An Interpretation of Social Media

By now you’ve certainly heard the buzz surrounding the terms “social media” and “Web 2.0“, but what do they really mean?

There doesn’t seem to be a definitive one-line answer for either of these terms. If you were to ask 20 people you would likely get 20 varying responses, as everyone has their personal perception of their meaning. The definitions of these terms have no hard boundary.

This is my interpretation of these terms, which could be discussed for hours on in, but I will attempt to keep this as plain and simple as possible. I do however; hope to stimulate some conversation in the comments section below.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is not the latest software upgrade for the internet but rather a transition to a system where content and sites have integrated the use of various formats and tools. It’s a community of people who are content producers as well as consumers of content, products and services. It’s all about how people now use the internet.

The landscape has now changed forever as the web is now perceived as having reached it’s second generation of development and design. The old model was about content production from one to many; today’s model observes content production from many to many. Static web pages have been replaced by dynamic sites with sharable content and social networking capabilities.

The term “Web 2.0″ was actually introduced in 2004 to characterize the new generation of web apps which began the movement toward a more dynamic environment, as we have today. Tim O’Reilly has stated that he first encountered the term in the name of a 2004 web conference.

Social media

This term is not, in my opinion, mutually exclusive from Web 2.0. There is much similarity and crossover in terms of what they each represent. Social media is really the methods, tools and platforms used to drive the web 2.0 experience.

I find both terms fascinating as if nothing else, they always stimulate a conversation. Many have seen these as just the latest computer jargon, but if these topics are explored, you’ll find that they are far from that.

For instance, publishing technologies have made it easy for people to satisfy the need for online social interaction and the result is nothing short of amazing when you consider the enormous amount of content being shared all over the world in today’s digital environment.

Look at the various forms of content sharing available to us today. Here are just a few examples:

Communication

• Blogs
• Micro-blogs: Twitter, Tumblr, Plurk
• Social networking: Facebook, Myspace, Ning
• Social and news aggregation: Friendfeed, Ping.fm
• Conferences and other events

Collaborative Efforts

• Social bookmarking: Stumbleupon, Delicious
• Social news: Reddit, Digg
• Wikis: Wikipedia, Wikispaces
• Opinion and reviews: Eopinion, Cnet,

Multimedia

• Audio: itunes, Pandora, Soundboard
• Video: YouTube, Vimeo
• Photo: Flickr, Zooomr
• Livecasting: LiveCast

Conclusion

As you can see, this is not your Daddy’s internet. Social media is part of the Web 2.0 experience and will continue to be for years to come. The internet has changed in way perhaps not envisioned a couple of decades ago. It has become a living, thriving digital world full of knowledge and interaction.

So what is your interpretation of these terms and how have they affected your online experience?

Readers of this article may also find interest in:

Social Networking Sites – They’re in Your Business

Managing Your Social Networking Activity

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