachers, students to lawyers, everyone in the society can benefit from social media, its awareness factor can benefit.
8) Helps Govt and Agencies Fight Crime:
This is one of the advantages of social media as it helps governments and security agencies to spy and catch criminals to fight crime.
9) Improves Business Reputation:
Just as it can overwhelm any business reputation, it can also improve the sales and reputation of the business. Positive comments and sharing about a company can help them in sales and goodwill. Since people are free to share whatever they want on social media, sharing good words can have a positive effect.
10) Helps in Building Communities:
Since there are different religions and beliefs in our world. Social media helps build and participate in their religion community and helps to discuss and gain knowledge about it.
Similarly, people from different communities can join to discuss and share related things. For example, the game lover can join game related communities, car lovers can join communities related to cars and so on.
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