Being 20 years old, many adults assume that I was brought up with a phone in my hand and social media accounts as soon as I could write, but that’s not the case. Yes I had access to media; we all did with access to newspapers, magazines, television, etc. Social media however, is a different story.

Defining social media has been as difficult for me as it has been for the general population. As Carr and Hayes (2015, p. 46) states, ‘there tends to be a general consensus of what tools may be considered social media but without a consensus on what defines these tools as social media.’ Platforms such as Instagram and Facebook are marketed as social media so I too would look to them to interpret social media. But what about them makes them “social”? I could look at photos in a magazine rather than on Instagram but I would only consider Instagram to be social media rather than simply media. The main point of difference is that Instagram is online. From this, I find that social media affords connection and communication. This is seen through Sensis (2020) data whereby Facebook is recorded as being used by 86.3% of 18-29 year olds and an even higher 89.5% of 50-64 year olds. The popularity of messaging platforms is undeniable. But is that all social media is? This notion is taken a step further by academics such as Baym (2015, p. 1) who argues that social media has become such a prevalent term ‘when “Web 2.0” platforms based on “user generated content” seemed to subsume the Internet.’ In that case, maybe I began interacting with social media at a younger age. 

Long before I had joined Facebook or Instagram, I had club penguin to fill my time. The world of club penguin allowed me to create a penguin who could be dressed, play games, waddle around town and much more. But importantly, club penguin was online and enabled players to chat with other players who were playing at the same time. This leaves me wondering if social media is more complex than simply being about online connection and communication.  I see the online scape continuing to evolve and with that, my understanding of social media.

References:

Baym, N.K 2015, ‘Social Media and the Struggle for Society’, Social Media + Society, April, vol. 1, iss. 1, pp. 1-2.

Carr, C.T & Hayes, R.A 2015, ‘Social Media: Defining, Developing, and Divining’, Atlantic Journal of Communication, vol. 23, iss. 1, pp. 46-65.

Sensis 2020, Have Your Say Australia, company report, Sensis, viewed 13 March 2020.