Social media are computer-mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information, 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."[1] 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.[2] These changes are the focus of the emerging field of techno self-studies. Social media are different from traditional or industrial media in many ways, including quality,[3] reach, frequency, usability, immediacy, and permanence. Social media operates in a dialogic transmission system, (many sources to many receivers).[4] This is in contrast to traditional media that operates under a monologist transmission model (one source to many receivers).

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Social media are playing an increasingly important role as information sources for travelers. The goal of this study is to investigate the extent to which social media appear in search Engine results in the context of travel-related searches


The section on communication between humans deal with media and messages of communication And the audiences of mass communication. Those papers included under the section on Communication effects cover attitudes, information, and effects; social effects; public

The development of social media started off with simple platforms such as  Unlike instant messaging clients such as ICQ and AOL’s AIM, sixdegrees.com was the first online business that was created for real people, using their real names. However, the first social networks were short-lived because their users lost interest. The Social Network Revolution has led to the rise of the networking sites.


Some social media sites have greater  virility - defined as a greater likelihood that users will reshare content posted (by another user) to their social network. Many social media sites provide specific functionality to help users reshare content