Social Media New Trends in Technology- Social Media Shaping Modern Society

The social media has certainly changed throughout history. Early on in history, social news was spread via word of mouth and through telling stories (Qualman, 2009). At one time, the radio and the newspaper were popular formats for social media. People would listen to the radio and read the newspaper to get insight to what was happening throughout society. Over the years radio has remained, but television became the main source for social media. The television had created the visual newscasts in which information and pictures were passed to hundreds of thousands at a much faster rate than previously. Today, people still listen to the radio, read the paper, and watch television but the advent on the Internet and the World Wide Web has changed the shape of social media.

The new social media has created websites and applications for networking with video, photo sharing, instant messaging, chat rooms, and blogs (Qualman, 2009). The formats include YouTube, Face Book, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wiki, Skype, Flickr, Digg, and many others. These formats have made communicating and photo sharing an instantaneous process between people around the globe. The new interconnectedness that social media has created is cultural phenomenon that has changed people's lives especially inside the realms of education and business.

Appendix A: Face Book's famous f symbol

References

Facebook. (2011, May 29). Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com/

Qualman, E. (2009). How social media transforms the way we live and do business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Who, What, When, and Why behind the new Social Media

First, before delving into the effects of social media, it is important to have an understanding of what it is as an entity. Social media is defined as media for social interaction by using web-based and mobile communications into interactive dialogue (Safko, 2010). The ability to interact with people from every corner of the globe instantaneously has changed the world we all live in (Safko, 2010).

When Mark Zuckerberg created the website known as Facebook, he changed the landscape of social media and the Internet forever. People could join this website and connect with friends and family members while being able to share pictures, video, and dialogue. This widely popular epidemic lead to other websites like Twitter, YouTube, Wiki, Skype, LinkedIn, Flickr, Digg, and many others. These venues were not only popular but also a new medium in which people could make money; in Zuckerberg's case, he is worth a reported 13 billion dollars today.

You Tube is an avenue where people can go and watch videos on just about anything and everything. You Tube has everything from how to videos to television clips, movie previews, and news events. Wiki is an information site that links ideas and topics together with keywords; but be forewarned the information is not always correct. Skype is a tool used like a telephone but has visuals for people to see each other much like a webcam. LinkedIn is a website much like Facebook that allows professionals to network and get to know other like-minded professionals from around the world. Flickr is a website created by Yahoo for people to create photo albums and then share them with friends and family. Digg is a social news website that offers 24-hour social news and events, so if someone wants to know what is going on in the news or media, this is the place to go. Twitter is a site for people to share what they are doing at every moment of the day, these blurbs of information are called tweets, and an example might be Person X wants to let the world know that he or she is having a cup of coffee at 7 a.m. With Twitter, they can do it.

With the popularity of these social media websites the landscape has changed for education and business. Education used to be about a building with four walls where students had to travel to the destination and learn about X, Y, and Z. Business were about advertising on television, radio, and in the print media; often communicating with other vendors (businesses) and future employees at job fairs, newspapers, and other ways. These two landmark entities have totally changed because of the advent of the new social media formats.

Appendix B: Examples of the highly popular media outlets- Growth in popularity of Twitter

References

Safko, L. (2010). The social media bible. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Web pro-news. (2009, October). Retrieved from october-"

http://www.webpronews.com/new-twitterers-down-tweets-up-in-october-

2009-11

Culture Impacting Education- E-Learning

The advent of social media has enhanced the educational process for learners and made it possible for most universities and colleges to offer a form of learning to the students known as e-learning. With the new modern forms of social media, the idea of E-learning has become a popular idea and has changed the purpose of education. In the beginning, e-learning went by the name correspondence studies and started in Germany, Great Britain, and Sweden during the 1830s (Wang & Gearhart, 2006). At one time...

With communication being much more accessible, it is possible to promote the idea of lifelong learning to the learner who has to balance the demands of work, family, etc. To balance in with continuing education (Ohio University, 2010). The one common idea that carries over from the past to the present e-learning experience is the idea that learners are looking to enhance their job skills through continued and flexible education.
The social media formats like YouTube and Skype are enhancing the ability for universities and colleges to offer e-learning. When colleges and universities design e-learning models, they must take into account how the learners will communicate; there are two ways: ether synchronous or asynchronous.

Asynchronous learning takes places outside the constructs of time and place. Typical asynchronous formats are e-mail, threaded-discussion, forums, and weblogs (World Wide Learn, 2010). Synchronous learning is a technologically sophisticated web-based classroom where facilitators and learners are together at the same time. Synchronous formats include chat rooms, shared applications, and video and teleconferencing (World Wide Learn, 2010).

Skype technology allows a facilitator (educator) to offer a class lecture at a certain time or previously taped so that the students can view it and learn from the experience. You Tube offers the educator many visual tools via Adobe Flash Video and HTML5 to show learners videos of concepts and ideas. Both social media formats allow for learning to be either asynchronous or synchronous. This is important because social media outlets are making e-learning an important component of the modern educational process.

The benefits of e-learning are in flexibility (time and geography) and in improved communication and networking opportunities for the learners (sites like Facebook, Twitter, and University sponsored sites); there are also challenges to e-learning that include the initial cost and accessibility for the colleges and universities, and a paradigm shift from teacher to student-centered learning as well as the need for highly trained facilitators (educators). Almost all colleges and universities have some form of e-learning to offer to their students and this can be credited to the advents of the modern formats of social media.

Appendix C: E-Learning