What are social media and Web 2.0?

Social media is a term which defines the current use of user-created, participatory media online.  Social media is made up of communication processes as well as the technical, online tools which facilitate dynamic interaction. The processes of social media revolve around communication, participation, organization and collaboration.  The tools of social media include, but are not limited to blogs, social networking sites, podcasts, hyperlinks, open source software and code, website tags,  and listservs, to name a few.   

Social media is mainly a feature of the so-called Web 2.0, which has been described as being the “next generation” of the Internet.  However, as pointed out in Wikipedia: “Though the term suggests a new version of the Web, it does not refer to an update to World Wide Web technical specifications, but to changes in the ways systems developers have used the web platform.” 

Social media is not a new phenomena of the Internet.  It has been used among a select group of individuals, advertisers and political groups for decades now, those who have always be able to see the potential in the network. In fact the principles and practices are grassroots ideas for those who have been using the Internet to network and communicate for over two decades now.  It’s not that Web 2.0 has sprung up from nothing; it is that the architecture of it has been built through rich social discourse.  The “experts” are self-taught.  The institution has been absent.  As chaotic as the Internet seems, a hierarchal order of knowledge is emerging through the multitude of voices.  It is one that is user-created, distributed and consumed.