Social media are interactive technologies that allow the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.

This course covers some of the most popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Reddit, Pinterest and many others.

These platforms are usually accessed via web-based apps on desktops and laptops, or download services that offer social media functionality to their mobile devices. As users engage with these electronic services, they create highly interactive platforms through which individuals, communities, and organizations can share, co-create, discuss, participate, and modify user-generated content or self-curated content posted online. Additionally, social media are used to document memories; learn about and explore things; advertise oneself; and form friendships along with the growth of ideas from the creation of blogs, podcasts, videos, and gaming sites.

Observers have noted a wide range of positive and negative impacts of social media use. Social media can help to improve an individual’s sense of connectedness with real or online communities and can be an effective communication (or marketing) tool for corporations, entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, advocacy groups, political parties, and governments. Observers have also seen that there has been a rise in social movements using social media as a tool for communicating and organizing in times of political unrest.