Social media are
computer-mediated tools that allow people or companies to create, share, or exchange information, career interests, ideas, and pictures/videos in
virtual communities and
networks.
Social media is defined as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of
Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of
user-generated content." Furthermore, social media depend on mobile and
web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content. They introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication between businesses, organizations, communities, and individuals. These changes are the focus of the emerging field of
technoself studies. Social media differ from traditional or industrial media in many ways, including quality,
reach, frequency, usability, immediacy, and permanence. Social media operate in a dialogic transmission system (many sources to many receivers). This is in contrast to traditional media that operates under a monologic transmission model (one source to many receivers).