our own careful human interpretation of these feeds will produce knowledge about the mutual influence humans and social media have on one another. The explosion of social networking and Web 2.0 sites since the early 2000’s gives us an opportunity to examine how we do everything—relationships, work, social life, politics, government, and even life itself—through social media.
Social media is a mutual concept of people creating and influencing content while also being influenced by it themselves.
While social media buzz does not simply mirror society, insights found on social media are not fully disconnected from real social life either. Understanding the nature and design behind the trends and even individual posts across social networking sites (SNS’s) can have great value in understanding networked communication, including the impacts of social networking on social life, and human social influences on SNS’s. One goal of this book is to guide the reader and participant through these complex layers of understanding.
It's important to understand the connection between social media and real life because some of the feed can have great value in social networking.
Social media metrics and feeds today offer limitless data and indications of what society is expressing today, but the science on new media shows this data is systematically skewed. They may show us only what we want to see, over-represent the ideas of entities who pay more or game the system, under-represent social groundswells developing offline, and leave some people or ideas out altogether. While they may reflect some of what people are talking about, social media insights can be more like funhouse mirrors than clear reflections.
Although the internet feeds us with unlimited information, they don't always show us the entirety of what's going on in the world.
are highly critical of Black Lives Matter.
Although there's statistical evidence of most of America's support for the BLM movement, there's a lot of criticization about the movement online that revolves around a lot of misinformation about George Floyd.